Cyber safety was a topic that really was not discussed or talked about at home or at school. From a young age, I remember having a computer in our home. This was an old computer with dial-up – something most young people know nothing about in today’s age. This eventually evolved into my brother and I receiving a small laptop for Christmas and eventually a our own tablet devices. I would say that I grew up in an era where the use of technology in our daily lives was steadily on the rise. Like I said before, not much was ever said in our home or school in regards to cyber safety. My parents trusted me to use my devices and the internet properly. I was also a big rule follower so there was never any concern about stumbling into something that wasn’t fit for a 12-year-old. I spent most of my time playing different games. In school, I also don’t remember going into depth about what cyber safety looked like. However, I do remember speaking in length about our “digital footprint” and how important that was to keep as tidy as possible.

Looking back, I think that as a child having free rein of the internet was maybe not the best choice. I think that there could have been a different way to go about it. Now, maybe my parents did sit me down and have a conversation with me about digital safety but that isn’t something I remember at this point. Even just a 5-minute discussion about the dangers of the internet would have been enough to scare little me. I also believe that my school could have also done better at highlighting the dangers associated with being online.

Pivoting into some great resources I now know exist, Saskatchewan has both a digital citizenship continuum as well as a policy planning guide that I think would be a great tool for teachers to have to teach their students about digital citizenship and their digital footprint. The continuum itself is extremely helpful for a primary grade teacher like myself, to know what our children are expected to know about digital safety. This way, I can curate, create, and plan lessons that specifically fit these standards and give students the best education possible.

I don’t think there is a need to use scare tactics to teach children how to safely use technology at home and in the classroom, but I do believe it to be important to be firm, set boundaries, and make our students/children aware of the risks that are potentially out there. Even creating a unit plan tailored to my student’s ability to understand the topic of “Ribble’s Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship”.

In the case of my grade 1 students, even possible to focus more on the themes of these elements themselves. For respect, what does that look like online? How can we show respect to others? What is allowed? For educate, Learning about how to use technology properly and the endless amount of things that are possible. Things like learning from others, information, selling and buying items, recreational games, etc. Lastly protect, how can a grade 1 student protect themselves online? What does being safe look like? What does not being safe look like?

Overall, digital citizenship doesn’t have to be taught in a way that scares our students, but ultimately, they need to know all the facts as well as their expectations to make the right choices online.