This was a very interesting assignment. I have spent some time doing a little bit of research to try and find something in the Saskatchewan Curriculum about digital citizenship and it has been quite difficult to be honest. In all honestly, I focused mainly on the middle year curriculum, grades 6-8, as it is my area of teaching. As a result, I have STRUGGLED to find anything relevant when it comes to digital literacy or citizenship.

I did, however, find a few interesting things while doing some research. The only outcome in the 6-8 curriculum that I could find that even eludes to digital citizenship a little bit was in the grade 6 Health curriculum which was the following outcome:

This outcome does not say directly that it includes digital citizenship, however, one could make a fairly easy argument that it falls into the category of developing identity as well as dealing with mass media outlets.

During my research, I was able to dive into the Regina Catholic School Division staff portal and find some of the ressources that they offer to their teachers. Unfortunately, I cannot share any of what is on the site through this blog as one would need access to the RCSD staff portal which is only available to staff members… Another important note is that as I was looking, I noticed that the RCSD site eluded to the fact that the PAA curriculum has some Digital Literacy things in it, but when I clicked on the curriculum for PAA on the government site, there was nothing there on Digital Literacy.

As I sit here and say the government has no ressources multiple times, I’d be remised to neglect the Digital Citizenship Ministry Continuum. This IS a document that is provided by the government which outlines Ribble’s Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship. All of the nine elements are important to digital citizenship in the classroom. These elements are especially important when students can access the internet so easily, communicate with others and need to focus on navigating through our digital world securely and while keeping in mind a healthy balance of screen time, relationships and education.

As a current practicing teacher, I ensure that I always focus a little but on Digital Citizenship in my classroom. These lesson often fall into my Health class or Religious studies class as that curriculum includes healthy relationships. I absolutely believe that Digital Citizenship has a place in school and curriculum, I’m just not quite sure that the Saskatchewan curriculum is all the way caught up when it comes to outcomes for middle year students, the age at which most students are first learning and interacting with technology in a more vulnerable way.