The digital world in which our students are learning is quite exciting. Just as we teach them how to make safe choices, play well with others, and cooperate in real life, we need to do the same for their digital lives. We need to do all we can to lay the groundwork to teach our children these skills now!

"The need to teach digital citizenship skills has never been greater. These skills include concepts like how to use tech to organize around good causes, how to respectfully disagree online, and how to distinguish between true and false information. As our interactions with friends, community members, and government leaders become increasingly mediated by technology, we must model and teach the behaviors we hope to see in our next generation of digital leaders,” said International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) CEO Richard Culatta.

There are nine elements to digital citizenship. They cover basic concepts like safety, privacy, and etiquette that we integrate into our teaching throughout the year. For further explanations, please check out Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship on the Digital Citizenship Institute's website or these resources on FCPS's website to get the conversation started at home with your students.