Cybercitizenship

This year our social studies department decided offer an online option to the four core social studies classes: United States History I & II, Government and Economics. Being a social studies department of two, this was an easy transition for us. Normally, I teach all the social studies, technology and art electives for the school, but with the increased amount of required credits the need for elective courses has decreased. Transitioning to a fully online credit option requires more thinking than just pedagogy. I must protect my students privacy, individually and collectively. They also need to learn how to be a good online citizen. My students have a basic understanding of the risks that are involved in social networking, but still do not fully comprehend the risks they are taking by what they are choosing to post online and how their words might impact others reading their posts. Parents also seem to be in the dark about what their students are doing and saying online and need extra support to learn how to monitor their child’s online presence. My students will be working in other teacher’s classrooms and with the success of my online classes, my colleagues have started to discuss offering online options in science and math.

Using resources from www.commonsense.com, I have created an instructional program that will instruct my students and their parents about two aspects of digital citizenship: social networking and cyberbullying. These seem to be the most relevant to my high school student’s experiences and the most needed aspects of the common sense curriculum. As for my colleagues, it is more relevant to sell the common sense curriculum to them and help them to adapt it into their online lessons, especially as they prepare to delve into the world of online education. I will offer the lessons that I create for the parents and students as a resource and will do all I can to support them as they construct their own lessons. Please click here to view the full lesson plan schedule.