Digital Citizenship

Students interact with music, video, apps, social media and other digital content each and every day but how many of them actually understand the rules that govern it's use?  I can tell you that in my experience teaching computers, students do not even blink before copying and pasting content.  To assist teachers in teaching students about responsible use, Microsoft has released a free curriculum that covers digital citizenship, intellectual property rights, and creative content rights. It is called Digital Citizenship and Creative Content.

The Digital Citizenship and Creative Content program was developed for secondary students and employs cross-curricular classroom activities that align with the American Association of School Librarians and National Education Technology Standards (ISTE).  The goal of the program is to develop respectful digital citizens when it comes to use of digital media.

The free program is separated into units titled "Creative What?", "By Rule of Law", "Calling All Digital Citizens", and "Protect Your Work, Respect Your Work".  If you are interested in reviewing the content click here.

Now What?

There are lots of lessons out there which aim to educate students about the importance of being a respectful recycler of digital media.  This curriculum seems to be a cut above the rest because it is directly aligned with AASL and ISTE.  Microsoft seems to really be putting out some excellent resources for teachers.  Common Craft also has a great video they created for digital citizenship as well.

H/T to the Innovative Educator