Have you spoken to your students about Online Safety/Digital Citizenship?

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When practising online digital writing or digital storytelling it is useful to consider issues around online safety (or Digital Citizenship as it is called) especially when working with students. 

Digital Writing: the art and practice of preparing documents primarily by computer and often for online delivery.
Digital Storytelling: Digital Storytelling refers to using digital tools for writing stories

A consideration of online safety is always good place to start now that the world is becoming increasingly digital, and connectedness with others via social media grows.  The Internet is an incredible resource – one of the greatest inventions of mankind in my opinion -  but the main thing for anyone to realise is that once one starts working online they develop a digital footprint and an online reputation. Best is to keep it good right from the start.

So it is a good idea to now and again chat to your students about the significance of a ‘digital footprint’, including what things are appropriate to post online, how to protect your identity and ways to interact with others in an online space. 

Useful informative blog posts about online safety
1) Jacqui Murray has a whole list of useful sites for teaching Digital Citizenship to students of all ages.

2) For older students this post from Lisa Nielson has a useful infographic to look at 4 things you need to know to help your students manage their online reputation

This is really just an information post, but I would love it if you added any comments about this subject in the comment box below.