How can we develop skills that transform us into enlightened digital citizens, capable of safely navigating various digital platforms while exercising discernment in our use of technology? The District scolaire francophone Nord-Est (DSFNE), in New Brunswick, has come up with an innovative answer to this important question.
Initiative for Responsible Digital Education
The digital pedagogy team has designed an awareness-raising program entitled “Digital Citizenship is Everyone’s Business!” This invites all students, from kindergarten to grade 12, to explore the various aspects of digital citizenship. The program responds to a pressing need: the responsible use of digital devices, both at school and at home.
Eight essential themes are covered: communication, security, identity, respect, well-being, literacy, marketing, artificial intelligence. These topics are adapted to each grade level, depending on the age of the students.
Flexible Approach for Personalized Learning
Teachers are free to choose the learning activities they wish their students to participate in, as long as they relate to one of the eight themes. These activities can be developed by the teachers themselves or found on various websites dealing with digital citizenship. To make it easy and quick for teachers to access a variety of activities linked to each theme, a collection of online activities is made available for all grade levels and for each theme.
The program provides a framework for teachers, indicating the content to be addressed with their students, while leaving them considerable flexibility in the choice of learning activities to integrate into their Personal and Social Development (PSD) and French courses. In this way, the Digital Citizenship program, contributes to their “School Reimagined” project1, which is the school district educational project.
Evaluation and Recognition
Assessment of progress is made during the learning process, through discussions, observations, presentations, projects or tasks, with or without teacher guidance.
To motivate classes and recognize their participation in the program, a system of badges is available. These badges can be accumulated throughout the school year, as themes are addressed in class. Each class can accumulate all eight badges over the course of the school year and stick them on the progress poster, certifying that it has completed the DSFNE digital citizenship awareness program for the current year.
Promising Results and Expansion
In 2023-2024, 25 classes piloted the program, 12 of which picked up the badges by the end of April 2024. Feedback has been very positive, reflecting the program’s impact on the students’ learning experience. Comments received from teaching staff mentioned that participation in the program helped to “better understand some of the issues our young people face every day” in today’s digital environment.
What’s more, staff were impressed by the students’ commitment and understanding of Web issues. “The students participate very well and seem well aware of the issues that the Internet can present”. “I was very surprised at what the students already know ”at their age” and it encouraged me to continue including activities like this in my planning.” For the 2024-2025 school year, the program will be formally implemented in a third of the district’ schools and in the remaining 23 schools the following year.
Preparing Today’s Digital Citizens
The “Digital Citizenship is Everyone’s Business!” program aims to train digital citizens who are aware of the potential dangers of the digital world, who care about respecting themselves and others, who are vigilant about the impact of their online choices, and who can exercise critical judgment when using digital technology.
In the age of artificial intelligence, developing these skills is more important than ever.
Digital Citizenship is Everyone’s Business
Here are eight essential themes for responsible use of digital tools at school and at home. Put a star next to each topic you’ve covered with your students!
- 1. COMMUNICATE appropriately in digital conversations or publications, on social media and other virtual environments.
- 2. RECOGNIZE and avoid potential dangers found online in order to protect yourself, others and your digital devices.
- 3. BUILD your digital identity based on the traces you leave online– this is your digital footprint.
- 4. Use appropriate digital behaviours to avoid cyberbullying, promoting respect for others and the law, and respecting copyright.
- 5. ADOPT digital behaviours that promote beneficial effects on mental and physical health, using good judgment.
- 6. DEVELOP research skills to validate and use information without being tricked, using good judgment in decision-making.
- 8. UNDERSTAND the definition, impact, opportunities, and limits of artificial intelligence; recognize the importance of using critical thinking and judgment to spot possible biases and errors.
- 7. DISCOVER the influence of advertising and marketing, by being aware of possible harmful effects and use critical thinking when buying and selling online.
- The “School Reimagined” project is the DSFNE’s educational project: “To ensure the personal and professional success of DSFNE learners throughout their lives, schools must offer different learning situations where learners can identify their strengths and challenges, their talents and other aptitudes! The project offers motivating and engaging learning opportunities for learners from early childhood all the way to high school graduation, taking into account that many of them are disengaged”. ↩︎