#EPSThink Digital Citizenship Month in Edina

This week is the first full week of "Digital Citizenship Month" in Edina Public Schools, an effort to raise awareness about the importance of being a good citizen online. We recognize that this topic can't just be a "one and done," lesson. Just like we talk about proper behavior in our face-to-face classrooms every day, we also need to talk about proper behavior in the virtual world, every day!
To that end, we've put together this Website for staff.

Each week, we are covering a different topic:

• Digital Safety
• Giving Credit/Taking Credit
• Information Literacy
• Digital Footprint

At the elementary level, students are utilizing the Digital Passport curriculum from Common Sense Media. At the middle school level, students are working on earning badges by completing activities. Parents had the opportunity to attend a talk on "Digital Consciousness: Public and Permanent" from Richard Guerry, founder of the Institute for Responsible Online and Cell-Phone Communication.

At the high school, Media Specialist Sara Swenson has partnered with some of the student leadership groups to encourage students to tweet out public service reminders to their classmates with the #EPSThink hashtag. Here are a few examples of what students and staff have come up with!

It is our hope to raise the awareness of our students and to get them "THINKing" about how they interact online. We know that sometimes we all make mistakes, and hopefully those mistakes aren't ones are permanent. Thanks to Shannon Long, who came up with the THINK poster.

Update: I wish that I had been able to use ALL of the posts on the #EPSThink tag, but alas, I could not. A couple of students had put some less than appropriate information on a few of their tweets. We know that kids will make mistakes. Today we met with the students and tried to make it a "teachable moment." Hopefully they learned the lesson.