Digital citizenship
Unit Digital citizenship
Year level: 5-6 Topic: Collaboration and Protocols Time: 2 hours
Digital citizenship is about positive and confident engagement with digital technology. A good digital citizen knows how to effectively use digital technologies to communicate with others, participate in society, and create and consume digital content in a safe and responsible manner. Digital citizens are aware that their behaviour online contributes to their own digital footprint. This includes engaging positively, respectfully and ethically when interacting online and making conscious choices and informed decisions about what information is shared, appropriate conduct and use of language. Digital citizens apply these protocols in situations such as interacting in a collaborative learning space, or creating a blog or website where their public profile is displayed.
Flow of Activities
A digital citizen
Define a good digital citizen using a collaborative tool.Online communication
Examine why we should behave appropriately online and agree on a set of protocols.Collaborate online
Apply agreed ethical, social and technical protocols while communicating online.Create a digital solution
Create a blog, website or contribute to an online learning space.Activity A digital citizen
What makes a good digital citizen?
Australian Curriculum Alignment
- Collaborating and managing (ACTDIP022)
What's this about?
A digital citizen is a person who has the knowledge and skills to effectively use digital technologies to communicate with others, participate in society, and create and consume digital content.
Learning tasks
- Conduct an initial brainstorm of the question, ‘What makes a good digital citizen?’ This can be used to assess students’ prior knowledge. Use an online collaboration tool such as Padlet, OneNote, iBrainstorm or Poll Everywhere to share ideas in real time.
- Use an affinity map or concept map to sort ideas according to common themes.
- Broad categories could include:
- digital footprint
- online safety
- respectful online behaviour.
- Ask students to consider all the ways they connect with technology on a typical day and connect this back to being a good digital citizen.
Supporting Resources







Assessment
Manage the creation and communication of ideas and information in collaborative digital projects using validated data and agreed protocols.
Suggested approaches may include
- Labelled diagram (affinity or concept map)
Activity Online communication
Why should people behave appropriately in an online world?
Australian Curriculum Alignment
- Collaborating and managing (ACTDIP022)
What's this about?
At this level it is important that students understand why they should behave appropriately. This includes respecting and protecting identities, not bullying, and taking steps to ensure their digital footprint is appropriate.
Learning tasks
- Discuss and ensure students understand protocols to use online; for example:
- ethical protocols may deal with copyright and fair use of others’ content and images
- social protocols may deal with respectful online behaviour, ways of providing feedback (eg not responding to hurtful or nasty comments), blocking and reporting cyberbullying
- technical protocols may deal with activating privacy settings to avoid divulging personal data such as images, addresses and names.
- Provide tasks that require students to develop a set of ‘rules’ about appropriate conduct, language and content when communicating online.
- Refer to these rules and apply them when collaborating with others online.
Supporting Resources




Lesson Ideas
Assessment
Manage the creation and communication of ideas and information in collaborative digital projects using validated data and agreed protocols.
Suggested approaches may include
- Adapted worksheet covering understanding of what is safe to share online
- Ability to express the permanence of online information or charter of rules
Activity Collaborate online
What protocols/guidelines help when collaborating online?
Australian Curriculum Alignment
- Collaborating and managing (ACTDIP022)
What's this about?
At this level it is important that students understand and apply agreed ethical, social and technical protocols.
Learning tasks
- Tools such as Google Docs enable students to collaborate on shared documents. Set up a task where students work in small groups to produce a document, spreadsheet or slide presentation on a relevant topic. It may be a video script, a collaborative story, a report on an excursion or a science investigation.
- As part of their studies students may be required to interview an expert to gather information. Students can include voice and video conversations from their computer using Google Hangouts or other suitable collaboration tools that offer these options, using agreed protocols.
- Schools may also use a platform that provides a closed online community to share student work with parents (eg Weebly or Seesaw).
Supporting Resources



Assessment
Manage the creation and communication of ideas and information in collaborative digital projects using validated data and agreed protocols.
Suggested approaches may include
- Artefact analysis
- Students work collaboratively in an online space to design and create a short three-minute documentary to help younger students to be cyber safe
Activity Create a digital solution
How can I share ideas safely with others?
Australian Curriculum Alignment
- Collaborating and managing (ACTDIP022)
What's this about?
Online communication tools enable students to share ideas within and beyond the classroom – eg to collaborate and communicate with experts in other locations; to create and publish work for a global audience; and to share ideas with peers from other schools. Students benefit from being able to communicate and collaborate with their peers.
Learning tasks
- Providing a safe online learning space for sharing ideas offers an effective way to build relationships with students while exchanging ideas, offering feedback and engaging in more conversations.
- Creating a blog, website or contributing to an online learning space to share ideas enables students to apply agreed protocols and develop their digital identities.
- Students create their own website to record and present their learning. As part of the process students respectfully and constructively comment on each other’s webpage.
Lesson Ideas



Assessment
Manage the creation and communication of ideas and information in collaborative digital projects using validated data and agreed protocols.
Suggested approaches may include
- Artefact analysis
- Design plan (task allocation, timing, file management)