Last year, our media specialists were charged with the task of teaching cybersafety to all of our students.  We don’t have an official curriculum, so each of us has curated our own version of what to teach.  I’ve found Common Sense Media’s K-12 curriculum to be very useful.  It offers lessons on multiple topics at all grade levels and also has all the resources you need in one place.  It also integrates into Edmodo if you use that tool with your classes.  Common Sense Media is also the adopted curriculum of the Mooresville Grade School District in North Carolina, which I recently visited to see their 1-to-1 technology initiative.

Since cybersafety is not the only thing that I teach, I wanted a way to deliver the content efficiently to all classes while also being consistent in what I said.  I wanted the lesson to be interactive and not take up too much space on the library calendar so that I could continue to support the many collaborative projects going on in our school.

I decided to schedule 2 sessions in Adobe Connect to teach all of the classes simultaneously.  K-2 had a 45-minute session and 3-5 had an 60-minute session.  Ahead of time, I put copies of any handouts students would need in teacher boxes.  Teachers logged in to our Adobe Connect Meeting room at the schedule time.  About 5 minutes before we began, we did a sound and video check.  Classes that had issues or classes with a sub combined with other classes.  I planned a mix of presenting, class discussions facilitated by the teachers, polls, and videos.  I also left time at the end of each session for students to ask questions.

For K-2, I used the lesson “Going Places Safely”.  We talked about how the Internet is really like going on a field trip.  Many of the rules that you use to stay safe on a field trip apply when you are online.

For 3-5, I used the lesson “Rings of Responsibility”.  We talked about how you have responsibilities for yourself, your friends and family, and the larger community when you go online.

As an add-on to these lessons, I displayed the Digital Citizenship posters from Common Sense Media and talked about students’ roles as good digital citizens.  At the close of the lesson, teachers had their students sign a class digital citizenship poster.

We will continue to offer follow-up lessons throughout the year.  I hope that this introduction will spark some open dialogue between students and adults about digital citizenship, cyberbullying, and ethical use of information.

You can view the archives of the sessions below.  Please note that some parts of the session will not be seen in the archive because classes watched a video in their classroom or had a discussion in their classroom that wasn’t a part of the recording.

K-2 Cybersafety

3-5 Cybersafety