K-2 Can Be Good Digital Citizens Too!

It's California Digital Citizenship Week and we are learning how to be safe, respectful, and responsible online in First Grade!

Today we watched a video from Common Sense Education about what it means to be a good Digital Citizen and then created our own Google Drawings Digital Citizenship poster:

If you aren't familiar, Common Sense Education has an entire K-12 Digital Citizenship curriculum. The resources are FREE and so easy to use. Sign in with a free account and you have access to the lessons, videos, teaching slides, student activities, parent resources, and more!

I especially love the K-2 resources at Common Sense Education. They take big ideas like internet safety, media balance, and creative credit and present them in ways that are relevant and meaningful to even very young children. These are big conversations! It is so wonderful that Common Sense has prepared meaningful resources about this important topic. Some of the K-2 lesson titles include:

• Safety in my Online Neighborhood
• Internet Traffic Light
• We the Digital Citizens
• Pause for People

Short on time? This article shares a brief list of some K-2 Digital Citizenship videos that are are only 2-3 minutes each and are designed especially with young learners in mind. Each video also has a connected discussion question. 

Showing what they know! 

In this poster, students can type their name, insert an image, and add a quote about digital citizenship. After we watched the video, we brainstormed some ideas about digital citizenship together. With the first graders, I offered the sentence frame "I am a good digital citizen because..." This provided a scaffold for the task for the learners who are still struggling with making complete sentences.

Get your own copy of the Google Drawings Digital Citizenship Poster. Open the file and then choose the "Use Template" button in the upper right-hand corner. Be sure to assign in Google Classroom so that every student gets their own copy! 

If your learners use iPads instead of Chromebooks or laptops, you'll need the file as a Google Slide instead of the Google Drawing. Here's a template for you.

Tips for little learners:

• If your students have never used the camera in Google Drawings before, there will be a pop-up that asks for permission to use it. The students will have choices to ALLOW or BLOCK camera use. Make sure you show them to ALLOW the camera on this tool. They should only have to do this the very first time they use it on that device. If for some reason a student hits the wrong button, it's an easy fix. In the Chrome browser, You can re-enable the camera from the far right end of the URL bar. This often requires a refresh to work. 

• It is important that you model how to use a CURSOR to move around a text box, and how to BACKSPACE to clear text from the template.

• Teach kids to insert images by using the mountain icon, and then the camera button. Model how to move and resize images.

• Don't forget the OOPS button, UNDO! Show how if they make a mistake, they can quickly fix it on their own!

Learn how to make these and other great Google activities for young learners in the Primarily Google Online Course with EdTechTeam Online!

edtech.team/primarilygoogle

Find more K-2 Google resources at primarilygoogle.rocks.