Supervision and Digital Citizenship
We all want to ensure that our students stay safe online – and this means more than simply applying internet filtering controls. Adult supervision of student access and use of technology continues to play an important role in ensuring online safety and in cultivating digital citizenship. All staff who work with students are encouraged to understand, consider and implement the following best practices for teachers and classrooms (adapted from The Association of Library Consultants and Coordinators of Ontario):
- Familiarize yourself with the WRDSB’s Responsible Use Procedure (RUP) and connect these guidelines to your own practice.
- Understand and manage your classroom online activities, empowering students to manage their own digital footprints in order to protect their privacy and safety.
- Model responsible use of technology to help students learn to how to become responsible digital citizens.
- Make relationships between character education and digital citizenship so that these values can be applied to various situations.
- Encourage effective strategies to search for information (e.g., keywords, narrowing a search) and the use of credible online resources (e.g., databases, encyclopedias, eBooks).
- Observe and monitor students as they use board technology or personal devices to ensure they access appropriate sources (i.e., sites, videos, images).
- Be aware of copyright guidelines for Canadian educators and teach information skills of ethical use and attribution (citation) of sources.
- Integrate social networking technology (i.e., Twitter, blogging, YouTube, etc.) as instructional, research and communication tools to model constructive use.
- Regularly review and follow terms of service regarding parental permission and age restrictions for online tools.
Refer to the IS-09-L-E andIS-09-L-S forms that are to be kept in the school office when posting student photos to the web or social media in accordance with Administrative Procedure 1090.
