As the technology integrationist here at MSAD 54, I have been teaching digital citizenship for the past year at the middle level and this year we have expanded instruction to include elementary classrooms.

Dottie Small, the technology integrationist at Skowhegan High School, and I have been designing an online course for teachers here in MSAD#54 so that they can become familiar with the Common Sense Curriculum K-12. This will help them meet the requirements established by the federal government regarding the widespread teaching of digital citizenship.

MSAD 54's widespread access to the Internet and Internet ready devices raises serious questions of online safety for students. We must ensure that this is done in a manner that promotes safe online activity for children, protects children from cybercrimes, including crimes by online predators and cyber bullying, and helps parents shield their children from materials that are inappropriate for minors.

The Common Sense Media curriculum provides age appropriate materials for K-12 with engaging and extremely informative lessons. Students watch compelling videos of young people sharing personal stories of their online experiences both positive and negative.

The stories are poignant in some cases, and celebratory in others. Young people from around the country, reflect on past incidents where they acted inappropriately online, regretted it, and wish to help others learn from their mistakes. Others share stories of how rewarding it is to be able to connect with authors from around the world in order to gain critical feedback on their poetry and other writings. This, I find to be the powerful aspect of the curriculum…that it is very balanced in its approach to addressing the digital lives of our young people.

In Dana Bean's class at the Mill Stream Elementary school, students learn about cyber bullying as they read and respond to scenarios and also share their own experiences. Students work with a variety of programs on the MacBooks and the Promethean white board is integrated as we brainstorm, compare and contrast ideas, and as a final project, create anti-bullying posters for the bulletin board.

At the Canaan Elementary School, Mr. Curry and Ms. Theriault's students have been exploring the topic, Safety and Security online and have been examining their own digital footprint. They have discussed the need for secure passwords and have learned how to create them. They have also read about real life situations where caution is needed when responding to others online.

In all classes, we try to integrate technology throughout his Common Sense curriculum. In all the elementary classrooms, we make use of the programs on the G4 laptops located on carts. Word processing occurs in Pages, charts made in Numbers, movies are made using both iPhoto and iMovie.We also join Edmodo, a secure social learning network for teachers and students. Here students learn how to appropriately post and communicate with peers and staff. Our goal is to eventually connect virtually (via Tandberg equipment ) with other classrooms covering digital citizenship in the district, around Maine, and across the US .

Laura Richter