Fireside Elementary School
Common Sense Media (CSM)
During the end of the 2016-2017 school year, Fireside began looking at established digital citizenship programs that could be taught across multiple grades and settled upon the Common Sense Media (CSM) program. Being a technology-based school, we wanted to proactively give our students the tools to navigate the digital world and have students learn the impact it has on not only their lives but others as well. The CSM program was diverse in its content and robust enough to span from kindergarten to high school. We knew our teachers were having these conversations with students but saw the potential in teaching the lessons by Common Sense Media with the Nearpod interactive lesson presentation format.
We saw this as an opportunity to involve parents, students and teachers in our belief that we need to educate our students on being good digital citizens. We recognized the success of the parent volunteer programs such as Junior Achievement and Art Masterpiece and thought to model the Digital Citizenship Program in the same way. Another positive factor for the program was that the content could be delivered using the online interactive tool, Nearpod, to engage our students. Our teachers were excited and willing to give time to our parent volunteers to teach Digital Citizenship Lessons on a monthly basis.
Our next step was to reach out to parents who we observed connecting with students, were involved in our community, and we also believed it would be able to deliver the material in a way that empowered our student’s and provided a comfort level to the digital world. Our Digital Citizenship (DC) parents are a dedicated group of parents that have children in multiple grade levels. These parents spent the summer of 2017 really digging into the Common Sense Media content and organizing the lessons to scaffolded in grades 3–6.
Fireside began piloting the Digital Citizenship program in the 2017–2018 school year to all the 3rd – 6th grade classes. In September of 2017, Fireside hosted a Technology Night where parents were introduced to the Digital Citizenship program, given an overview of the information available through Common Sense Media, and watched a presentation on internet safety from NotMyKid.
We continue to meet quarterly to discuss the volunteers’ experiences teaching the students, continuously update our digital citizenship program by adding new content, seeking feedback and discussing ways to share with our parent community so the conversations that are happening during these lessons can continue at home. We are now in our second year of implementation and recruiting additional parent volunteers to shadow our current DC parents with the hope to sustain the program for many years to come.
Overall, the reception to the program has been extremely positive, from teachers and parents, and especially from the students. The students are excited to see the instructors each month; they are engaged in the material and the discussions. The Nearpod delivery tool has been an effective tool. Students enjoy watching the videos from CSM and the interactive activities. Our students are able to use a common language when addressing situations in the digital world, and we as teachers and administrators have seen how it has positively impacted the decisions that students make to be Safe, Positive, Appropriate, Responsible and Kind (SPARK) in and out of school. It is a powerful program we have created, and we are proud that we are empowering our students to be good digital citizens.
For more information about Fireside’s Digital Citizenship Program, please visit the Fireside website under the Academics tab – Digital Citizenship and Technology.
“Sometimes it may be assumed that people (children included) should just know all the “rules” on how to be a good digital citizen. The Digital Citizenship classes are a road map that helps them navigate online.”
— Digital Citizenship Parent Volunteer
“Talking about the subject matter in a safe environment and sharing their stories is so helpful. The students are able to recognize that others share some of their same feelings and experiences. In addition, the class provides opportunities for students to look at those feelings and experiences from a different perspective. Perspectives offered from both presenters and peers.”
— Digital Citizenship Parent Volunteer
“Students are learning how to be a good digital citizen from an outside source. This can help to solidify the values/rules of digital citizenship that students have been taught at home.”
— Digital Citizenship Parent Volunteer
