Hello, and thank you for your interest in the Digital Citizenship class!  This is a self-paced class that will not meet via Zoom meetings, but will occur during a 6-week period asynchronously, meaning the student can complete each day's work at any time during the day they choose.  The class is geared towards a middle school and high school audience for children in the age range of 13 to 18 and no prerequisite knowledge is required.  The focus of this class is for students to learn how to responsibly use the internet and build each individual student into a responsible digital citizen.  

Student communication with the teacher and other classmates will occur in two ways:

1.  Students will interact with the teacher and other classmates through the weekly Discussion Assignments
The Discussion Assignments will be posted weekly towards the end of the week and are due on Sunday of the same week by 11:59 PM.  These are ongoing discussion threads where the teacher will post a question for students to respond directly to the question as well as to other students' and teacher responses.  These Discussion Assignments will be located in the discussion thread in the Outschool Classroom.  

2.  Students may communicate directly and privately to the teacher by sending me a private message through the Outschool Classroom.  This method of communication is best for private questions or comments that you don't want posted in an assignment.  

The topics that will be covered in this class are as follows:

1.  Digital Citizenship
     ♦  What is Digital Citizenship?
     ♦  Digital Footprint
     ♦  Think Before You Share
     ♦  Respect Boundaries
2.  Safety & Privacy
     ♦  What is Privacy?
     ♦  Strong Passwords
     ♦  Copyright & Fair Use
     ♦  Phone Safety
3.  Savvy Searching
     ♦  Savvy Searching
     ♦  Improving Research Skills
     ♦  Google Search
     ♦  Plagiarism
4.  Digital Commerce
     ♦  Digital Commerce
     ♦  Illegal Downloading
     ♦  Avoid Scams
     ♦  Online Scams You Might Get Fooled By!
5.  Digital Health
     ♦  Good Posture
     ♦  How to Save Your Eyes From Screens
     ♦  Good Ergonomics
     ♦  Are You Addicted to the Internet?
6.  Social Media
     ♦  Identity & Self-Esteem
     ♦  Oversharing: Think Before You Post
     ♦  Cyberbullying
     ♦  Avoid Digital Harassment

The high-level class schedule is as follows:

June-July 2023 Section: 
Week 1:  June 19 - 25, 2023 --- Digital Citizenship
Week 2:  June 26 - July 2, 2023 --- Safety & Privacy
Week 3:  July 3 - 9, 2023 --- Savvy Searching
Week 4:  July 10 - 16, 2023 --- Digital Commerce
Week 5:  July 17 - 23, 2023 --- Digital Health
Week 6:  July 24 - 30, 2023 --- Social Media

Each week beginning on Monday I will post one topical video per day for 4 or 5 days (either Monday through Thursday or Monday through Friday).  The videos are given to the students in the Outschool Classroom discussion thread via a link to an EdPuzzle video.  Students do not require any login nor software download to access and complete the videos.  EdPuzzle removes advertisements (e.g., from YouTube videos) and allows the teacher to add comprehension questions throughout the video for students to answer.  

Towards the end of the week, either on Friday or Saturday, I will post the Discussion Assignment in the discussion thread of the Outschool Classroom.  Students are required to use critical thinking skills to answer questions either directly (that have a correct/incorrect answer), or opinion-based.  Opinion-based questions will require the student to explain the basis and reasoning for their opinion.  Students will also need to read and respond to other students' and teacher comments.  

Students will be provided with a Class Syllabus, a PDF document that they may either print or keep in a handy digital location.  The Class Syllabus will serve as a day-by-day, week-by-week roadmap the student may follow so they don't lose track of the class progress. The Class Syllabus is also included with this class description for you to download and review for a detailed day-by-day outline of class activities.  

For students to be successful in this class, I recommend:
1.  Look at the Class Syllabus DAILY.
2.  Make sure you watch the weekly videos.
3.  Think "outside the box" when responding to weekly Discussion Assignments.  

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have further questions about the Digital Citizenship flex class.  Thank you for your interest and I look forward to having your child in my online classroom!

Kristi Robertson