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This website acts as a guide for parents. It should be noted that digital citizenship apprenticeship should not be limited in the school premises.

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Digital citizenship is not just virtual. It does gave

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What is digital health and wellness?

Digital health and wellness is the ability to use technology like computers and phones and not use it too much to the point of hurting your mind or your body. For example leaning over while sitting down or unhealthy habits. Using technology could cause lifelong problems that will affect your everyday life and ability to do things.

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Digital health and wellness is the ability to use technology like computers and phones and not use it too much to the point of hurting your mind or your body. For example leaning over while sitting down or unhealthy habits. Using technology could cause lifelong problems that will affect your everyday life and ability to do things.

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Infographic of the 9 elements of digital citizenship

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Infographic of the 9 elements of digital citizenship

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The online environment should be a safe space in which everyone feels protected. Since education is at the heart of society, students should be taught to use technology in a responsible manner, ensuring the safety of the online environment for generations to come.

In their book, Digital Citizenship in Schools, Mike Ribble and Gerald Bailey talk about how technology influences the way people interact and the concept of digital citizenship in the classroom. The authors define nine elements of digital citizenship, related to technology usage inside and outside the school environment:

1. Digital access

Although we live in a digital era, not everyone has access to technology. As teachers, we should be aware of this digital divide. Not all students can afford a computer, a smartphone and Internet access. That's why educators need to provide suitable alternatives for each student's needs.

2. Digital commerce

Digital commerce highlights the necessity to tackle safety issues related to using money in the digital world. Technology is also used in the classroom to teach students about the various career paths that they could choose in the future. Understanding how e-commerce works is a must, both as consumers and as potential entrepreneurs.

3. Digital communication

Online communication has become so common that students forget they are doing so in a virtual space, where miscommunication happens often. The Internet has given a voice to anyone who needs it. In turn, this requires empathy and appropriate reactions from its users.

4. Digital literacy

Digital literacy also includes the ability to differentiate between real and fake content, which can have a negative impact on the lives of your students. They need to learn which content is good for them and what they should avoid in order to lead a balanced life.

5. Digital etiquette

We should teach students to become " digitally fluent". Digital etiquette shapes their online behavior to respond positively to online content. In this way, their online attitude is reflected in the real world and vice versa.

6. Digital law

The online environment has room for both positive and negative interactions. Digital law deals with legal rights and restrictions governing technology usage. To prevent any kind of online crime, no matter how serious, students as digital citizens need to know the law and how it applies to them in particular.

7. Digital rights and responsibilities

The online world has its regulations and a user has rights and responsibilities. The Internet can also be used for harmful purposes and anyone needs protection against cyberbullying, for instance. Schools should approach this subject in classrooms, hold students accountable for their actions and also report any misconduct in the virtual environment.

8. Digital health and wellness

Students should be taught to protect themselves and others from potential harm and ask for help if they need it. Making use of online resources is a plus, but everyone should be aware of the dangers as well.

9. Digital security

Security in the online world is important. When using devices at school or at home, students should be aware of potential malware attacks. Teachers should explain how to prevent them from happening and how to protect their devices as much as possible.

Visit our Blog for insightful posts on edtech for K-12 and Higher Ed.

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Infographic: Digital citizenship for students " NEO LMS

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The online environment should be a safe space in which everyone feels protected. Since education is at the heart of society, students should be taught to use technology in a responsible manner, ensuring the safety of the online environment for generations to come.

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This is basically an all-in-one toolkit for educators teaching digital citizenship.

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The term digital citizenship has become fairly common in modern-day discourse and is now part of our reality. And yet, despite its importance, it still isn't widely taught in our schools.

In this guide, you'll learn everything you need to know about digital citizenship. I'll touch these essential topics:

Click on the link to go to your favourite part in the text.

What is digital citizenship?

According to Wikipedia "A digital citizen refers to a person utilizing information technology to engage in society, politics, and government." K. Mossberger defines digital citizens as "those who use the Internet regularly and effectively,".

I remember listening to a talk by the famous inventor and futurist, Ray Kurzweil, one day. He likened modern technology to an extension of various human body parts and functions. In a way, that's true. If, for example, a power drill is a specialized extension of our hands, then our phones and the internet are extensions of our brains. They are as much a part of us as our very personalities. We use them to think, when we Google solutions to our problems, to learn new things, and, with the advent of social media, to interact with the world at large.

With the internet occupying an ever-expanding role in our lives, it is necessary to prepare our children to live with it early enough. Our daily life is becoming ever more digitalized, and our children interact more and more with content, each other and social communities online.

Understanding the why of digital citizenship

To begin with, education itself is a social institution. It is all but one of the basic human needs at this point, right up there with food, shelter, and clothing. It is through the educational system that we impart our societal values into the next generation and mold them to be able to bring to fruition the better future we all envision.

It would, therefore, make sense that we would make better digital citizens of our young ones. And there are even more reasons to promote a good education in digital citizenship:

1. Technology gap

There is already a wide gap between the pace at which technology is moving and its rate of implementation in our curriculum. Of course, not all of these technologies will last, some of them being nothing more than fads, but there are many that will persist and are still as yet far ahead of our curriculum. The problem is that, despite being taught according to one set of paradigms at school, students live by a totally different set of paradigms. They are constantly devouring new technologies, and school should be a guiding light for them, showing them how to best survive in this ever-evolving world.

2. Digital footprint

It's fairly obvious that lots of colleges aren't just satisfied with your GPA anymore. They now look at your digital footprint. From your tweets to your Instagram and Facebook profiles, your online persona is just as important to your social reputation as your persona in the physical world. With a good education about how to create a healthy online profile early on, the current generation will be adequately prepared for the job market of tomorrow.

3. Multitasking epidemic

The internet has brought with it what some would consider a multitasking epidemic. Our children are getting better and better at shuffling between tabs and windows; texting and reading; tweeting and researching. And yet, just as multitasking becomes more prominent, so do the results of research showing that it isn't the most effective way to work. By teaching the importance of mindfulness and undivided attention to our kids early, and showing them how to better manage their time online, we will give them a better chance at excelling in their future academics, benefitting from, rather than losing to their digital pursuits.

The 9 elements of digital citizenship

According to digitalcitizenship.net, there are 9 elements, or themes, to digital citizenship. All of these should somehow be incorporated into a curriculum on digital citizenship, so we can teach our students some digital responsibilty.

1. Digital Access

Digital access is the principle of ensuring that everyone has access to digital resources. As a teacher, you will recognize that not all your students will have equal access to the digital resources you direct them to. Your goal should, therefore, be to help provide them with access to these digital resources so that they are on an equal footing with their peers.

2. Digital commerce

A significant part of commerce is conducted online today. This involves selling and buying both lawful and unlawful goods and services. That means that, while there will be obvious advantages to purchasing goods and pay for services online, there will also be dangers associated with coming into contact with illegal goods and services. As a teacher, you should teach your students to be discerning consumers in the digital economy.

3. Digital Communication

Communication has seen an explosion in bandwidth since the 19th century. Where we were limited in the methods with which we could communicate less than a century ago, we now have what seems like countless options to keep in touch with each other. It is possible to keep in touch with people who are close to us virtually every minute every day. And yet, with all these options, not all of us are well educated in the appropriate ways to use different communication channels. It is your duty as a teacher to ensure your students have enough education on ways to fully utilize the various avenues of communication available to them.

4. Digital Literacy

Despite a concerted effort by our education system to keep up with the burgeoning technological tools coming up every day, there is still a significant gap between what students learn to use in school and what workplaces are adopting as work tools. From videoconferencing to shared workspaces to information literacy, there is a need to bring our students up to speed with the technologies used in the workplace in order to make them more effective professionals in the future.

5. Digital Etiquette

Digital etiquette can be argued to be one of the most important themes of digital citizenship in the modern day. Most of us can quickly recognize inappropriate behavior when it is being perpetrated online, but there isn't any solid base of education on how to behave in a digital social situation. A better educated digital citizen will be able to apply the same standards of ethics online that they comfortably apply offline.

6. Digital Law

Digital law is all about how legally technology is used by members of the society. Just as thefts, damage to property and slander are crimes offline, so they are online. Our students need to be taught about digital law and encouraged to uphold it in their daily digital pursuits.

7. Digital Rights and Responsibilities

Just as we have rights and responsibilities offline, so do we have the same online. Such things as an individual's right to freedom of speech, privacy, and so on should be upheld online with the same sanctity as they are upheld offline. However, these rights come with attendant responsibilities that we must also uphold, such as respecting the rights of others to privacy and freedom of speech. In a well-developed digital society, these rights and responsibilities will work together to promote productivity.

8. Digital Health and Wellness

Such things as ergonomic considerations, the promotion of eye safety, and the prevention of internet addiction are just as important as all the others discussed here. A good course on digital citizenship will encourage your students to take care of their own health and psychological wellness as they engage with the internet.

9. Digital Security

Self-protection is as necessary in the online world as it is offline. Despite many laws governing our digital citizenship, there are still many individuals who will readily steal, damage, and slander online. As a teacher, you should teach your students to protect themselves against such individuals, taking precautions to safeguard their privacy, documents, and computer networks, whether at home or at school.

Together, these nine elements make for a complete digital citizenship course that will form productive digital students of the future.

The essentials to teach students digital responsibility

As you formulate a curriculum on digital citizenship, there are certain basics you should touch upon:

Privacy protection. This involves the use of strong passwords and the avoidance of interaction with strangers online.

Oversharing. Younger people are naturally more vulnerable and prone to self-revealing and oversharing online. A good course on digital citizenship should teach them what information it is appropriate to share online, and with whom.

Cyberbullying. As a growing phenomenon in schools, this new form of bullying can best be combatted by teaching our students how to effectively deal with it.

Positive footprints in the digital age. With the explosion of social media, it's important to teach our students the importance of crafting a positive online persona and show them how to do it through our digital citizenship programs.

Respectful communication online and voicing of one's own opinion. Netiquette is an important part of being a digital citizen and should be taught to our students from a young age.

Evaluating online information/website credibility. Digital citizenship literacy enables digital citizens to correctly curate informational content they find online and correctly evaluate the credibility of the websites from which they obtain their information.

Copyright and plagiarism issues. This involves teaching our students not to take the work of others and pass it off as their own. Showing them how to credit their sources will teach them to better uphold digital ethics by respecting the original work of others.

Consequences of non-abiding by digital rules. With the growth of legislation on digital crimes, our students should be taught where the line is on many issues involving digital conduct so that they can intimately understand the consequences of breaking these digital rules.

Tips to help you teach digital citizenship to your students

Incorporate digital citizenship lessons into daily studies. For example, after teaching on a particular topic in history, offer your students important links to credible sites where they can learn more about the topic. Remind them how to check the credibility of sites from which they obtain their information. When giving them assignments, particularly essay assignments, remind them to always credit their sources.

Educate yourself. Many educators feel like they don't know enough about digital citizenship themselves to be able to effectively teach it. You can look at the sources at the end of this article to learn some more about digital citizenship so you can be better at it.

Be a role model. Implement the very things you teach about digital citizenship so your students can emulate you.

Create a digital toolkit of "Dos and Don'ts" that you keep in site of your students at all times in order to ingrain the rules of digital ethics in them.

Engage with your students in debates and discussions regularly about real digital citizenship cases and issues to encourage them to explore and formulate their own opinions on the matter.

Work closely with parents and encourage them to be responsible digital citizens themselves. Work to prepare projects with your students that they can then present to their parents.

Align the activities with the grade of your students. You can find helpful tips for doing this here.

Sites and resources to learn about digital citizenchip

These resources help you both learn and teach the various aspects of digital citizenship in connection to the nine elements we discussed above. Go through them and familiarize yourself with as many aspects of digital citizenship as you can.

Digital Citizenship & K-12 Program by Common Sense Education - This is a full course on digital citizenship for the K-12 program with over 60 lesson plans differentiated by grade. If you're looking to craft a curriculum on digital citizenship for your class, this is a good place to start.

BeInternetAwesome with Google - This great project by Google is based on the fictional land of Interland, where your students get to learn to be fearless explorers of the internet. It's a fun way to learn digital citizenship that your students are bound to enjoy.

NetSmartKids - This website is part of a program by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It's an educational program seeking to teach children between the ages of 5 and 17 to practise better safety online.

Digital Compass by Common Sense Media - This is an iPhone app designed as a choose-your-own-adventure game. It's designed for kids between 6th and 9th grade and aims at teaching them to navigate daily digital life.

Digital Passport - Digital Passport is another comprehensive online resource to help you craft your digital citizenship curriculum for 3rd to 5th graders. It contains a series of games and tests that home in on critical skills to help children maneuver through the digital world.

7 Deadly Digital Sins - This is an interactive website with confession videos representing the 7 deadly sins committed online. It's a pretty cool way of showing children in higher grades how easy it is to fall into the pitfalls of the online world.

BrainPop: Digital Citizenship - Brain Pop is the final comprehensive resource on this list. Some of the lessons are free while others have to be paid for. It's pretty cool, though, since you can do anything from playing games, completing quizzes, watching movies or coding, all to help learn the different lessons. It's a great way to get the message of digital citizenship.

Digital security resources and guides - This website has a guide with all the resourses you need to make sure you keep your privacy using the internet and other software programs. It might help you with setting up a safe digital classroom evironment for your students.

We are taught to be good citizens from a young age. It is intimately integrated into every aspect of our education. In the future, however, we will not only be physical citizens but digital ones as well. It, therefore, behooves us to make digital citizenship a part of our curriculum. Only then can we craft a digital future we will be proud of.

Share this blog post with your colleagues and spread the message!

About the author

Sophia Anderson is an associate educator, blogger and freelance writer at EduGeeksClub She is passionate about covering topics on learning, writing, business, careers, self-improvement, motivation and others. She believes in the driving force of positive attitude and constant development. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter.

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The ultimate teacher guide to teaching students digital citizenship

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The term digital citizenship has become fairly common in modern-day discourse and is now part of our reality. And yet, despite its importance, it still isn't widely taught in our schools. In this guide, you'll learn everything you need to know about digital citizenship.

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This here is small article about how educators are pushing students towards a digital age to work for equity and social justice.

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Digital media is changing how young people engage in civic issues, and educators say we need to give all students opportunities to become engaged citizens using the tools of the digital age.

During a refresh of the ISTE Standards for Students, a new definition of digital citizenship emerged. Feedback from educators revealed a shift in perspective that "spoke to students' use of technology to make the world a better place," says Carolyn Sykora, senior director of the ISTE Standards department.

"Educators recognized students were doing many good deeds using digital tools like crowdfunding to raise money or using social media to mobilize action for causes they cared about."

Rather than just warning young people about online risks or trying to curtail their activities, educators are realizing the importance of helping students leverage the power of digital media to work toward social justice and equity.

This is what civic engagement looks like in the digital age.

Breaking down barriers to social action

For today's students, the internet removes many of the barriers that have contributed to a decades-long decline in civic engagement. Traditional modes of social action, such as joining community groups or volunteering, can seem time-consuming and burdensome to students who are already overwhelmed by their busy lives. Many lack the motivation to put in the effort required.

Digital media, on the other hand, can offer a "path of least resistance" for young people, says Harvard researcher LindsayPettingill.

"While online, young people can come and go from sites as they please, and they can make the best use of their time by multitasking - talking to friends, writing emails and checking the sports scores - all while a video they are contributing to is uploading," she says. "They don't have to leave the house, and they don't have to put down the things they are tethered to. Rather than see these 'social facts' as debilitating to democracy, they should be leveraged to get the most out of young people's desire to be active and feel a part of something beyond themselves."

For students who have grown up holding the digital world in the palm of their hands, the internet is the most natural place to take action. It's where they already are, socializing with their peers and exploring their identities.

For many, working toward social equality and change is simply an organic extension of their online behavior. Rather than taking place in a silo disconnected from students' regular activities, civic participation can now become interwoven into the fabric of their digital lives.

"The internet offers a new model of civic participation, one measured by one's level of engagement as opposed to one's time commitment," says researcher Margaret Weigel. "One can sign online petitions, vote in online elections and contribute $5 to a cause of choice, all from a computer screen."

Students today are empowered with a whole new box of tools with which to act. Online spaces can amplify students' voices while breaking down barriers to civic participation. Social media serves as a potent means for coordinating and mobilizing people who are geographically dispersed. But will students capitalize on these opportunities?

That, Weigel says, remains to be seen.

Putting digital citizenship into action

Studies suggest young people are awakening to their digital power.

According to Harvard University's GoodWork Project, nearly 60 percent of teens create digital content, and one in three share their creations online. And in a nationwide survey, more than 40 percent of young people reported engaging in at least one online act of participatory politics, defined as "interactive, peer-based acts through which individuals and groups seek to exert both voice and influence on issues of public concern."

For many, this participation comes in the form of posting an impassioned plea on social media to inform or inspire peers to action.

But there's a big difference between posting something on Instagram and following a project through to its end. When posts go viral, events can quickly spiral out of control, leaving young instigators reeling from the impact of their digital participation - even when the outcome is overwhelmingly positive. Today's digital citizens need to be prepared for the possibility of massive success.

That's why parents, educators and leaders need to support students in putting digital citizenship into action while also helping them understand:

The scale and scope of online action

In one study, nearly half of the students surveyed failed to include social media as part of a strategy to effect change. Why? Possibly because they still haven't grasped how digital tools can expand the scale and scope of their actions, says researcher Amelia Peterson. Students need to consider scale when engaging online, asking questions such as, "How big could I go? How big do I want to go?"

The efficacy of digital participation

Online modes of civic engagement - such as investigating issues, creating and circulating content, and engaging in dialogue about civic matters - are often dismissed as unimportant or disconnected from "real" social action, says researcher Margaret Rundle. Reinforcing the significance and efficacy of these actions can help encourage students to take advantage of the tools at their disposal.

The implications of success

The odds of a social media post going viral are low, but it's always a possibility. Students can prepare for this contingency by thinking beyond a project's immediate goal and considering the what ifs. For example, "Who can I turn to for help if this gets bigger than I expected?"

The nature of civic engagement is changing, says researcher Amelia Johns. Today's students are "the standard bearers of what the digital world is going to look like in the future, and, therefore, the shapers of what citizenship online will entail."

Watch the video below to learn about the five competencies of digital citizenship and learn more about DigCitCommit.
Nicole Krueger is a freelance writer and journalist with a passion for finding out what makes learners tick. This is an updated version of a post that originally published on Sept. 14, 2017.

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Digital citizenship is the new citizenship

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Digital media is changing how young people engage in civic issues, and educators say we need to give all students opportunities to become engaged citizens using the tools of the digital age. During a refresh of the ISTE Standards for Students, a new definition of digital citizenship emerged.

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This here is an alliteration of 9 basic skills one should develop to be effective in the digital era.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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This website explains a few points needed  promote excellence and equity in schools to assist students of all backgrounds.

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The printing press changed the world, fueling a global renaissance in learning, art and science and upending historical power structures. The shift from print to digital is having an even more profound impact. It has taken hold in two decades rather than two centuries, transforming communication, democratizing learning and creating new markets.

Today we live, learn, work and play on digital platforms. The five largest companies are digital platforms (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft). Most of us hop seamlessly from a communication screen to a production screen to a shared screen, and we often use several simultaneously.

Tremendous progress has been made in K-12 education in this country over the last 20 years, even in low-income communities. Most schools have broadband connections, devices for every student or two and practices that have begun to personalize student learning.

But challenges remain in these early days of developing new personalized learning models. These 10 strategies promote excellence and equity in elementary and secondary schools in the digital learning age. The first five are the basics of access, the second five are the basics of quality.

1. Support 1:1 Take-Home Technology

The combination of inexpensive devices (especially Chromebooks) and open education resources have made it cheaper to provide digital access to great instructional resources than textbooks. It also powers blended and anywhere anytime learning models. A few interesting facts around this:

Maine is the only state to provide 1:1 take-home technology to secondary students. Everywhere else, it's up to school districts.

The Mooresville Graded School District near Charlotte, North Carolina, was a 1:1 pioneer and demonstrated that in a low-spending district (relative to other North Carolina districts) it was possible to provide all students with a full-function laptop.

Beginning in 2012, Council Bluffs, Iowa; Leyden, Ill.; and the Richland Two schools in South Carolina, became early leaders in adopting Chromebooks.

A user fee of $25-$50 for take-home laptops has been adopted by some districts to cover insurance and can usually be paid in installments for those who need payment assistance. Some districts cover the cost for low-income families upon request.

Full 1:1 access makes possible the transition from textbooks to digital instructional materials, particularly open resources. Several school districts have partnerships with open educational resources:

The El Paso Independent School District in Texas worked with CK-12 Foundation to develop 30 open high school flexbooks. El Paso teachers adapted CK-12 content with their own touches and aligned the content with Texas standards. Savings from planned textbook adoptions helped pay for laptops for every high school student.

The Santa Ana Unified School District in California partners with Gooru for customized playlists of open content.

Schools in Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York use open digital playlists from PowerMyLearning.

Six districts are piloting comprehensive open math curriculum from nonprofit Open Up Resources.

Some 1:1 schools and districts are reluctant to allow students to bring devices home because of safety concerns, particularly if the students wear recognizable uniforms and walk in dangerous areas. This difficult choice puts more pressure on home and community connectivity solutions.

2. Support Community Broadband Access

Home connectivity is important to support extended learning opportunities and full digital equity. In a limited number of cases, school districts may provide a connected device (tablet or laptop with hotspot) to students lacking home access, but this quickly becomes cost prohibitive to do at scale. The most common effort to promote home connectivity are community partnerships including low-cost broadband services (about $10 per month) and encouraging and mapping community Wi-Fi hotspots.

Taking advantage of the urban density, the Santa Ana district made efforts to boost home internet access by boosting school signal strength to cover nearby apartment units and, in partnership with the city, increase access to Wi-Fi hotspots. Where that doesn't meet the need, school libraries check out filtered wireless hotspots for home use. One hot spot often covers multiple students.

Santa Ana's deputy superintendent, David Haglund, says home access is improving as families have found ways to access the internet. "The most recent technology survey in Santa Ana found that 85 percent of families have internet in the home. We use the hotspots as a strategy to solve for the remaining 15 percent." The district is also in talks with the city regarding a citywide broadband initiative.

In Alabama, the Huntsville City Schools put Wi-Fi on buses with extended travel time. In addition to more study time, the district experienced a big drop in discipline problems on the buses equipped with Wi-Fi.

Coachella Valley Unified Schools in California provides students with a mobile device and, according to superintendent Daryl Adams, "parks buses in isolated rural areas to provide access for students and families with no internet service."

3. Encourage BYOD

Because the vast majority of secondary school students nationwide today bring their own device to school, most districts have dropped their phone bans and allow teachers to decide when and how students can use phones in class.

Bring your own device policies should be used to create a high-access environment - a three-screen day that includes a mobile device, a production device and a large sharing/editing screen. BYOD doesn't replace a school district's commitment to 1:1 access. Rather, it augments this commitment and creates a three-screen day with extended learning opportunities.

4. Support Digital Literacy

"Digital learning is mission-critical because digital literacy and digital collaboration don't come naturally," says Jan Rashid, assistant superintendent of Des Plaines School District 62, located in a Chicago suburb. "Writing digitally is not the same as using Facebook or Snapchat."

To prepare students for middle school, high school, college and beyond, the district uses a digital literacy curriculum. Students have 24/7 access to the content, so they can work in class, at home or on the bus.

Santa Ana dropped its ban on cell phones and encouraged students to bring their own device and use their own network. While that makes other administrators nervous, Haglund thinks locked-down networks are like teaching young people to drive on a Disney amusement park ride. Instead, he believes we should teach students to become responsible digital citizens.

Common Sense Media provides a free comprehensive curriculum designed to help students to think critically, behave safely and participate responsibly online.

Districts serving diverse and low-income communities are finding very high smartphone penetration rates. Highline Public Schools, near Seattle, uses the SchoolWires mobile application to connect with parents and share assignments, contacts and calendar events.

Coding as Digital Equity?

Schools are rapidly adding coding to the curriculum as an important career skill. Web developers without a college degree can earn good money. Coding in high school can expose students to careers in computer science.

When coding is taught with robotics, problem-solving and maker experiences, it encourages computational thinking. At Olin College, a next-generation engineering school west of Boston, just-in-time computing is taught across the curriculum. Students learn the programming skills they need to solve the problem they are working on.

While valuable, these "add coding to the curriculum" instincts miss the broader implication - artificial intelligence is rapidly impacting lives and livelihoods.

We used to code algorithms to perform specific tasks. Now we can code them to learn, and the more data the algorithms are exposed to, the smarter they get. Artificial intelligence (and its subsets, machine learning, neural nets, and natural language processing) currently results in narrow forms of machine intelligence - programs that are very good at specific tasks.

A recent Stanford study noted numerous ways that artificial intelligence is transforming social media, healthcare, retail, transportation and the employment landscape. Over the next decade, machine intelligence will broaden in capability rivaling humans in increasing respects. The report suggests that, in addition to in introducing coding and computational thinking, school communities should discuss the emerging ethical and economic questions implications of artificial intelligence.

6. Adopt Broader Aims

Houston ISD and Marion City Schools in Ohio hosted community conversations about what graduates should know and be able to do. AASA calls it Redefining Ready .

In addition to traditional measures, these districts built a graduate profile embracing broader aims including growth mindset, collaboration and critical thinking. Districts benefiting from Next Generation Learning Challenges grants use the NGLC MyWays outcome framework that add workplace success skills and "wayfinding" or navigational and decision making skills.

7. Support High-Quality Personalized Learning

Developing a blended and personalized learning environment is complicated. Districts including Washington D.C. have in-house experts that help school staffs make good decisions about building, adopting or adapting a learning model. Some D.C. schools have partnered with NewClassrooms and others have adopted the Summit Public Schools personalized learning plan. Over 100 schools districts nationwide have formed a partnership with nonprofit New Tech Network and benefit from their personalized project-based learning model, platform, and support services.

8. Support Access to Rich Curriculum Options

Houston ISD uses digital curriculum to support 10 different deployment models to extend access and student learning options. Online learning, with a teacher at a distance, provides and expanded list of electives and world languages. Blended learning provides personalized attention and supports tailored approaches to credit recovery. Digital curriculum supports Advanced Placement courses as well as career and technical education.

9. Support Teacher Development

Like students, teachers deserve access to blended, personalized and competency-based learning experience. Fulton County, Georgia identified and trained 400 Vanguard Teachers, about four per school. These teachers provide support and lead conversations about new learning models. Schools received technical assistance specific to their plans when they were ready to move-a great example of supporting teacher leadership and providing the right professional development at the right time.

10. Support Parent Guidance

As the digital divide narrows, a new divide of concern is the quality of guidance regarding screen time and learning opportunities. Technology is an amplifier and can accelerate the development of 21st-century skills or be unproductive (or even dangerous). Districts should support robust parent communication (No. 5) and education to ensure that all students have access to quality formal and informal learning experiences.

It's time to push for full digital equity - take-home technology, engaging learning models, quality learning opportunities, well-supported teachers and parents.

For more, see:
A version of this article originally ran in the March edition of the AASA School Administrator magazine. Stay in-the-know with all things EdTech and innovations in learning by signing up to receive the weekly Smart Update . This post includes mentions of a Getting Smart partner. For a full list of partners, affiliate organizations and all other disclosures please see our Partner page

Tom Vander Ark is author of Difference Making at the Heart of Learning, The Power of Place, Better Together, Smart Parents, Smart Cities and Getting Smart. He is co-founder of Getting Smart and Learn Capital and serves on the boards of Education Board Partners, 4.0 Schools, Digital Learning Institute, Latinx Education Collaborative, Mastery Transcript Consortium and eduInnovation. Follow Tom on Twitter, @tvanderark.

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10 Strategies Promoting Digital Access and Equity | Getting Smart

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The printing press changed the world, fueling a global renaissance in learning, art and science and upending historical power structures. The shift from print to digital is having an even more profound impact. It has taken hold in two decades rather than two centuries, transforming communication, democratizing learning and creating new markets.

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This video focus on the shift to digital world.

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Digital Citizenship Why is it Important?

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This here is a few slides explaining the basics of digital commerce.

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Alejandro Gonzalez Julio Rodriguez INTD3355- Prof. Gladys E. López Univesidad de Puerto Rico Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez Picture credit: http://blog.ksid...

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This website was created my Keshave, Deepak and myself for a module in the second semester of year one. It shows different aspects of digital security.

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This website is for students, teachers and parents to know more about digital security and online safety. Here you will learn about the dangers of the internet and what measures you can take as a parent,teacher or student to keep yourself out of harm's way. There are also a few activities such as minigames, quiz and forum for you to participate in.

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This website is for students, teachers and parents to know more about digital security and online safety. Here you will learn about the dangers of the internet and what measures you can take as a parent,teacher or student to keep yourself out of harm's way.

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This <1 min video is an explanation of how digital literacy is beyond "understanding" "computer". It is about effectiveness and resourcefulness.

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What Is Digital Literacy & Why Does it Matter?