Happy Digital Citizenship Week!
As young people explore new ways to communicate online, the need for kindness and caution is increasing. But where can children best learn internet safety and practices?
Enter Common Sense Education’s free online digital citizenship lessons! This revamped curriculum teaches students to both navigate the internet and actively make it better. To engage students and add a fun spin to the curriculum, FableVision created three animated music videos for K-2.
In Media Balance is Important, Pause & Think Online, and We the Digital Citizens, a cast of colorful characters teach kids how to navigate the internet through catchy tunes. Country! Latin! Hip hop! Pop! Talented musical group The Wilders wrote these songs with many exciting influences to engage kids. FableVision artists adapted Common Sense’s characters to animation, enhanced their world with original backgrounds, and wrote scripts emphasizing key lessons with age appropriate lyrics.
As the nation’s leading nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families through reliable information and education, Common Sense is a trustworthy and accessible platform for digital citizenship lessons. The curriculum is based on studies from thousands of researchers, including those at Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, shaping it to address the deepest concerns of educators and parents alike, including Media Balance & Well-Being, Cyberbullying, and News & Media Literacy.
All three music videos, available in both English and Spanish, are available on Common Sense Education’s website. There, students can meet the “Digital Citizens,” who model positive online behavior. Each character represents a different part of the body and an accompanying aspect of the curriculum. The heart, for example, reminds students to be kind. It is also really cute!
This Digital Citizenship Week, make sure kids have the skills they need to stay safe while having fun on the internet. With these digital citizenship lessons, they’ll be ready to say: “We the digital citizens, with our hands up in the air, pledge to travel safely when we click from here to there!”
