Different Facets of Digital Citizenship at St Andrew’s College

I have published a copy of our Digital Citizenship statement here for you to view.

Andrew Churches from Kristin School and Netsafe NZ have contributed significantly to current thinking in this area, and we have incorporated the main ideas into our approach at St Andrew’s College. These are:

• Respect and Protect yourself online
• Respect and Protect others online
• Respect and Protect the intellectual property rights of others online.

Rather than attempting to formulate a definitive list of “do nots” that students and staff must not attempt on a computer or internet connected phone whilst on the school network, we believe that by promoting what a responsible user looks like, students will buy into a positive culture online. From this, stems the vision for eLearning at St Andrew’s:

“Learners connecting confidently and actively within their communities”

The vision for e-Learning at St Andrew’s College has the student at the centre of all learning and envisions learners who can connect confidently and actively in their community. We aim to produce responsible students who make informed decisions when using ICTs in their learning.

The Star newspaper carried an article on 6th November 2013 where they interviewed a number of Christchurch schools, including St Andrew’s College, finding out what was being done to educate students about the potential risks online. The message of being a responsible Digital Citizen will be repeated frequently throughout 2014, particularly given our Yr9 students are all required to bring a laptop to class this year for the first time. There are number of online resources that help spread this message such as this sobering video:

Additionally, if you are on Facebook I suggest you take the challenge offered at http://www.takethislollipop.com – a very clever website that highlights just what information we are sharing when we accept a friend request on Facebook.

We will be featuring more on this blog over the year around Digital Citizenship.