Grade 11 Digital Citizenship: Representing Our Best Selves On-Line

 During this week's digital citizenship class with Ms. Maguire, our Grade 11 students focused on proactively curating their on-line presence so that it represents their best selves. Students googled themselves and some of their friends, and then reflected on the impression that the publicly viewable posts created. They looked at ways to "bury" less favorable posts with positive ones (in cases where the post cannot be deleted) as well as how to actively use social media to show off hobbies, community connections, and personal interests. We also discussed the importance of thinking before engaging with others' posts as the friends and groups with which we associate ourselves - online and offline- say a lot about who we are and what we value. Students then examined at a case study (fictitious) of two students with roughly equal academic backgrounds applying to a competitive university. Our students played the role of admissions officers deciding which student to admit based on each student's social media posts. If you'd like to learn more about the resources we used for this lesson, here is the HS Advisory Libguide link (PW: same as for parent portal). At AISL, we approach digital citizenship in terms of what we should be doing and the powerful ways that digital technology allows for collaboration, inquiry, and problem-solving- rather than as a list of "don'ts." We encourage families to continue these discussions at home and to share experiences with these and similar topics together.

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