What Is Digital Citizenship?
This is a question that I feel all educators and parents need to ask themselves – given that our kids are spending so much time online. How are we preparing them for how to behave appropriately when they use the internet? What are the skills needed to stay safe but free to explore? In other words, what does Digital Citizenship look like? I will try to answer these questions over the coming weeks by recommending various apps, websites, books, and teaching practices; but for now, I urge you to try out DQ World for the first step for your learners to become good digital citizens.
Tell me more about DQ World!
DQ World is an online learning platform, teaches students the 8 core components needed to become an upstanding digital citizen! It gamifies learning through quizzes and videos. I have implemented this at my school with grades 4 through 8; even though the age range recommendation is only 8-12 year-olds.
Implementation and reaction
The setup is really straight forward, you register with DQ World and then you can start setting up classes straight away. Usernames are assigned automatically or you can upload a CSV file. After that, all you need to do is give your learners their usernames and passwords and they can start. When I implemented this with grades 6-8, I got them to complete the majority of the learning at home; DQ World provide two plans for both in school and at home. The learners loved it, and are able to recall a lot of the knowledge from DQ World. Afterward, I got each learner to create a piece for a school display on digital citizenship, moreover, they went on to create a digital citizenship page in their digital portfolios; this page contained tips for the younger digital citizens to follow.
Moving forwards…
My hope is that they will apply their understanding of digital citizenship in their everyday use of technology – which can only come about through the support from teachers and parents alike!
- Title: DQ World
- For: Learning about Digital Citizenship
- Ages: 8-14
- Cost: varies (no longer free)