Digital Citizenship Week and Cyber Security Awareness Month

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. Digital Citizenship Week is also in October, October 15-19.

These are some resources that can be used by students, employees, and parents to help promote and gain a better understanding of cyber security and digital citizenship.

Digital Citizenship Week - October 15-19
The first place to start for digital citizenship is Common Sense Media. CSM provides a free K-12 digital citizenship curriculum that can be integrated in the classroom or computer lab.

Check out the "4 Ways to Get Started Teaching Digital Citizenship" resource. You will need to create a CSM account in order to access the suggested resources.

You can encourage parents to take part in Digital Citizenship Week by taking the #DeviceFreeDinner challenge and/or sharing family engagement resources from Common Sense Media.

For elementary students, include one of these books during read aloud time to help discuss digital citizenship.

For secondary students, you can discuss ways to check facts online. Use this article from ISTE to help you get started.

For teachers on Twitter, search for #DigCit and connect with other educators discussing digital citizenship.


Cyber Security Awareness Month

2018 is the 15th year for Cyber Security Awareness Month. This month's overarching theme is "Cybersecurity is our shared responsibility and we all must work together to improve our Nation’s cybersecurity.".

Department of Homeland Security provides Cyber Security resources for K-12 classrooms. Check out Be Cyber Smart.

For parents and employees, check out the good online safety habits from STOP, THINK, CONNECT. These habits include:

- keep a clean machine
- protect your personal information
- connect with care
- be web wise
- be a good online citizen
- own your online presence


How are you promoting and/or teaching about cyber security and digital citizenship this month? Share your ideas with us!