Digital Citizenship for Elementary Students

Protecting and Empowering Children in an Online World

Our world has come to rely heavily on digital devices and platforms. It is now more critical than ever for students to develop skills to evaluate information coming through digital platforms, to create using digital tools, and to make careful decisions about what information to share and withhold while using digital devices. That is why we have created our Digital Citizens program.

A Montessori Approach to Digital Practices

Dr. Maria Montessori emphasized that young people must learn the necessary skills to care for themselves, their communities, and their world. We apply her proven techniques for forming independence and critical thinking to online interaction and device usage. Today's Montessori student lives in a world surrounded by digital media. As such, we believe that digital citizenship is essential learning for every student we serve.

Maximizing Benefits and Minimizing Harm

We are committed to offering our learners a developmentally appropriate digital citizenship curriculum that aligns with Montessori values and pedagogy. This curriculum addresses the following key skills:

• Online safety & privacy (recognizing scams and minimizing a digital footprint)
• Making healthy decisions about digital media use (seeking a balance)
• Avoiding digital drama (communication dos and don’ts)
• Recognizing and responding to cyberbullying
• Evaluating digital sources for reliability

Partnering with Families

An essential aspect of this digital citizenship curriculum is partnering with families. Much of the time that students spend engaging with digital media is at home, and we want to ensure that we are working together to keep our students safe and healthy.

The skills and techniques we implement in our curriculum will be shared with parents so they can also learn about these practices and implement them at home.