YouTube Promotes Digital Citizenship

YouTube has just posted a series of videos that aim to help students learn not only more about the YouTube service, but also about being a good digital citizen across the internet as well.

The have developed a curriculum that is aimed towards secondary students (6th-12th grade). According to their website, the curriculum aims to educate students on the following topics:

YouTube’s policies
How to report content on YouTube
How to protect their privacy online
How to be responsible YouTube community members
How to be responsible digital citizens

Google comments, “We hope that students and educators gain useful skills and a holistic understanding about responsible digital citizenship, not only on YouTube, but in all online activity.” I am thrilled that they have devoted resources to making these materials that really do need to be taught early on.

I have gone through the lessons and find them extremely relevant to what students encounter on the web. They are also fitting for the specified age ranges. Below I have included the lesson track that Google recommends with links to the materials.

Below is a list of lessons, and the recommended flow for delivery. Lessons are designed to fit within 50 minute classes, but can be adapted to fit your schedule:

What Makes YouTube Unique - Basic facts and figures (40 minutes) - Teacher’s Guide Lesson 1,Slides Lesson 1
Detecting Lies - (35 minutes) - Teacher’s Guide Lesson 2, Slides Lesson 2
Safety Mode - (5 minutes) - Teacher’s Guide Lesson 3, Slides Lesson 3
Online Reputation and Cyberbullying - (45 minutes) - Teacher’s Guide Lesson 4, Slides Lesson 4
Policy - The Community Guidelines (20 minutes) - Teacher’s Guide Lesson 5, Slides Lesson 5
Reporting content - Flagging (20 minutes) - Teacher’s Guide Lesson 6, Slides Lesson 6
Privacy part 1 - (40 minutes) - Teacher’s Guide Lesson 7, Slides Lesson 7
Privacy part 2 - (50 minutes) - Teacher’s Guide Lesson 8, Slides Lesson 8
Copyright - (40 mins) - Teacher’s Guide Lesson 9, Slides Lesson 9
Additional resources/Appendix including parent resources - Teacher’s Guide Additional Materials, Slides Additional Materials

Or you can download the Full Teacher’s Guide or the Full Set of Slides in PDF.

Here is a link to the informational page:

http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/youtube/curric/index.html

Here is a link to the YouTube channel for the Curriculum:

http://www.youtube.com/user/YouTubeCurriculum

Tags: Curriculum, Digital Citizenship, YouTube

About the Author

Jeff Herb Jeff Herb is an Educator, Blogger, and Podcaster focusing on Instructional Technology and finding ways to innovate the classroom using technology. Follow Jeff on Twitter to keep up with the latest in Educational Technology.