Introduction to Digital Citizenship Education (Primary), July 3-20

Participants will be enabled to:

• Learn about the concept of digital citizenship
• Support the development of a whole school approach to digital citizenship
• Recognise how digital citizenship can be embedded in school and classroom practices
• Enable learners to understand risks and threats in digital environments
• Enable learners to understand the opportunities of going online and understand the key skills children need to participate safely, ethically and responsibly in digital environments
• Identify and use relevant digital citizenship resources and materials
• Create lesson activities to support teaching and learning of digital citizenship.

There are five modules in this course.

1. Introduction to Digital Citizenship
2. Being Online (access and inclusion; learning and creativity; media and information literacy)
3. Wellbeing Online (ethics and empathy; health and well-being; epresence and communication)
4. Rights Online (active participation; rights and responsibilities; privacy and security and consumer awareness)
5. Creating an Action Plan for Digital Citizenship.

Participant requirements: A high standard of meaningful participant engagement on this course is required for successful completion. This involves joining in a range of online discussions, communicating with fellow participants and the etutor, as well as completing a number of tasks (e.g., a lesson outline, a reflective learning log and a Learning Record). Other detailed requirements are covered within the course.

Note also the Department of Education requirement that, where a participant has registered for more than one course (with any course provider), courses may only be completed consecutively rather than concurrently.

Device requirements:  A laptop, desktop pc or tablet* with the latest version of Chrome, Firefox or Safari installed. An inbuilt or separate microphone, or a smartphone, is required for recording audio for one assignment (only). A good broadband internet connection is essential.

*Most tablet devices work well with our course software but some older devices may not be compatible. Please do not use a smartphone to complete the course.

Software/Apps: While this course is free, the content includes examples of many apps and software titles for the purposes of illustration, some of which involve a cost.

Participants enrolling in this course are asked to commit to participating in a follow up (impact) survey and a short course for reflection and sharing in autumn, on “Using Digital Technologies in the Primary Classroom”. This will enable participants to reflect on their practice and share their experiences of implementing learning from the course in their own classrooms with other teachers who completed the summer course.

About 45 minutes of your time is all that is required for these two items.

A course certificate is provided upon completion of this course. This course is approved for EPV days.

“I found this course well balanced, highly engaging and a very good level of support. This has made my experience very enjoyable.”

“The design of the lessons and all their sections was very easy to navigate and they were attractive to click through. No module was over or underloaded with information and I found the tutors very supportive and engaging.”

“Fantastic to be able to access a free course of such high quality in an area that is so important in this day and age.”

“Got to interact with other teachers and read their views in the forum. Picked up great tips as a result.”

“It was easily accessible whether using an iPad or laptop. Easy to navigate and very interesting and engaging.”

All participants must accept our terms of service when first accessing our online courses learning platform, which cover key participant undertakings, obligations and code of conduct in relation to course engagement.

By enrolling in this course, you also accept the following:

• The time spent on the course must include a minimum of 10 online hours within the PDST Technology in Education course (on our learning platform), according to the automatic calculation of online time by our learning platform. Online time calculation is not an exact science as it is subject to many variables, but this automatic online time calculation will stand.
• Participants must not delete the resources/links created and shared via other platforms (e.g., Scoilnet Learning Paths and Video apps) until after 9th September, 2023.
• Participants must commence the course in advance of 36 hours before course closure.
• Courses are designed and delivered in accordance with strict Department of Education (DE) criteria and administrative requirements which must be met, in accordance with the Handbook for Providers 2023. These include the stipulation that plagiarism and impersonation will not be tolerated.