Last class, we learned about digital citizenship challenges and explored topics in terms of Masters project.

In terms of 3D printing, Krystal and I focused on Legal and Ethical Aspects

The pro about 3D printing is that even if people don’t have a lot of experience designing, they are able to use models that are under Creative Commons licenses.

A challenge in the elementary years of education is often related to ownership as kids often say “I made this” instead of quoting who it is from as they are unaware of the importance of giving credit to others.

As such we thought a key example would be for children to be more specific and have an outline such as:

I got this design from …..(TinkerCad, Thingiverse, Printables etc) and I modified it myself or I modified it with a teachers help. Teaching children about Creative Commons objects and rules is thus important and can be done early on. From that students can then make it their own while honouring who originally created the design.

An easy goal for students is to thus learn when they start making presentations, 3D designs etc to make sure to credit pictures and anything that is not your own. As we spoke about last year, with sites like Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay etc.

All in all, for this post I wanted to expand on What my Digcitcommit is. To further elaborate what is one thing that I will commit to this year to promote digital citizenship in your work or life.

My Digcitcommit is to make clear connections to the digital world as much as possible with students. When teaching how to be a good friend, expand that to how to be a good friend online. How to follow rules at school and online etc. It is my belief that the earlier students learn and are aware of digital literacy, they are able to be responsible online as they can see the impact. Transferring that impact and daily situations to younger students is thus powerful as they can learn to understand how words and actions hurt just as much online as they do in person.

Finally another key challenge with technology and digital citizenship is to make all involved aware and provide tools for not only students, but also to their families so that this knowledge and awareness is practiced and shared at home, at school and in all aspects of life.


For older students, we talked about how powerful it can be to share things as simple as screen time and talk about the impacts of screentime in our daily lives. Making personal connections is very helpful and this exercise also makes me reflect on my screen use, especially during and post Covid. I think there has been a huge increase in screen times for most people and I wonder what research will say later. The balance is thus important to teach. Taking away screens may not be the solution, but teaching skills to balance and learn effective use is important.

As ISTE Digital Citizenship said focus on the how instead of don’t.