CyberCitizenship: Teens' Digital Reputations
SUNNYVALE--The third annual CyberCitizenship Summit brought together educators and nationally known child
safety experts to tackle worrisome online issues involving students
- especially, how to manage digital reputations.
Teens may surpass their adult counterparts in technological know-how, but their limited life experiences and youth don't
always support thoughtful online interaction with their peers. "Parents' and educators' life literacy need to be added to students'
tech literacy for effective, holistic online safety education," said keynote speaker Anne Collier, co-director of ConnectSafely.org.
The CyberCitizenship Summit, held December 4 on the Yahoo! campus in Sunnyvale, was sponsored by Yahoo! and Technology for
Learning Partnership, a four-county, state-funded regional organization dedicated to helping educators integrate technology
effectively into teaching and learning. The Partnership is headquartered at the Santa Clara County Office of Education.
This year's summit was designed not only to discuss current laws, policies and resources related to cyber ethics and
safety issues, but also to provide curriculum and best practices that can be immediately implemented at home and school.
Without guidance from educators and parents about cyberspace, students can
create negative digital reputations for themselves and others through social
network websites, texting and "sexting" -- sending sexually explicit images or
messages from a cell phone. Experts at the summit provided online safety toolkits for educators to help them coach
youth about protecting and managing their online personas. Marsali Hancock, president of iKeepsafe.org, distributed
newly published curriculum called Project PRO (Privacy & Reputation Online) to summit attendees.
Other presenters included Diana Paradise, Technology for Learning Partnership; Catherine Teitelbaum, Child Safety at Yahoo!;
and Glenn Warren, Orange County Office of Education.
Safety experts encouraged educators to recognize how much they can help students create and maintain positive images on the
Internet as they prepare for college admissions, scholarships, internships and employment.
"With media literacy and citizenship training that happens pre-K through 12, throughout the
school day, with new media as well as books, you're helping them develop the best filter they'll
ever have: the one between their ears," said ConnectSafely.org's Collier.
For more on the CyberCitizenship Summit and online safety content, go to
http://groups.yahoo.com to
join the "cybercitizenshipsummit09" group, or contact
Diana Paradise of the Technology for Learning Partnership.
More information on cyber ethics and safety can be found
here, and in Collier's
article in the School Library Journal.
Date last updated: December 17, 2009
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