The Nebraska Digital Citizenship Symposium, hosted by the Nebraska
Educational Service Units (ESUs), had a new format for their October 16
event. Students and their teachers joined at five ESUs across the state to hear
from international speaker and author Jennifer Casa-Todd. What made the
format different this year was utilizing the Zoom video conferencing tool for the
entire day to learn, connect, collaborate, create, and design a plan to make a
positive impact in their schools.
Each year the ESU Digital Citizenship Work Group creates an opportunity for
Nebraska students to learn how to use technology responsibly and leave a positive
digital footprint. Jennifer’s message to the students was to follow the LEAD
framework: Learn and Share Learning-Empathy-Awareness-Digital Role Models.
Following her keynote presentation, Ms. Casa-Todd guided students through a
design-thinking project, helping them create an action plan to solve a problem in
their schools using a digital notebook.
Seventeen school districts and 115 students and teachers participated in this day of
learning and collaboration. Here’s the attendance breakdown by ESU:
ESU 10: 55 students and teachers from 7 districts
ESU 3: 38 participants from 6 Elkhorn middle schools
ESU 7: 2 teams of 6
ESU 13 and ESU 5: 1 team of 6 each
This map shows the 17 different schools who participated.
Through online connection, participants could engage with Jennifer and work
through the steps of developing their plans. After creating and revising their plans,
districts were paired up to share ideas and hear from students in other schools.
Feedback was exchanged, and Jennifer joined Zoom breakout rooms to listen and
provide additional insights.
Each team shared an action plan on an online board where other students,
teachers, and Jennifer could also comment. One team from Sargent (ESU 10)
wants to address the issue of appropriate technology use in their school. Another
team from Potter-Dix (ESU 13) chose to explore the problem of students posting
photos online without the consent of those pictured.
In the spring, we will invite the participants and Jennifer back on Zoom for a half
day to share how the implementation of their project during the school year went.
The Digital Citizenship Work Group is looking forward to reconnecting with
teams and hearing about their year!
Listen to this episode of The Goodlife EDU podcast and visit our website to learn
more: Nebraska Digital Citizenship Symposium