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Digital technology has opened up countless opportunities for engaging education and we integrate technology in many areas of our learning across the curriculum from creating presentations, to recording learning reflections, to zoom author visits, and more. Alongside using technology, we develop students’ information skills to help them find, understand, and evaluate the information they find online, which are increasingly important skills.
We are a BYOD (bring your own device) school for years 4-6. We also provide chromebooks for our Year 3-6 students and ipads for Years 0-2 for learning with digital technologies. All students and parents are required to sign our “Digital Citizenship Agreement” before they use devices in the classrooms – students may not use these devices until a signed contract has been received by their teacher (these contracts are re-newed each year). All classes teach a unit on cyber safety before devices are used.
Mobile phones and smart watches are discouraged and are to be kept in school bags. If these are brought to school, we accept no responsibility for these.
What is a Digital Citizen?
The widespread adoption of technology and our increasing use of digital platforms means that every New Zealander needs to know how to model responsible behaviours as successful ‘digital citizens’ in real-world contexts. Just as literacy and numeracy skills enable people to participate in society, digital literacy skills have are also become an essential part of education. At Botany Downs, we integrate Digital Literacy and Cyber-Safety awareness into our classroom learning to support our students to be confident, connected, and actively involved life long learners.
Anyone using the internet should understand how good citizenship values apply online and our school works with both students and families to help develop skills and knowledge around this concept.
Netsafe have defined a successful digital citizen as someone who:
- is a confident and capable user of ICT
- uses technologies to participate in educational, cultural, and economic activities
- uses and develops critical thinking skills in cyberspace
- is literate in the language, symbols, and texts of digital technologies
- is aware of ICT challenges and can manage them effectively
- uses ICT to relate to others in positive, meaningful ways
- demonstrates honesty and integrity and ethical behaviour in their use of ICT
- respects the concepts of privacy and freedom of speech in a digital world
- contributes and actively promotes the values of digital citizenship
The Digital Citizenship programme focuses on positive decisions and interactions online, as well as making students more aware of the consequences of actions when using their device.
To find out more about Digital Citizenship, please visit the NetSafe website.
