#digcitsummit student speaker Timmy Sullivan

As I reflect on the 1st Digital Citizenship Summitthis past weekend, my heart is full.

My favorite part of the Summit was the presence and voice of students. The only permanent solution to changing school climate, addressing bullying/cyberbullying and learning how to humanize the person next to you, as well as across the screen is more student voice.

We need more students like Timmy Sullivan, our invited high school speaker from Burlington High School in Massachusetts. His session was packed as he shared the need for more student voice in personalizing learning. His impressive online presence is a reflection of both his choices and character which further exemplifies what it means to be the same person both on and offline.

How do we get more student voice in our classrooms?

1. We start early and often. We embed digital citizenship into everything we do both online and offline.
2. We model and teach empathy in everything we do, in every classroom, both in and out of the classroom.
3. We encourage our students to do digital citizenship – not just read or write about it.

Our students are the solution. Engage them in this critical conversation.

My son sharing closing remarks #digcitsummit

How will we get more students like Timmy Sullivan in our classrooms and in our communities? More student voice. We need to begin this conversation before devices are in the hands of our toddlers. We need to have our elementary aged students, like my son who joined me on stage for the closing remarks dodigital citizenship and experience what empathy kindness and global collaboration looks like through projects like blogging, Global Read Aloud, Mystery Skype, etc.

If we start with our youngest learners, we will model best practices and will make digital citizenship a verb. As a result, we will help produce socially responsible, ethical and savvy students who think and act at a local, global and digital level simultaneously – like Timmy Sullivan and my son and all students – everywhere.

*A HUGE thank you to my current and former students who helped plan, volunteer and present at the Summit! You are why I do what I do! #FYS15 #ed536 #ed570

*Some of my other favorite examples of students “doing” digital citizenship: iCitizen Project and the iConstitution, for students by students.

In October, I was lucky to watch the live streamed event: Stand Up to Cyberbullying Town Hall Meeting at the Fields Museum in Chicago. I was amazed that I was in Connecticut and still able to participate in this critical conversation. During the event, I thought we need to engage more people in this conversation all over the country and world! The very next day, I started planning how we could have a Town Hall Meeting on our campus. Thrilled that it has become a reality! Please use #iCit21 to follow and live tweet our Town Hall Meeting. The event will be live streamed on http://dialogue21.wordpress.com.

The School of Education at Saint Joseph College presents:

iCitizenship Town Hall Meeting

Moderated by Brad Drazen – NBC Connecticut News Anchor

Thursday, February 9, 2025 from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

The Bruyette Athenaeum’s Hoffman Auditorium

1678 Asylum Avenue, West Hartford

WEST HARTFORD, CONN. – The School of Education at Saint Joseph College, in collaboration with SAGE (Student Advisory Group in Education), will present an iCitizenship Town Hall Meeting on Thursday, February 9, 2025 from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. in The Bruyette Athenaeum’s Hoffman Auditorium located on the College’s West Hartford campus at 1678 Asylum Avenue. Admission is free of charge and the community is cordially invited to participate. Join us for this event which will engage students, teachers, parents, administrators and policy makers in a conversation on creating a positive school climate to address bullying and cyberbullying issues.

Many positive opportunities have resulted from advances in technology. While computers and digital devices are constantly evolving, parents and educators need to help children use technology as socially responsible online citizens, promoting healthy interpersonal relations with their peers and avoiding inappropriate behavior that can lead to cyberbullying.

Moderated by Brad Drazen, weekday morning co-anchor of NBC Connecticut News Today, Saint Joseph College’s iCitizenship Town Hall Meeting Panel on February 9 will feature:

• Dr. Jo Ann Freiberg, associate education consultant; School Climate, Bullying, and Character education at the Connecticut Department of Education
• Dr. Jordan Grossman, assistant superintendent, Canton Public Schools; adjunct professor – School of Education at Saint Joseph College
• Donna Sodipo, director of education services, Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network
• Craig Outhouse, assistant principal, Woodland School, East Hartford
• Ryan Brown, behavioral intervention specialist, McDonough Expeditionary Learning School, Hartford
• Nicholas Howley, Saint Joseph College graduate student and Admissions Officer at Goodwin College
• Quinn McDonald, Saint Joseph College freshman and student representative from the College’s First-Year seminar entitled, “Pleased to Tweet You: Are You a Socially Responsible Digital Citizen

Best part of our Town Hall Meeting? We will be Skyping in with Beth Sanders and her students in Birmingham, AL! They will kick off our panel with positive solutions on how students can collaborate on #digcit projects to make a difference. Quinn McDonald will represent our First Year Seminar’s class: Pleased to Tweet You: Are You a Socially Responsible Digital Citizen? For more information about our iCitizen project: Be The Change.

Last night was a defining moment for me as I watched an idea become a reality. Last May I began planning how to teach my first First Year Seminar at our college. I hoped the seminar would define their college experience. The course was called, Pleased to Tweet You: Are You a Socially Responsible Digital Citizen? I wrote a post looking to collaborate, High School Skype and Twitter Project Request. Many people responded with interest, but only Beth Sanders made it happen.

We met later face to face at ISTE in June and really started to plan our #fys11 #icitizen project, but even as the semester began, I was not sure how we would really get to a final product. A constructivist approach to teaching and learning plus a little help from Skype, Twitter, Schoology, Posterous, Prezi and YouTube made it all possible. College freshmen from Connecticut collaborating with high school juniors from Alabama – what I had wanted to be a defining moment for my college freshmen became a defining moment for me. Students separated by geography defining What does it means to be a citizen nationally, globally and digitally? Amazing! What was the best part of being part of a collaborative project?

Last night was beyond fantastic! @MsSandersTHS and her students co-hosted #digcit, a chat dedicated to empowering students, educators, parents and policy makers to integrate empathy into 21st century learning. As I’ve read over the archives a few times today, I’m so proud of @MsSandersTHS students and I’m not the only one saying it:

I hope others were inspired and co-host another #digcit chat with their students. Change happens within. We need to engage more students into this critical conversation. Please sign up to co-host #digcit chat every Wednesday @ 7pm EST.

As the students said so eloquently last night:

A special thanks to all for supporting #digcit and @MsSandersTHS and her students! We had 81 contributors last night! Woo Hoo!

*Posts written during our collaborative project: Local. National. Global; I care Jamey Rodemeyer; What is your responsibility – legally and morally?; Students as Change Agents; A Million Reasons and More; A Teachable Moment in Line Waiting for Santa; Thirteen Reasons Why

Adolescence hasn’t changed. Young adolescents still recycle the same three questions all day long: Who am I? How do others view me? And where do I fit in? I asked those questions and so did generations before me. I was awkward as an adolescent. Who wasn’t? I made poor choices. Who didn’t? The only difference was I wasn’t answering these questions online.

Today’s adolescents have a difficult road to navigate. Their frontal lobes haven’t developed any more quickly, but social media is recording their every move and decision. It actually reminds me of one of my favorite songs from high school, “Every Breath You Take”. (Make sure you listen to the song while you read this post.)

Who would have thought that a 1983 song would depict the future? Just some of the lyrics: “Every breath you take, every move you make, every bond you break, every step you take, I’ll be watching you. Every single day, every word you say, every game you play, every night you stay, I’ll be watching you. Every move you make, every vow you break, every smile you fake, every claim you stake, I’ll be watching you….”

How can we help teenagers survive adolescence in a digital age? How can we teach and not preach about the seriousness of their digital footprint/tattoo? How can we engage more students in this conversation?