La Tuque High School

cole Secondaire de La
Tuque

531 St Maurice
La Tuque, Qc
G9X 3E9

Tel: (819) 523-2515

Fax: (819)5232432

Digital Citizenship
What is Digital Citizenship? It is the essential first step to teaching children how to be media literate in the
21st century. The idea is to teach students to be safe, responsible, and respectful offline and online. It
definitely fits within the ERC curriculum but I believe it is cross curricular and the important teaching also
has a place in languages and social studies. Here is a short video to open the dialogue.
What is Digital Citizenship?
There are tons of resources from Canada and around the world that have already been prepared for use much
of which is free of charge. Cyberwise, the creators of the video on Digital Citizenship, is one such source.
There are many, many others; which I have found to be better sources of information.
The first resource I would highlight is one that is created in Quebec by an English language Board, Lester B
Pearson.
http://dcp.lbpsb.qc.ca/curriculum/
On the LBPSB Digital Citizenship site you will find a simple and intuitive resource. It is organized by cycle
and by the four DCP categories developed at Lester B. It isnt perfect, however, and I have found that some
of the links are dead. Therefore, it isnt simply plug and play and would require a bit of effort, research, and
prep by a teacher to roll out any of the topics contained on their site.
Another really good resource for teaching material is http://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/pausethink-online
I am not certain where Common Sense Media is located and it isnt as well organized as the LBPSB site for
us as Quebec Educators but there is great short videos and accompanying lessons that could be quickly
accessed for classroom use. Teachers have to do a bit more work in determining what levels the videos and
lessons would be useful for you in your classroom.
There are many other sites and lessons that can be accessed for the teaching of Digital Citizenship and I have
started to compile a list on the School Website in a restricted page at:
http://www.latuquehighschool.com/digital-citizenship.html
BYOD
This is our current policy on the use of Electronic Devices at the school is attached as an addendum to the
email sent out with this document.
There is an inconsistency in this policy in that the MELS has been enabling students with disabilities to get
technology and our board is equipping it with software that is designed to improve student performance in a
traditional school setting and we are bound by the terms of IEPs of our own creation to make exceptions for

these students. In other words, allowing students to use technology is seen as a de facto best practice for our
special needs students. Why is it not seen in this way for all students?
This is the Boards Digital Rights and Responsibilities Form that was sent home as a pre-requisite to using
the schools technology at school this year; including our network and wi-fi. This is also added as an
addendum to this email.
Herein lays another inconsistency. This policy protects us from students misusing or abusing the Boards
resources. It does not stipulate anything about our students piggy-backing off their own wi-fi plan, La Tuque
Sans Fil, or a neighbours unprotected wi-fi access to go to places of little or no educational value while they
are at school. *note* Stephen and Benoit pointed out that the School Boards Policy on Acceptable Use
Information Technology was updated by the School Board last year and it is up-to-date. We would simply
need to modify the Permission Form to reflect this Policy is the guiding force for our school. Stephen even
suggested that a copy of the Policy go home with the permission form to ensure that it is available to
families.
To my mind, our students are more tech savvy then we are in some ways. They are growing up immersed in
the technology revolution whereas we are adapting to it and reacting to it.
I have found that one of the leaders in BYOD in Canada is the Peel District School Board in Ontario. Here is
a short video they posted on Youtube called Why BYOD.
Like Digital Citizenship, there is a lot of very well developed resources in English and from Canada available
to us. *Note* Jason and I were informed in our Tech Meeting with the Board that Shelley Longney is
developing Digital Citizenship materials for our schools as part of her job with the school board that should
be available in September*
Peel is a leader in education: http://www.peelschools.org/aboutus/21stCentury/byod/Pages/default.aspx
Here is Albertas Guide for Schools. It is an excellent and exhaustive resource for anyone interested in
digging deeper in this topic.
And here is a blueprint on how to make BYOD a reality in our school.
I strongly believe that BYOD will become the wave of the future within the MELS as the government
struggles to control its spending and as more and more children are gaining access to technology at home that
rivals or is superior to what we can offer in our school. *Note* I conducted a quick survey in the school on
Tuesday morning from Grade 3 to Sec 5. 100% of students in Secondary have internet capable, mobile
devices from Sec 1 to Sec 5. At Elementary, there was one student in Gr. 6 without a device, 100% have them
in Gr. 5, 10 of 13 in Gr. 4, and 7 of 13 in Gr. 3 have their own personal devices at home.
I believe, like all things in education, we create a coalition of the willing. We already have a very
collaborative culture when it comes to technology. We also have a higher than the norm number of computers
to students in this school. We have begun an ipad roll out that may stall if our funding from NANS gets cut
but, if we are innovative, and I believe we are, we can find ways to maintain the good stuff we have while we
tap new resources to continue our rollout of these devices; or at the very least, make them available to the
small percentage of our students who are not using technology. *Note* During our meeting with Stephen and
Benoit on Monday, Jason and I were told that the Board does not want schools maintaining old equipment
anymore. They are recommending that schools pool their purchasing power to upgrade their hardware from
year-to-year. The IT people from the Board also highlighted that we are given autonomy with our purchase
and deployment of materials were this is not necessarily the case in other school boards. Jason and I

highlighted our commitment to maintaining our computer labs, suggested that the derogation being placed
before the Commissioners for technology in 2014-15 include ChromeBooks as well as Ipads, and suggested
we will probably look at a soft roll out of BYOD in the near future; once the appropriate consultations are
completed on the topic. We were told, in return, that our school will be the first regional school to receive the
new, upgraded wi fi technology that will support these types of activities.
I would argue that if Sarah Lynns grade 6 class can make videos like these found here in one day that we
would be remise if we do not embrace the change that is upon us.
I see our next step for our school as putting ipads and apple t.v. in all our classrooms. We cannot afford to
make this happen in one year but perhaps in two or three we can get it done. By placing the technology in the
hands of teachers ready to explore adapting to the use of new technology in school, we can build upon the
core who are ready now.