Want students to understand a bit more about their digital footprint? Want to help them avoid having a "digital Tramp stamp?" Then they need to understand the permanence of digital ink. So here is a fun lesson to do just that.
     Put students into groups, with 3-5 students in each. Give a tube of toothpaste, a few toothpicks, and a small piece of scrap paper to each group of students. Tell them to squirt a good amount of toothpaste on their paper, but not why. Then ask them to put all of the toothpaste back into the tube. Here they'll be shocked and claim it can't be done, but encourage them to give it their best shot. Some groups may even be able to get it all back into the tube.
     Now is the time for discussion, the purpose of the exercise. Explain that the toothpaste represents words, images, and videos posted on the internet. Could all of the toothpaste, and here I mean all... every speck, ever be returned to the tube? Not really. The same goes for digital content. Now, even if ALMOST all of the toothpaste made it back into the tube, there is still residue on the paper. That cannot be removed. This residue represents, the ideas that the posted digital content, and its effects, cannot ever truly disappear. Even if the content can be deleted, it may have already had drastic effects on others.

Netsmartz for Educators and Netsmartz Kids were developed by the digital citizenship guru Howard Rheingold. Between the three sites there is information, activities, games and resources galore. Mr Rheingold also has a fabulous webinar archived on the simplek12 website about the importance of students needing highly developed "crap detectors" when looking for information online. (Here is a CRAAP Test cheat sheet.) He also has a Ted Talk, recorded in 2005. He had authored a library of books, but the most relevant here is Net Smart: How to thrive on line. Common Sense Media is another site bursting with information and resources. Their videos are especially engaging and useful. They also have free books, textbook workbooks, complete with teacher editions and an online game-based unit, Digital Passport, to accompany the book for grades 3-5.. (Scroll down on the page to see them.) i-SAFE offers curriculum for digital literacy and citizenship. Think Before You Link is a site run by Intel, Macafee, and Discovery Education. It has online courses for students about various aspects of Internet safety. They are simplistic, yet interactive. I recommend them for elementary school students. There are also a few activities, as well as resources for educators and parents.


I also have an ever-growing folder of resources in Google Drive, which I have made public.