As an educator, I want our learners to recognize the power of technology and its potential to cultivate world leaders who will leave meaningful impacts on our society. In order for this to be achieved, we must provide students with the knowledge and skills to engage in digital environments safely, responsibly, and with confidence. In a recent TechNotes post titled “Where Do We Go From Here?”, Luann Hughes charges all of us to take action to “correct the problems that unsafe online access is creating for our students.” So, where do we begin? We must offer up opportunities for students to be digital leaders.

Ask the Students

“Always ask the students first.” I have this simple sentence written on a sticky note posted prominently on my computer screen. I look to it as a daily reminder of how critical it is to involve students, our most important stakeholders, in all that we do. When I reflect on my most successful lessons, projects, and programs, they all have included student input or feedback. In the instances where I failed to include students, the results were far less favorable.

Students serve as leaders in their schools in a number of ways. From involvement in student organizations to athletics to fine arts, students assume leadership roles in a variety of ways and create lasting, positive impressions on staff and their peers alike. If students have the ability to lead in these ways, why would we not ask them to use their skills and talents to promote digital literacy and citizenship?

Two Ways to Promote Student Leadership

As a parent and educator, I believe I have done a good job in communicating how to safely and responsibly live, learn, and work in our technology-rich world. The truth is, regardless of my efforts, my students and my children will far surpass my efforts, because as digital natives who have been immersed in technology since birth, they have a unique perspective that I, and most current educators, do not have.

Rather than waiting for our students to become parents and educators, how might we empower them to lead learning now? Here are two ways you can involve students in promoting digital literacy and citizenship.

Create a club or an elective class with the purpose of learning about digital literacy and citizenship and educating the student body in these areas.
Form a student advisory committee to help the campus make informed decisions and to weigh in on the school’s strategic planning.

What Can These Student Groups Do?

Before establishing a class, club, or committee, it is important to set goals for the students’ involvement. Here are examples of the activities these student groups can take on.

Clubs and Classes may be leveraged to:

Design digital citizenship and literacy resources for peers, teachers, and parents
Co-teach lessons with teachers, counselors, and librarians
Lead social media campaigns for responsible online behaviors
Speak to peers at school assemblies and other functions
Serve as school ambassadors at community events
Conduct outreach programs at other campuses within your district
Mentor their peers

Advisory Committees may be leveraged to:

Share student perspectives and opinions at meetings
Poll peers
Collaborate with staff to develop recommendations
Conduct informal studies and research
Participate in panel discussions

Six Tips for Getting Started

Regardless of whether you are forming a club or organizing a committee, launching any program can be challenging. Here are a few suggestions to help you get off to a strong start.

Starting a digital literacy and citizenship club, class, or advisory committee

1. Start Small

Begin with a single class or a club with a limited number of students. Consider forming a student version of an existing committee. For example, if you have a teacher technology advisory committee, you might launch a student technology advisory committee as a companion.

2. Build on What You Know

What are some challenges students in your school are having? Leverage the club, class, or committee to address these needs first.

3. Maximize Students’ Existing Talents

Do the students involved enjoy public speaking, designing publications, or posting on social media? Maximize these existing skills within the scope of your student leadership groups.

4. Begin by Curating Rather than Creating

Rather than having students design their own publications at the start, teach them how to responsibly source, curate, and share existing publications that are relevant to the group’s mission and the staff and student body.

5. Plan for Training

This will likely be a new experience for students. Prioritize time for training the students on skills and content. Time spent up front to do this will help ensure that students feel confident in their roles and the quality of their work will be stronger.

6. Leverage Community Support

Which businesses or community organizations have visions that align with your student group’s goals? Partner with them for support. They may have resources, training, facilities, equipment, and funding that they are willing to share in this partnership.

The Benefits

Starting any new program can be daunting and time consuming. However, the benefits are abundant. Aside from empowering students to engage with technology safely, responsibly, and with confidence, student-led digital literacy and citizenship programs open doors to:

Partnerships with corporations and community organizations
Increased technology support capacity
Visibility by State and local leaders
Just-in-time digital learning
A comprehensive technology support system
Meaningful experiences for students that translate to post-secondary education and the workforce
Excitement for and innovation in learning

Beginning this school year, I am commiting to empowering students to lead learning in digital literacy and citizenship. I hope you’ll join me and start something great at your school!

We’ve all been in this situation. You know– the situation when we are running a small group or teaching a lesson or working individually with a student– only to be met with (wait for it…) interruptions. Note: To be clear, I’m definitely not talking about emergency situations when interruptions are 100% necessary. There are many reasons that students might interrupt, and some interruptions are important and necessary. But there are some that could be solved by the student with guidance from visual tools, class procedures, and their peers. Let’s take a look at strategies that can empower students to own their learning and problem solve before seeking help from the teacher. And they can also help build a great classroom community.

#1 “Ask Three and Then, Me!”

This is one of my favorites. It’s simple! Before asking the teacher, the student asks three different peers for help. If their question isn’t answered or the problem isn’t solved, the student seeks out the teacher. When a student comes to the teacher for help, the teacher asks, “Have you asked three?” If the student hasn’t yet, they know to seek out a peer. Most of the time, the problem is quickly solved after the first or second peer is asked for help. It’s a great strategy that also fosters a positive community within the classroom. And students know that the teacher will assist after they tried first with their peers.

Ask three and then me - prevent interruption

#2 Start a Support Specialist Program

Creating a Support Specialist Program in a classroom can be amazing for students. It empowers them to help each other and can be a great reminder that everyone has strengths, weaknesses, and is a leader in their own way. And we all need help sometimes. Every student in the class can have the opportunity to “apply” to be a support specialist if they’d like to be one. After applying, they “interview” with the teacher. During the interview, you can ask students the following questions:

Why do you want to be a support specialist?
What gifts do feel you’d bring to your class as a support specialist?
In what areas do you think you can best support your peers?

After applying and interviewing, students receive their Support Specialist certificates, which are displayed in the classroom. I find that this system and the fifth system on this list work very well together. Students really felt proud to be official support specialists and took the job seriously.

#3 Create a “Parking Lot”

You can use a digital tool like Padlet for this, but you can also use post-it notes. Designate a space in the classroom (it would be a whiteboard or poster board, for example) as the “parking lot”. Students can write down their activity-, content-, or assignment-related questions on post-its and then “park” them in the parking lot space. Then, once they’re available, the teacher or class support specialists, can address questions and provide assistance.

#4 Brainstorm Things to Try Before Asking the Teacher

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but here is a visual tool for students to help remind them of five things they can try (in any order) before asking the teacher:

Revisit and reread the instructions.
Ask peers for help.
Use available resources (notes, dictionaries, clasroom posters, etc.).
Try it a different way.
Take a one-minute break and come back to the work.

You can brainstorm ideas for this list with your students and make your own classroom poster together!

#5 Student-to-Student Signaling

This procedure works well with any of the above. These cards can be laminated and given to students, or you can create your own with your class. There are many ways to display the cards, but I found that velcro on the desk and back of the cards works well. Students display the appropriate card on their desk to signal their peers, changing them as needed.

A red card means that the student is unavailable. So they should not be visited for assistance.
A green card means the student is available to assist others. So other students can come to ask them questions if needed.
A yellow card signals that a student is in need of assistance. They’d like a classmate, when they’re available, to visit them.

I hope that you find some of these ideas helpful, or that something sparks an idea in you. If you have ways you empower students and transform interruptions in your classroom, please share them in the comments below.

student leadership

Empowering Students as Digital Leaders