Giving Compass' Take:

• Vancouver Public Schools in Washington aim to implement online student safety protocols to keep students safe and practice ethical digital citizenship. 

• How has the onset of technology shaped different academic avenues for students? How can schools increase accountability?  

•  Here are three ways to help students become better digital citizens. 

Like many school districts, we went into this digital transformation relying on our students and teachers to tell us when someone was acting in a way that would harm themselves or others.

With nearly 24,000 students, 37 schools, and a superintendent who is tightly focused on student safety in both the online and offline world, we knew we needed to do more in this era of online learning. After all, children now are using technology that we, as adults, couldn’t have even envisioned five or 10 years ago.

Today, our student safety solution plays an important role in helping us keep our students safe online, and in helping them be good digital citizens.

Here are six strategies we used when implementing our safety platform:

  1. Develop trust with your technology provider
  2. Create a 'safe' space for sharing student information
  3. Hire help for responding off hours
  4. Develop and share protocols in advance
  5. Use the platform to encourage good digital citizenship
  6. Understand what students are capable of online

Read the full article about online student safety by Christina Iremonger at Education Dive