Digital Compass....A Brand New Way To Teach Digital Literacy and Citizenship To Our Kids!

Our friends at Common Sense Media have done it again!  They have brought us something wonderful to use with our young people in grades 6th through 9th.

It is called Digital Compass and it is an animated, choose-your-own-adventure online, educational game that lets our students explore digital literacy and citizenship situations in a meaningful and engaging way. 

As you can see from the picture above, Digital Compass has used characters to illustrate several different digital dilemma's such as.... Cyberbullying and Digital Drama, Self-Image and Identity, Internet Safety & Privacy, Creative Credit & Copyright, Relationships & Communication, and more. 

I have used a lot of the amazing Common Sense Digital Literacy and Citizenship Classroom Curriculum when teaching the K-12 students, teachers, and parents at Van Meter.

One of my favorite tools is Digital Passport, which I used with students in grades 3 to 5.  It includes videos, games and interactive classroom activities.   It is available online, in iTunes and Google Play.

Now with Digital Compass, we can involve our older students in this important conversation too through something fun.

On the Digital Compass page, there is a fantastic Educator Guide...

and a Quick Start Guide that will take you through the eight thematic modules of Digital Compass.

I played Digital Compass tonight....It was so much fun.

To start you come to Anywhere where you pick the character you want.

 I picked cute little Wink!

I worked through this mini-game and helped Wink not cross the line online and think about her digital footprint.

It was fun working through the interactive activity and educational in thinking about the choices Wink and her friend had to make.

When I finished, Wink gave me a scorecard, along with badges for various accomplishments.

I can print this off or continue with a new character.

This will be so great with assessment, both quantitative and qualitative.....Digital Compass can also be integrated with Edmodo.

Check out the Digital Compass video that Common Sense created to give us an overview.

Teaching digital citizenship and literacy is one of the most important things you can do.  And with Digital Compass, this become a little bit easier and a lot more fun!