This is a guest post from Jenny McNew, Media Specialist at Talahi Community School. Need a Mini Grant to purchase materials or try an interesting new program at your library? Apply today! 

As technology use begins at a younger age and the opportunity for kids to leave a permanent digital footprint while using technology increases, teaching students about digital citizenship is more important than it has ever been.  

As a Media Specialist, one of my many jobs is to help kids learn about digital citizenship. This important skill was difficult to teach in context as the exposure to some situations may not have presented itself to kids yet.

Enter the picture book.

Picture books present digital citizenship skills in an engaging manner. These skills cannot be taught in a single class and it is important to begin to teach students how to behave in a digital community since they spend much of their time online. This skill is as important as teaching students to behave face to face.

Through a CMLE mini grant I was able to purchase some wonderful picture books to help us teach the concepts of digital citizenship. Whether we were reading about spending time on technology in books like, Tek: The Modern Cave Boy by Patrick McDonnell, or Once Upon a Time Online: Happily Ever After is Only a Click Away by David Bedford, When Charlie McButton Lost Power by Suzanne Collins, or Unplugged by Steve Anthony, these books reinforce that kids need to find balance when using technology. Getting away from it is as powerful as using it.

Some of the books likeThe Technology Tail: A Digital Footprint Story by Julia Cook and The Internet is Like a Puddle by Shona Innes remind us how important it is to remember Internet safety and not share our personal information and how wrong cyberbullying is. These books brought much buzz and excitement to students as we shared and discussed this information.