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Digital Citizenship Redefined: Empowering Students to #WinAtSocial

In honor of Digital Citizenship Week (Oct. 20th – 24th), we asked our Student Ambassadors what digital citizenship really means to them. Download and print their responses to hang up in your classroom to inspire your students to make high-character decisions this Digital Citizenship Week and all year! Download here >>

“Adults call it digital citizenship, but to us, it’s just citizenship.”

That’s what one student told The Social Institute during a school visit, and it stuck with us. 

Today’s students are growing up in a world where technology is integrated into every aspect of their lives, from how they communicate with friends to how they learn, lead, and make decisions. Students don’t think of being online as their “digital” world. To them, it’s just their world. 

Yet, many traditional digital citizenship programs treat technology as something to control in a silo, rather than a part of students’ lives where they can learn to lead, connect, and pursue passions, when equipped to do so in positive and healthy ways.

At The Social Institute, we take a different approach. We don’t teach students how to use technology. We equip them with the modern life skills to navigate their experiences in high-character ways, whether they are online or in person. 

The Challenge with Traditional Digital Citizenship Programs

Empowering students to be digital citizens, or as our students say, simply good citizens, is all about equipping them with the skills to navigate their social experiences, both online and offline, in positive and high-character ways. However, as technology evolves rapidly, so does the way students use it, and not all programs can keep up.

Common challenges with typical digital citizenship programs include:

• Reactive, not proactive: Lessons often focus on what not to do, promoting fear over confidence and missing opportunities to teach positive tech use that supports learning.
• One-size-fits-all: The same lessons are often used across grade levels, even though a kindergartner’s online world looks nothing like a high schooler’s.
• Doesn’t pass the snicker-test: Programs are written for students, not with them, making it hard to connect with their real experiences.
• Limited reach: Many programs stop at the classroom door, without support for educators and families to continue the conversation.

When approaches that are meant to help students navigate the ever-evolving worlds of tech and social media are static and don’t grow with students, they become outdated and unsustainable for schools. 

Understanding that students in today’s world need an approach that stays up-to-date with their current experiences, whether that’s A.I. companions or birthday post FOMO, The Social Institute takes a unique, positive, and proactive approach to modern life skills education.

How The Social Institute Flips the Script on Digital Citizenship

The Social Institute is the leader in equipping students, families, and educators with modern life skills to impact learning, well-being, and students’ futures. We provide unique, peer-to-peer learning with integrated teacher PD, family resources, student voice insights, and more to empower smart, confident leaders of tomorrow.

Here’s how we do it:

• Lessons co-created with students: Student voice, amplified by The Social Institute’s Student Ambassador Program and real-time student insights generated as students reflect on their experiences with social media and technology, is at the heart of every #WinAtSocial Lesson.
• Focus on empowering and equipping, rather than scaring and restricting: Instead of fear-based rules, our positive approach equips students with skills to navigate technology positively.
• Always current: Lessons are regularly updated to address trending topics like A.I., social media, and well-being.
• Turnkey and plug-and-play for educators: Short, flexible Huddles make it easy for teachers to lead meaningful discussions, with no tech expertise required or extra lesson planning.
• Community-wide impact: Resources for educators and families extend lessons beyond the classroom, creating consistent messaging across the school community.

Standards That Prepare Communities for the Modern Day

Instead of focusing solely on isolated digital skills, The Social Institute empowers students, educators, and families to live up to 7 comprehensive standards as they navigate tech, social media, and well-being:

1. Play to Your Core: Reflecting our values, character, and interests in our actions online
2. Protect Your Privacy Like You’re Famous: Staying in control of our personal information
3. Strike a Balance: Balancing our time and attention on tech with the people around us
4. Cyberback: The antithesis of cyberbullying; Having each others’ backs and supporting each other online
5. Find Your Influencer: Surrounding ourselves with positive and credible influences, online and offline.
6. Use Your Mic for Good: Using social media as a microphone to create meaningful change.
7. Handle the Pressure: Finding your own path, no matter the pressure from others

Each standard builds on the others, creating a foundation for integrity, empathy, and healthy tech habits. Together, they help students not just navigate their social worlds, but thrive in it.

These standards are integrated through #WinAtSocial Lessons that teach modern life skills, Professional Development Courses that guide educators through A.I. & tech, and the Family Toolkit, which equips adults with discussion starters on each standard, so students can continue to strengthen these skills at home. 

Plus, these seven standards aren’t taught in isolation. From strengthening self-awareness to leadership skills, these standards reinforce one another to help students grow. By integrating lessons on character-building, relationships, and decision-making, The Social Institute redefines digital citizenship as life skills education for the modern day. 

A Positive Approach that Supports Schools Across the Globe

See how schools nationwide are partnering with The Social Institute to help students become smart, confident leaders, straight from the educators themselves:

“In the past, we addressed issues reactively after they happened. Students would come to us in crisis mode after they had already been dealing with a difficult situation… With #WinAtSocial, we are proactively addressing issues and hopefully preventing them from happening in the first place. It’s been invaluable.”

– Robert Lightning, Principal, Bowling Green Junior High School

“We are seeing more concrete examples of people using social media for good, whether they are promoting Christian values or they’re promoting school events. Just this morning, I was dealing with an issue where one student jumped online to defend another student, and they were just acquaintances, they weren’t necessarily friends, so that was really cool to see that some of that stuff is happening.”

– Adam Frey, Dean of Student Life, St. Croix Lutheran Academy

“One of my primary goals as a technology teacher is to empower students to become effective producers of media, not just passive consumers. The Social Institute program supports this mission by providing lessons that encourage critical thinking and engagement with real-world issues, such as exploring the power and complexity of humanitarian aid, navigating the challenges of A.I.-generated content during elections, and managing dynamics within group chats.”

– Julie Hampton, Technology Teacher, Pace Academy

Modern Life Skills Lessons that Support Your School Community

Digital citizenship programs teaching online safety are no longer cutting it. With social media, online trends, A.I., and technology impacting student learning and well-being every day, equipping future-ready students means teaching modern life skills that prepare them for life beyond the classroom. Equip your community with the tools to lead with character and confidence in their world with these #WinAtSocial Lessons, available in grades 3-12:

• Navigating all things group chat drama >
• Navigating the link between dopamine, algorithms, and screen time >
• Exploring our school’s policies for A.I., phones, and beyond >

The Social Institute (TSI) is the leader in equipping students, families, and educators with modern life skills to impact learning, well-being, and students’ futures. Through #WinAtSocial, our interactive, peer-to-peer learning platform, we integrate teacher PD, family resources, student voice insights, and more to empower entire school communities to make positive choices online and offline. #WinAtSocial Lessons teach essential skills while capturing student voice and actionable insights for educators. These insights help educators maintain a healthy school culture, foster high-impact teaching, and build meaningful relationships with families. Our unique, student-respected approach empowers and equips students authentically, enabling our solution to increase classroom participation and improve student-teacher relationships. Through our one-of-a-kind lesson development process, we create lessons for a variety of core and elective classes, incorporating timely topics such as social media, A.I., screen time, misinformation, and current events to help schools stay proactive in supporting student health, happiness, and academic success.