Recently, we sat down with Lori Davis from Xavier School to discuss her school’s experience watching the Smart Social Digital Citizenship Speech Videos. Instead of having Josh as a guest speaker, their school opted to get our Digital Safety Event video modules to screen to their students. In this episode, Lori describes how the videos helped her educate students on how they can make their online presence the number one ticket to getting into their preferred university.

Listen to this episode on our podcast:

How to Host a Successful Digital Safety Event for Teens Key Takeaways:

• Digital natives are living with the consequences of their digital footprint. So, it's important for them to receive guidance
• Through the Digital Citizenship Speech Videos, students learn that sending a positive message online and on social media will get you further than being negative or remaining anonymous
• One of the key things that students learned from watching the Digital Citizenship Speech Videos is to volunteer their phones when pictures are being taken, so that they can better control their digital footprint
• A great key takeaway for students using social media to shine online is to use the same picture on all social accounts

What value did the Digital Safety Event provide your school?

Every year we have a summit on human dignity. We pick a topic every year and this year's theme was technology and social media, that's how I found you. We bought the program and I showed it in the gym. Our school had a giant screen and we think your videos were effective.

What was the student’s reaction after watching our Digital Citizenship Speech Videos?

It went great. I walked in with a red solo cup in my hand and I asked them straight away, “do you know what connotation this cup has?” Of course, the students laughed and they were all able to say red solo cups symbolize alcoholic drinks. I told them a little story about how one year I decided to bring my breakfast of overnight oatmeal in a red solo cup. The first day I walked in I had to walk through parents and students coming into school. I thought to myself, “is this weird that I have a red solo cup at 8:00 in the morning?” I'm telling them the story and that's how we started off our discussion. We went into the four videos and in-between each video I showed a couple of slides with ideas from your book, I thought it would be helpful to our students.

What were the biggest lessons your students learned?

At the end of each day when our students went back to their first-period class, there was a series of reflections that they did. There were certain key things that stood out to them and I think one of them is so simple which is volunteering their phones when pictures are taken. That was a lightbulb moment for some of the kids. I can control my image that way and not be at the mercy of whoever's clicking away and posting. At the very end, I had the students Google themselves and they were very interested in sharing what they found with me. It was a wide variety. We discussed security controls and talked about not being so anonymous online so that a school or an employer won't be able to find you. I think that was a key thing for the older grades because they think they're being sneaky or hiding everything.

What do your students think about the “getting fired” segment?

I think it resonated with the seniors the most because they're closest to that. Even though it's about an employer it still sends the message that positivity is going to get you further.

What would you say to educators who have yet to take part of our digital safety curriculum?

My school is unique in that we devoted a whole week to technology and social media. We had your program and a district attorney come and talk about the criminal aspects of social media. I was very excited that they allowed me to present your program to the whole school by grade level. I don't know how much we would have even covered if we didn't devote a whole week to social media safety. I think it's kind of scary how you can get fired with one tweet. Digital natives are living with the consequences of their digital footprint. So, it's important for them to receive guidance.

How can educators keep the digital safety conversation going?

I was approached by one of the technology teachers, she sat in and watched one of the Digital Citizenship Speech Videos. She was on board with your message; I'm going to be giving her your book. I've discussed quite a few things in my classroom and have taken a deep dive into your presentation. I don't know exactly where we're going to take this yet but I think it definitely brought it to the forefront of everybody's mind. I'll be working with the technology teacher a little bit and just see what the next steps are.

What is one quick tip from the Digital Citizenship Speech Videos that you can share with students?

I think one key piece of advice you give is to use the same picture on all of your social profiles so colleges and employers can quickly identify you online. Having a bunch of different headshots across your social media profiles creates confusion and suspicion.