Founding Partner KQED Announces Launch of New DigCitCommit Coalition to Empower Teachers and Students

KQED has joined a diverse group of tech, education, and media organizations to launch the Digital Citizenship Commitment campaign (DigCitCommit). Our goal is to reach one million students by 2021 by engaging educators and providing them with the tools to teach a new definition of digital citizenship and wellbeing.

Why do we need a new definition of digital citizenship?

The five new DigCitCommit competencies developed by the coalition – inclusive, informed, engaged, balanced, and alert – are designed to focus less on a list of DON’Ts and more on a proactive approach of DOs that challenge students to stay safe, solve problems and become a force of positivity. The DigCitCommit campaign and the competencies were previewed at ISTE19 to more than 20,000 attendees.  

“As more and more of our interactions move to virtual spaces, the future of our democracy depends on our ability to prepare the next generation of leaders to be kind online, have a healthy balance between the types of online activities they engage in, and view technology as a tool to improve their physical and virtual communities,” says Richard Culatta, CEO of ISTE.  “Digital Citizenship must be more than just online safety if we hope to create a virtual world that doesn’t erode the foundations of our communities and democracy.”  

KQED’s free resources for education provide support for building media literate digital citizens.
* Informed: Above the Noise award-winning videos series tackles timely, debatable topics to prompt student discussion.
* Inclusive: KQED Learn discussion platform for middle and high school
* Engaged: KQED Teach online courses for teachers.
* Informed: PBS LearningMedia collections of high-quality instructional media for all grades.

What can the DigCitCommit initiative accomplish?

Through the development and sharing of curated and updated resources online and at in-person events, the DigCitCommit coalition provides educators with a set of competencies that teaches youth to be safe online as well as instill in them a strong sense of digital media literacy, civility, community, and engagement that will preserve and perpetuate our democracy.

 KQED is the only public media organization among the founding partners and brings deep experience in education, taking the lead on media literacy as a key component of digital citizenship. KQED provides free professional learning courses for teachers and classroom resources that help students learn to be informed, inclusive and engaged online.  

“DigCitCommit aligns with KQED’s mission to nurture civic engagement skill building among youth and to amplify youth voices,” says Holly Kernan, Chief Content Officer at KQED. “Digital citizenship and media literacy are fundamental skills for participation in democratic life.”

Other coalition members include: ISTE, Google, KQED, HundrED, Team4Tech, Facebook Education, Common Sense Education, Digital Citizenship Institute, KidCitizen, Wiki Education, Los Angeles Unified School District, Caroline County School District, Generation Citizen, Media Education Lab, National Writing Project, EVERFI, National Constitution Center, The National Institute for Civil Discourse, and Newsela. Learn more about the coalition at digcitcommit.org.

The DigCitCommit coalition also announced the first Digital Citizenship Commitment Virtual Congress February 11-12, 2020. The virtual conference will showcase educators and students who are demonstrating effective digital citizenship based on the five competencies. 

Educators, students and parents will be able to register for the virtual congress by visiting digcitcommit.org.