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Digital Safety refers to the knowledge and skills needed for the intentional protection of users in the digital environment. With children having access to digital devices at a young age, it has become essential for them to be educated on how to be safe in the digital world. Through a week-long summer camp on digital safety, elementary-age learners were introduced to four topics (digital identity and digital footprint, cyberbullying, netiquette, and digital security and privacy). This study found that the digital safety immersion camp was beneficial to elementary school learners based on the achievement, attitude, and behavior data that were collected. Posttest scores were statistically significant from the pre-test. Cyberbullying topic had the highest pre- and post-knowledge, whereas netiquette and online behavior, and digital security and privacy had comparatively lesser scores. Students demonstrated positive attitudes in the post-camp survey and they also included several lessons learned from the camp in the Pixton comic strip, which they created as the final project from the camp. The findings from this study contribute to the current literature on preparing elementary school students’ knowledge and skills related to digital safety and have implications for students, teachers, administrators, and parents.
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This content will become publicly available on July 31, 2025
Elementary Teacher Experiences on Digital Safety Professional Development and Facilitation of an Immersion Summer Camp
Digital safety involves protecting oneself, and one’s personal information to mitigate the risks that are inherently associated with using digital technologies. This study employed a multi-method design to explore 26 in-service and pre-service elementary teacher experiences from attending a professional development on digital safety and facilitating a digital safety immersion summer camp. Data was collected through pre- and post-test assessments, surveys, and interviews. Findings from knowledge assessments indicate no significant difference in pre- and post-test assessment. However, elementary teachers displayed high motivation, valuing the critical need for ongoing digital safety education and opportunities for collaboration and self-reflection from the survey and interviews. Teacher challenges included teaching students from different backgrounds with varied expectations and engaging the learners. This study provides recommendations for teacher professional development and has implications for designing teacher professional development on digital safety and for administrators to offer support on digital safety topics amidst the challenges the teachers discussed.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2319015
- PAR ID:
- 10553482
- Publisher / Repository:
- Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Technology and Teacher Education
- Volume:
- 32
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 1059-7069
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 159-186
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Digital Safety Teacher Preparation Teacher Professional Development Elementary Teacher
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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