2023 Nebraska Digital Citizenship Symposium

Marialice Curran conducting a workshop with Nebraska students

The Nebraska Digital Citizenship Symposium, hosted by the Nebraska Educational Service Units (ESUs), was held in person for the first time since 2019 on October 16. Students and their teachers joined at five ESUs across the state. The five sites connected virtually through Zoom.  You can also see the participating school districts by viewing 2023 Nebraska Digital Citizenship Symposium Participants.

Twenty-two school districts with approximately one hundred sixty participants heard from national speaker and digital citizenship advocate Marialice Curran. Her message focused on being a digital impactor by being alert, balanced, engaged, informed and inclusive. Essentially the theme for the day was promoting the use of technology for good. More information on this topic can be found at her Digital Citizen Institute’s (DCI) website: DCI – Digital Citizenship Institute (digcitinstitute.com).

The teams also were privileged to hear from Heather Callihan, a technology integrationist at Northwest Public Schools.  Heather presented information on how she has social media and content creation teams of students who work together to tell their district’s story.

Students at the Digital Citizen Symposium 2023

After hearing from Marialice and Heather, the school teams had time to build on the inspiration by creating a school vision, plan, and/or call to action. Each team worked on this plan and then shared their ideas with the other teams. But the vision didn’t stop that day, as the teams will be working on this throughout the school year, documenting their progress, and coming back together on Zoom in April to celebrate with their fellow Nebraska teams, AND with others across the globe during the second annual Global Student Showcase.

The collaboration and learning will also continue in a unique and fun way, as a plush toy named Mundo will travel to all of the participating schools this year! The goal is to have Mundo learn about the different Nebraska communities it visits! Marialice’s team created an AI assistant for education and named it Mundo. She encourages the teams to use the AI assistance to learn more about Nebraska communities, and then share with others across the state, and eventually the world.

To learn more about the Nebraska Digital Citizenship Symposium, visit our website: NE Digital Citizenship Symposium.

“Mundo means earth in Spanish and at the DCI, we model how to learn about the world, with the world to create safe spaces for ourselves and others, to solve problems, and ultimately to be a force for good both on and offline.” Marialice Curran

2023-2024 Digital Citizenship Symposium

Save the date for our in-person event on October 16, 2023!  Districts will be allowed to bring a team of middle school and/or high school students, along with a teacher, to work together to create a Digital Citizenship plan for their school! You may choose from any of the five locations for in-person participation, even if it isn’t your ESU. ESUs 3, 5,7,10 and 13 will be hosting schools.

Guest speaker Marialice Curran will help facilitate the event! Digital Citizenship Institute

Back again this year is the Student PSA/Poster Contest! 

All school districts in Nebraska are eligible to participate in the online content, at no charge. There will be a charge for the in-person event.  Deadline to register is October 9.

Click Here for the Registration Page!

Humanizing the Person Next to Us, Around the World, and Across the Screen

This week on The Good Life EDU Podcast, the global connector behind the DigCit Institute, Dr. Marialice B.F.X. Curran, joins us to talk about Digital Citizenship and how we can support learners in these ever-changing, tech-forward times.

To learn more about the DigCit Institute, visit DCI – Digital Citizenship Institute (digcitinstitute.com)

List of resources mentioned in this episode…

Jaime Donally #ARVRinEDU (@JaimeDonally) / Twitter

Heather Brantley (@HeatherTechEdu) / Twitter

Mrs Jalland & The Ellie Herd (@ElliePrimary1) / Twitter

Noa Daniel (@iamnoadaniel) / Twitter

Curipod: An AI-Powered, Interactive Instructional Tool for Education

This week’s guest, Eirik Hernes Berre, joins us to share all about Curipod, an interactive instructional tool that uses artificial intelligence to save educators design and research time while also promoting a more collaborative and engaging learning experience for all. Eirik is Curipod’s co-founder and our conversation delves into his experiences working with schools around the world, some potential implications of AI on the future of education, and his personal love for all things Harry Potter! We certainly enjoyed this fun and insightful episode and hope you do as well!

For more, visit Curipod.com, create an account, and begin designing your own AI-enhanced lessons.

Also, be sure to stop by Curipod’s vendor booth at this year’s ISTE Conference!

Tom Bober on School Librarians, Primary Sources, and News Literacy, A Future Ready Nebraska Conference Preview

This week features the first of three episodes dedicated to previewing featured speakers at this year’s Future Ready Nebraska Conference. Tom Bober will present on June 12th, speaking from his role as a school librarian and as a former teacher in residence at the Library of Congress. Tom joins The Good Life EDU Podcast and shares some of his experiences along with insights regarding primary sources and news literacy.

For more information and to register, visit Nebraska Future Ready Conference – In-Person and Virtual (nefutureready.com)

Nebraska Digital Citizenship Symposium and Contest 2023

The Nebraska Educational Service Units (ESUs) held the annual Digital Citizenship Symposium online again this year. The outreach was impressive because of the flexibility of the online delivery of digital citizenship content. The website was visited over 4,700 times from October through April by people from all over Nebraska and included visitors from 8 other states and 5 countries!

The online content included information and activities for grades K-4, 5-6, and 7-12. Heather Callihan, Technology Integrationist at Northwest Public Schools and teachers/students from Lincoln Public Schools recorded videos that HS students and teachers could access online. ESU staff also curated content for grades K-4 and 5-8. Students had the opportunity to earn a certificate of completion for their grade level content, which included Media Balance, Making Good Decisions, and Creation Over Consumption. Almost 600 certificates were awarded to students successfully completing the unit assessments!

The ESU group also hosted a statewide Digital Citizenship Message Contest. Students were invited to submit a Digital Citizenship poster or a Public Service Announcement communicating something they had learned. Students in grades K-12 submitted entries online and were judged in four grade group categories. Of the 132 contest entries, 21 award winners were selected and announced in April.

For more information and to see winning entries, visit the website: NE Digital Citizenship Symposium

AR/VR in EDU and Interacting with Generative AI in a Virtual Space

This week on The Good Life EDU podcast, we are joined by Jaime Donally, an expert at the forefront of augmented and virtual reality in education. Every March, Jaime dedicates herself to blogging daily about the latest and greatest AR/VR tools as part of her #31DaysofARVRinEDU effort.

On the pod, she shares a number of the tools, sites, and software highlighted in those blog posts, paying special attention to the impact that generative AI is having on the tech available in that space. Near the end of the conversation, she also speaks to the heightened role digital citizenship plays in a world with AGI.

You can learn more about AR/VR from Jaime Donally’s blog.

During the episode, Jaime references training and guidance under the Digital Citizenship Institute by Dr. Marialice Curran.

Personalized Learning, Virtual Reality, and the Future of Education

This week, Dr. James Rickabaugh, the Former Director and now Senior Advisor for the Institute for Personalized Learning, joins us for a fascinating conversation that takes a deep look at personalization and its place in education today and moving forward. In this episode, Dr. Rickabaugh also entertains the future impact of virtual reality and artificial intelligence on education as technology continues to advance.

Nebraska Digital Citizenship Symposium 2021-22

Nebraska Education Service Units are hosting the Nebraska ESU Digital Citizenship Symposium online again this year!  We have updated our website to include new content for grades 7-12 and have added content for grades K-4 and 5-6.

Special thanks to Bobby Truhe from KSB Law and Lincoln Public Schools for the new videos.

We have also added access to professional learning modules for teachers that were created by Nebraska ESU educators. Teachers can earn a certificate upon completion.

This content will be available all year.

The Nebraska ESUs are excited to announce our Digital Citizenship Contest: Be CyberSmart!

Students have the option to create a poster or PSA (public service announcement) that showcases how to be a CyberSmart citizen based on their learning. All entries must be original creations and must be compliant with the established guidelines below. Submission will be accepted all year until the deadline will be March 15, 2022. Entries will be judged in March and winners announced in April.


2020-21 Success

The team of ESU leaders who facilitated the event were very pleased with the participation. The Nebraska Digital Citizenship Symposium website was visited over 6,000 times from January through March by people from all over Nebraska and 14 other states! Students in grades 7-12 had the opportunity to earn a certificate of completion for three separate units addressing Cyberbullying, Sexting, and Consequences of Negative Behaviors. Over 1,950 certificates were awarded!


Additional information is available at the NE Digital Citizenship Symposium website. If you have any questions, please contact your ESU or Peg Coover from ESU 10.