The 1st National Digital Citizenship Summit hosted educators, parents, organizations, students, administrators, and industry on October 3, 2015. Attendees at the Summit discussed ways to improve tech usage and helped shape the national conversation on digital citizenship. “Digital Citizenship” is the umbrella term used to describe the expectations of a digital citizen (ethics/responsibilities/etiquette). “Digcit” is a popular abbreviation for digital citizenship.
What happens in digital citizenship tomorrow is decided today.
Digital Citizenship Summit Co-Founders:
Marialice B.F.X. Curran, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Saint Joseph
Dr. Curran’s teaching, scholarship and service focus on digital citizenship and social media in K-12 teacher education. Named one of the Top 10 Digital Citizenship bloggers to follow in 2014 by Common Sense Media, Curran co-founded (2011) and moderates the digital citizenship #digcit chat on Twitter and she also serves on the leadership team for the Digital Citizenship PLN through ISTE.
Curran has presented her digital citizenship research on the iCitizen Project at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), International Bullying Prevention Association (IBPA), National Bullying Conference, the National Council for Social Studies (NCSS), Northeast Regional Conference on the Social Studies, Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE), New England League of Middle Schools (NELMS), Connecticut Educators Computer Association (CECA), as well as other local conferences.
A former middle school teacher, principal and an advocate for young adolescents, Curran is passionate about digital citizenship. As part of the First Year Seminar, Curran has taught “Pleased to Tweet You: Are You a Socially Responsible Digital Citizen?” (2011) and will be teaching “#YouMatter: Embracing a Culture of Empathy and Kindness” in the fall. She also teaches digital citizenship courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as a digital literacy course and is the faculty advisor for the graduate educational technology program.
David Ryan Polgar, JD
A frequent speaker (two-time TEDx) and respected tech commentator whose ideas and thoughts concerning digital citizenship, creativity, and humanizing our online experience have been featured globally in The Boston Globe, Financial Times, Sydney Morning Herald, US News & World Report, Forbes, HuffPost Live, The New York Times, The Guardian, CNN.com, and more. He is currently the Digital Family Expert for Ask.fm.
With a background as an attorney and college professor, he digs below the surface to examine our tech use from an ethical, legal, and emotional perspective. He takes a particular focus in humanizing our online experience. His keynote, Humanizing Your Brand (in partnership with digital ad agency 5Loom/IMRE), has been given to top ad execs.
Often referred to as a Tech Ethicist, Polgar has become a respected and unique voice in the digcit community. He is a contributing writer with the Family Online Safety Institute, iKeepSafe, and The Good Men Project, along with appearing regularly on television to discuss issues such as tech balance, cyber ethics, and tech etiquette.
Polgar’s goal is to improve the way that people and businesses utilizing tech. This covers areas such as creativity, critical thinking, and ethical use of technology. He has interviewed notable big thinkers, such as Malcolm Gladwell, Maria Konnikova, William Powers, and Douglas Rushkoff about their own particular method of embracing technology while also having adequate mental space to think creatively and critically. Polgar recently gave a webinar to Smith College’s Executive Education program on creating adequate mental space for your Aha! moment, and did a two-part interview on creativity for Inc.com.
Polgar often partners with noted Cyber Psychologist Dr. David Greenfield, whose popularized the dopamine connection with tech use. Together they developed a widely-used Digital Distraction Test. Polgar is also the originator of the “Mental Food Plate,” a holistic way to understand our information consumption with space to think critically.
www.TechEthicist.com
@TechEthicist
dpolgar [at] gmail [dot] com
Digital Citizenship Summit 
I am interested in this conference but would it really be applicable to a 1st grade teacher?
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Yes, it certainly is! We had some feedback similar to what you are saying, John, and made sure that some of our speakers would be focusing on the concerns that would be relevant to that young demographic. We look forward to seeing you on October 3rd!
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