Digital Citizenship

Digital Citizenship needs to be taught at the beginning of each year before students have access to the computer and the internet.   These rules need to be frequently reviewed throughout the year.  It is important for students to understand and practice Digital Citizenship so they don’t encounter unsafe situations while on the internet.  Building a good foundation in digital citizenship will help students to become responsible online users even when no adult is there watching over them.  Teachers need to understand and practice Digital Citizenship so they can become good role models for their students.   Parents, teachers, and administrators need to work together to prepare our children for the world in which they live.  Children are surrounded with technology and are becoming more experienced at a younger age.  As a Facebook user myself, I have witnessed students as young as age seven who have Facebook accounts.  Many of these students are too young and don’t really understand the hidden dangers in social media.  Not to mention Facebook suggests a child to be 13 or older.  We need to get information on digital citizenship out to parents, informing them of the various dangers a child can run into when roaming the web or using social media.  Common Sense Media website is a great resource for teachers, parents, and administrators.  They are nonprofit and provide a variety of information about movies, video games, and technology for children.  They also provide a written curriculum that helps schools when teaching digital citizenship.  I have found this website to have a variety of useful information for parents.  Teachers can download brochures or posters on Digital Citizenship and post it to their school web pages.  

Schools need to be doing more to educate our young ones so they grow up practicing only appropriate online behavior.    I’m often time amazed at how social media is misused.  I recently read an article from the New York Times describing how the embarrassing personal revelations, inappropriate photos, and online gossip are coming back to trouble people months or years after the fact.  According to this recent survey 75% of recruiters do online research about candidates, and often reject candidates based on what they find online. The person’s online record sometimes ruins their reputation.   As adults we must be concerned about our digital reputations, and it is crucial that young people learn and understand digital appropriateness and safety.  

When we think about rules of online responsible behavior, we should think about respect.  In my classroom, I teach my students to be respectful of other students.  It is also important I teach the same concept when educating a student on proper online behavior.  Common Sense Media refers to the Internet as a community.  The rules of the Internet community should be:  share, but don’t over share, treat others kindly, and respect other student's creative work.  The best way a student can practice these rules of the internet community is through an I-Pad application that allows student to create a story or another piece of work and share it with other students in the class.  This app could be a place for students to apply their learned rules when responding to their classmate’s work.  An environment such as this would need to be monitored by a teacher.  The more exposure to online groups, the more students can apply these rules, and the more automatic these online behaviors will become.  I also have to remember that 25% of my students do not have internet access at home.  Therefore the only practice and positive internet involvement they might experience will take place at school.