I define digital citizenship as the norms of suitable behavior to interact with others globally via the use of technology. With digital tools becoming more ubiquitous each day I see an overlap of the elements of citizenship and digital citizenship; the skills for one can and should be applied to the other. Ribble (2015) and Curran (2012) both share similar ideas that digital citizenship extends far beyond the physical barriers of a classroom. The mission at my campus is to get our students college, career, and world ready. If I am not teaching them the skills necessary to function in a digital world, then I am failing in getting my students world ready. During my time as a classroom teacher I have seen more of a reactive approach than a proactive approach to digital citizenship. As Ohler (2012) mentions, assigning consequences for cyberbullying or other violations of digital citizenship is addressing the symptoms, not the issues themselves. It is time for this to change. Ribble (2015) defines the element of digital literacy as "the process of teaching and learning about technology and the use of technology" (p. 35). Digital literacy is particularly important to me based on the experiences I had with my students this past school year. Many people are under the impression that his generation of students has an innate digital expertise; this impression leads us to believe that it is not necessary to address digital literacy in our classrooms. The problem is that when students fail to use digital tools properly, teachers (myself included) tend to see that as defiance and it escalates into a behavior issue. This past school year, my 7th graders were fascinated with Fortnite. Any opportunity they got, they were watching YouTube videos, sharing their own personal recordings, and bypassing firewalls to play on their school-issued devices. They could do all of this, yet they could not save and upload a file to Schoology. My initial thought was that they were being defiant. Surely if you can use your digital tools to access a game, you can do a simple save and upload. I was wrong; my students genuinely struggled with this. I came to learn that they had these skills for Fortnite because an older relative taught them and then they were teaching their peers. I did not teach them how to save and upload; I assumed that by 7th grade this tech savy generation ought to know this basic skill. It was up to me to bring this abstract concept of saving documents on a cloud and make it more concrete for them, but I failed to do so. In the long run I would like to address and teach all 9 elements of digital citizenship but will begin with focusing on digital literacy. I will conduct small group lessons with students in my intervention period and then have them show mastery by creating "how-to" videos. These videos will then be shared in a reference folder on Schoology, so all other students can have 24/7 access to them. From there I will take a diagnostic approach to determine which students need more practice with different aspects of digital literacy and use these Pinterest boards as a reference point for additional lessons. One element at a time, I will do my best to get my students college, career, and world ready. References:
Curran, M. (2012, June). iCitizen: Are you a socially responsible digital citizen. Paper presented at the International Society for Technology Education Annual Conference, San Antonio, TX. Retrieved from (PDF: icitizen_paper_M_Curran.pdf ) Ohler, J. (2012). Digital citizenship means character education for the digital age. Education Digest: Essential Readings Condensed for Quick Review, 77(8), 14-17. (PDF: Ohler_Digital_citizenship_means_character_education_2012.pdf) Ribble, M. (2015). Digital citizenship in schools: Nine elements all students should know. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.
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