Digital Citizenship

According to a video on the class website (author unknown) Digital Citizenship consists of the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with regard to technology use. Nine elements that describe it are
1. Digital Access (full electronic participation in society)
2. Digital Commerce (buying and selling online)
3. Digital Communication (electronic exchange of information)
4. Digital Literacy (knowing when and how to use technology)
5. Digital Etiquette
6. Digital Law (legal rights and restrictions governing technology use)
7. Rights and Responsibilities
8. Health and Wellness
9. Digital Security

Wagner states that the 7 Skills Students need for their future are
1. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
2. Collaboration across Networks and Leading by Example
3. Agility and Adaptability
4. Initiative and Entrepreneurialism
5. Effective Oral and Written Communication
6. Accessing and Analyzing Information
7. Curiosity and Imagination

Digital Citizenship helps all of Wagner’s seven skills students need for their futures, but it particularly helps Collaboration across Networks, Effective Oral and Written Communication, and Accessing and Analyzing Information. Teaching students these skills is something that I believe can be done in content classes while also teaching them their subject matter. For example, I am student-teaching with three different classes: two 12th grade government classes and one 11th grade US History class. Due to our severe lack of textbooks (which I really prefer not to use in the first place) the students use netbooks (given to us by Google – thanks!) to find their material and also to collaborate with their peers by working on projects together using Google docs and sharing their material through “the cloud”.

I also think that having government students maintain a blog for that class may be a good idea. By 12th grade many if not most of them have the computer skills required to write and post a blog. And I feel like it’s an excellent way to have them learn computer skills while still incorporating writing (which is one of Wagner’s 7 ideas but also the skill that our school district is trying to have us focus our attention to more frequently in our social studies classes). This could also allow students to have the freedom of creativity to go off and find news articles, YouTube videos, other blogs, and other resources necessary to get their information ant then to interpret this information on their own. This is Wagner’s sixth idea. Too often I see students worried about thinking or saying the wrong thing and they won’t even try to think for themselves. Yet I see them posting things freely online every day and I’m hoping that this will help bridge the gap with students and allow them to see that school is not a separate entity with little relevance in their lives after it’s over.

Information about etiquette, responsibilities, and copyright law would be presented at the beginning of the term and could be assessed throughout the term. I feel strongly about having students go out and do things on their own rather than rely solely on their teachers for information. The internet is about access to information and telling them about it is far less effective than having them focus on learning about the internet by and for themselves. Younger students need teachers who will hold their hand more throughout this process and let them know everything about what is and isn’t important. I wanted to focus on how this affects me and my students. I’m aware that this article may sound very different coming from an Elementary School teacher.

• Posted in: Uncategorized ♦ Week Two
• Tagged: Digital Citizenship, Week Two