Digital Citizenship

“Students need to be educated on how to be good citizens of their country and what their rights and responsibilities are as members of society. The same issues need to be addressed with regard to the emerging digital society, so that students can learn how to be responsible and productive members of that society.” 

-Mike Ribble, Digital Citizenship in Schools

Great teachers are teachers that teach their students more than just the classroom material. Teachers are responsible for being great role models for their students for life outside the classroom, and they play an essential part in shaping students to be great citizens. This is information I’ve always known, however, before my “Technology for Educators” class at NCSU, I hadn’t thought about the role teachers play in shaping students to be great digital citizens as well. It seems as if social media and technology that is typically used at home is something separate from what happens at school. However, that is not the case. If teachers are responsible for teaching students to be responsible citizens, that includes the students’ online citizenship.

Digital Citizenship is about teaching students to actively, responsibly, and effectively participate in the online world. Many opportunities open up for students when they have access to technology, are introduced to effective technological tools, and are allowed to experiment/create using technology. Check out this website that encourages teachers to recognize the importance of technology in the lives students, especially those in low income areas, and gives tips on how to build students’ digital citizenship: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-05-19-what-a-decade-of-education-research-tells-us-about-technology-in-the-hands-of-underserved-students

While the positives of technology are endless, teaching digital citizenship means not ignoring the possible harm that comes with technology. Students are often tempted to misuse technology in ways that are harmful for themselves and for others. A prime example of this is cyberbullying. When asked to create an online digital citizenship “poster”, I immediately knew that I wanted my topic to be cyberbullying because of the amount of students it affects across the globe. Follow this link to view my poster on cyberbullying and how it relates to digital citizenship: https://www.smore.com/0nm6g

Here is a video, also included in my poster, that perfectly explains digital citizenship

Students were the target audience of my cyberbullying poster, but I also could have targeted parents or other teachers and still met the goal of bringing awareness to this issue and providing resources to limit the effect it has. I plan to use presentations, such as this one, to teach my students, their parents, and fellow teachers about being great digital citizens. Reading over my classmates digital citizenship poster only confirmed the effectiveness of these types of presentations because they were easy to read, interactive, and informative. Because I will be teaching elementary school, I will need to make presentations that are even more interactive and allow students a chance to practice positive habits, such as lifting each other up on social media, finding educational resources to expand knowledge, and using the internet to share knowledge. This website is a great example of an educational resource for digital citizenship that also incorporates fun games that children would enjoy: https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-passport 

Presentations and websites targeting young students are tools that I plan to use in my future classroom, and I would encourage other teachers to do the same. Students should be learning how to be proper digital citizens because their online world presence is just as important as their real world presence. The digital world offers endless learning opportunities if, and only if, it is used responsibly.