Nine Themes of Digital
Citizenship
Thank you to Angela for sharing this
with our team.
1. Digital Access: full electronic
participation in society.
I have a new phrase today – digital
exclusion! I have never heard this
phrase before and think it is definitely worth unpacking!
“Working toward equal digital rights
and supporting electronic access is the starting point of Digital Citizenship.
Digital exclusion makes it difficult to grow as a society increasingly using
these tools.”
I wonder how often our learners are
experiencing digital exclusion?
I wonder if we are supporting or
hampering digital exclusion with our push towards BYOD in many areas throughout
New Zealand?
I wonder if we are taking into account
our learners digital exclusion outside the classroom?
Do we consider that ‘internet access’
at home may in fact be Mum’s or Dad’s phone data which our eludes our learners?
Are we considering this with our online
home learning, or our flipped classroom models?
2. Digital Commerce: electronic
buying and selling of goods.
How are we supporting our colleagues
and learners to become “effective consumers in a new digital economy”?
What role do we have in modeling and
educating around purchasing, downloading, sharing?
Are we always abiding by the rules?
3. Digital Communication: electronic
exchange of information.
What a challenge we are faced with when
we have a smorgasbord of opportunities for communication online.
How do we empower our learners to
communicate in appropriate ways? Do we
refuse to accept txt language in class?
Do we support and encourage the use of # in some online forums? Do we teach multiple ways of
communicating? Do we still value and
include multitudes of opportunities for pen and paper transactions? Do we use skype or Google Hangout to
communicate with experts nationally and globally?
4. Digital Literacy: process of
teaching and learning about technology and the use of technology.
Information literacy skills must be
taught. We are living in a world of info-whelm where it would be increasingly
possible to get lost in the sheer volume of information available to us. We must actively engage in sessions with our
learners to ensure we are all developing our search skills, our focus, and our
dedication to sift.
How are we doing this with our
learners?
What specific skills do our learners
need?
Are we using support available in the
form of: voice searching; key word searching; searching using ‘copyright free’
searches; searching using reading age…
5. Digital Etiquette: electronic standards of
conduct or procedure.
This is a HUGE area, and in my mind,
must be part of our daily learnings.
Defining as a team, class or school what is appropriate is a start. Sticking to these definitions is the hard
part. Being digitally smart, is so much
easier than being digitally safe. What
is safe today, may not be tomorrow, so we must aim for learners who are
digitally smart and are able to transfer their learning.
How do we support our learners to make
smart choices?
What class consequences or guidelines
do we have in place?
How do we embrace incidents and learn
from them?
How are we supporting our learners to
educate and support their families in these areas?
6. Digital Law: electronic
responsibility for actions and deeds
All users must be aware of digital
law! We simply cannot take anyone else’s
work and change it, use it, or repurpose it without appropriate permissions and
considerations. From a very early age
our learners need to be aware of this, and it must be a part of our
programmes. What are the consequences
for altering someone’s writing in a share google doc? How are we building up a learner’s electronic
responsibility? And are we always modeling it?
7. Digital Rights & Responsibilities: those
freedoms extended to everyone in a digital world.
“Digital citizens have the right to
privacy, free speech, etc. Basic digital rights must be addressed, discussed,
and understood in the digital world. With these rights also come
responsibilities as well.”
From a very early age now we are likely
to be authors. We are sharing blog posts
often before we enter school at five and increasingly frequently
thereafter. We have a basic right to
share. It is the role of parents as
first teachers, educators and facilitators to support this journey, encouraging
all to share their story online, mindful of the need to face the accompanying
responsibilities. This is a challenge as
what we put online is likely to be searchable and available in some form forever…
and that is indeed, sometimes a scary thought.
I accompany this with the caution, we
cannot fear publishing, in the case that we might be embarrassed about our
‘childish ramblings’ as one teacher recently put it, at a later date. What we are sharing is our story, locked into
a timezone. What we publish at five
cannot be challenged, because that is where we were at, at that time.
8. Digital Health &
Wellness: physical and psychological well-being in a digital
technology world.
Space and place for learners to be
aware of the pitfalls of spending too much time online. I have just read an awesome article, “The
science of sleep” by Gena Tuffery
Avoiding online activity for many hours before bedtime is
essential. This is one area I am
particularly bad at. I am often online
until I feel my eyelids drooping, then head off to bed to find my mind racing
through all I have been doing, or all I still have to do. I really must have better patterns of online
behavior.
How do you control your work life balance? I would love your ideas, suggestions and
routines… Please!
9. Digital Security
(self-protection): electronic precautions to guarantee safety.
“We need to have virus protection,
backups of data, and surge control of our equipment. As responsible citizens,
we must protect our information from outside forces that might cause disruption
or harm.”
I cannot even begin to count the number
of times I have worked with educators who have forgotten passwords. Indeed, many times myself, I have stressed
over forgotten passwords and tried numerous combinations. Just as we take care of our personal
belongings, so we must take care of our online world. What is the answer to this? How do we ensure protection of our online
world while avoiding password stress?
What works for you?
For many, many years now I have worked
with Andrew Churches’ model of Respect and protect. Respect and protect self, others and
property, especially intellectual property.
I am really enjoying delving into this new twist, Respect, Educate,
Protect.
Respect, Educate and Protect (REPs)
Respect, Educate and protect yourself
and others…
Thanks again Mike Ribble, for an incredibly
thought provoking post….
Where are you at with your Digital Citizenship? Where are you heading?
