Digital Citizenship in the Classroom..

In the article Character Education for the Digital Age (Jason Ohler), this question is asked “Should we teach our children as though they have two lives, or one?” and he is referring to the idea that children should have a tech-free environment at schools and then a monitored tech life at home, two lives. Or if we should just blend the two to create one life. 

My personal thoughts on this are that educating children at school about technology and safe-use is extremely important, they spend more time at school than at home in most cases. One thing I had a hard time understanding is the following statement “the digital technology that kids use quite naturally is too expensive, problematic, or distracting to use effectively and responsibly at school. It says that issues concerning the personal, social, and environmental effects of a technological lifestyle are not important in a school curriculum, and that kids will have to puzzle through issues of cybersafety, technological responsibility, and digital citizenship without the help of teachers or the education system.” This makes me wonder what parents (or whoever said this) think they can do differently at home than teachers can do in schools. I understand that we have 20+ students to keep an eye on, but I also believe that children a lot of the time, are more open at school than they are at home.

I believe that we as responsible adults need to be creating a team mentality and working together with families to safely navigate teaching children about their online presence. It is not an easy one person job, it starts at home at a very young age but then needs to be continuously monitored and educated as the years go on, that is how we teach as though the children have one life.

Teaching digital citizenship is something tricky, there are many aspects to consider. I came across this video on YouTube, and thought it would be a great resource:

Specifically, there are 9 elements of importance and here are my thoughts on educating each one:

Digital Access: While it is believed that every family has access to the internet or technology at home, that may not always be the case, so I think it would be important to provide families with a list of places where they can go in the community (usually public libraries) and use the technology should they choose. I believe it’s also important to have an alternative plan, just in case some students don’t have access. Ensure that the information needed can be found in books or other class handouts.

Digital commerce: I think teaching students the trick of HTTP vs HTTPS would be an easy and great tool for them to ensure the website they’re using is legit and secure.

Digital communication and collaboration: I imagine that this would be one of the harder concepts to teach the children, it is vital in their digital citizenship that they are safely sharing information. I would love to show them real life experiences of other children their age and what can happen if you aren’t safe with what your sharing because I know that typically children respond better to real life than animated videos or skits.

Digital etiquette: In the classroom, I plan to use a lot of modelling with my digital etiquette. This is one of my favourite techniques for teaching, I believe that I can do this by allowing them to see my consideration for other users when using websites such as EDSBY, or other platforms where I communicate with others. We can practice using kindness and consideration through writing professional emails.

Digital fluency: I think this one goes hand in hand with digital etiquette. Reminding and educating children to be kind and thoughtful when it comes to online interaction is so important. I think a discussion about cyberbullying and it’s effects goes a long way with students.

Digital health and welfare: I think balancing screen time and online learning with in-person communication and conversation is a great start to showing kids the importance of maintaining personal relationships as well as professional ones. We as the teachers need to keep this in mind when planning lessons.

Digital law: I think it’s important to remind children that there are consequences for cyberbullying. You can do that by bringing in your local resource officer to talk to them about cyberbullying, talk to them about the dangers of sexting and what can happen if you distribute inappropriate images. Children of a certain age need to take this seriously so as a teacher you need to establish that understanding.

Digital rights & responsibilities: Teaching children the importance of online protectiveness of others is a key component to online safety. You must educate them of what it means to protect others online and in real life. I plan to give them of examples of ways they can do this. This online resource has great videos, readings and other resources to help on our education journey!

Last but certainly not least, digital security and privacy: I suppose a great way teachers can help with this is by sharing resources with students such as virus blockers and other security apps and technologies that can help them keep their devices free from viral attacks like viruses and bots!

I’d love to hear your thoughts, is there anything you think I should try (when I eventually become a teacher) to help educate students on these topics?