Week #7 Reflection: Teaching Digital Citizenship

Giving the younger generation a clear understanding of the opportunities and risks of the digital age has become an educational and public policy goal of governments and organizations around the world. One of the emerging consensus in digital citizenship education is that the more ICT literate children are, the more they will benefit from the Internet and the better equipped they will be to avoid and deal with cyber risks. Schools and governments play an essential role in preparing students for digital citizenship in the era of globalization.

In the article “Digital Citizenship During a Global Pandemic: Moving Beyond Digital Literacy,” the authors mentioned that everyone, including administrators, teachers, parents, and students, forms a digital society. I agree with that. For example, teachers can promote and model digital citizenship and responsibilities:

1. Teachers can demonstrate and teach the safe, legal and ethical use of digital information technologies, including respect for copyright, intellectual property rights and documentation sources;
2. Teachers can provide equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources to meet the diverse needs of all learners through learner-centered strategies;
3. Teachers can promote and demonstrate digital etiquette and social responsibility related to the use of information and technology;
4. Teachers can develop and model cultural and global awareness in students through the use of digital-age communication and collaboration tools to communicate and collaborate with students from different cultures.

Administrators can ensure and demonstrate digital citizenship as the following:

1. Promote, model and develop policies for the secure, legal and ethical use of digital information technologies;
2. Promote and demonstrate the use of technology and information for responsible socialization;
3. Use contemporary communication and collaboration tools to demonstrate and promote understanding and engagement on diverse cultural and global issues.

The digital leadership of school administrators plays a crucial role in the process of school digitalization. The value cognition and application attitude of school administrators towards the digital transformation of education are the key factors affecting their digital leadership.

Parents can promote and demonstrate digital citizenship as the following: 

1. Teaching children to find a healthy balance between screen time and other activities promotes physical and mental health;
2. Educate children on how to protect personal information and stay safe online;
3. Help children understand the persistence of their digital behaviours and how those behaviours affect their online identities;
4. Promote children’s positive and respectful online interactions
5. Provide children with tools to identify cyberbullying and hate speech, guide them on how to systematically combat hate speech and encourage positive, civil communication;
6. Teaches critical thinking skills for evaluating and accessing digital sources of information.

Under the macro decision and overall guidance of the government, it is implemented in collaboration with the school, the community and the family. In addition to decision-making, regulation and review, the government can also form collaborative mechanisms among relevant departments, organize or support various projects or thematic activities, and provide constructive forces for the further advancement of digital citizenship education. Through home-school interaction and parent training, parents are expected to further play their role as digital citizenship educators. On the basis of traditional citizenship, digital citizens have integrated the new connotation of the network information age, but they are still citizens of the state and the law in essence, and national identity, law-abiding and social responsibility are still their core qualities. Teaching digital citizenship helps ensure that students think critically, behave safely, engage responsibly, and maintain their health in the digital world.

In the era of artificial intelligence, the cultivation of digital literacy should start from a young age and gradually progress at all stages of education to lay the necessary foundation for adapting to future study, work and life. It is the responsibility of the education system to enhance the digital literacy of the whole people, and schools and educational institutions at all levels should attach great importance to it. As the main place of education and the cradle of cultivating high-quality innovative talents in the future, schools should take the initiative to popularize the new educational environment under the digital condition, consolidate the foundation support, popularize the new teaching mode under the digital condition, deepen the classroom reform, improve the digital literacy of managers, strengthen leadership, and enhance the digital literacy of teachers and students. In line with the development trend of the digital age, the education system will play a fundamental role in improving the digital literacy of the whole people and help build a learning society.