Frame Your Digital Identity

“One shocking detail about sharing content online is that the Internet doesn’t discriminate, it doesn’t make distinctions between what’s done for a bad or good cause;  it saves them all and leaves a trail behind: a footprint”

(​​Techpremier Media Limited, 2022)

After reading Ribble’s Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship it is evident that there is a need for educators to educate about and promote digital citizenship in their classrooms. There is a continuing and unpreventable rise of technology and digital platforms being implemented and used, therefore educators must ensure students are creating their digital citizenship safely and appropriately in a way they, and others, can benefit from. Students look up to those around them, therefore having a safe environment where peers demonstrate ongoing digital leadership will promote more student “responsibility and confidence to develop as leaders who will leave meaningful impacts in the lives” (Nina W, 2019) of those around them. The climbing use of social media among the younger generations demonstrates a need for a call to action to occur.

Educators play a vital role in a child’s life as they are often deemed as their role models or someone they look up to as an example to follow. Negative environments typically reinforce negative outcomes, therefore educators must ensure they are providing students with opportunities to work towards “building positive digital experiences” and “participate in a manner for the common good” (Mike Ribble, 2017) on the unforgetting and unforgiving web. The internet has enabled a way for people to connect to the world and although this can be beneficial for varying reasons, it can also lead to devastation or dehumanization. Using technology such as “social media services, media sharing platforms, webmail services, and digital apps” inappropriately may result in “long-term negative effects” (​​Techpremier Media Limited, 2022) because of the ever-lasting memory the internet holds. In relation, if someone were to post negatively about another, it could potentially affect one’s professional reputation in the future. This ultimately indicates each person’s online reputation is inevitably connected to their real-life reputation that could damage particular aspects of one’s life such as their career, relationships, and more (​​Techpremier Media Limited, 2022).

To deepen your understanding of negative digital citizenship is looking through Amanda Todd’s life-ending experience and ongoing story with social media at a young age. Only recently the trial begins for a Dutch man accused of extorting and harassing Amanda Todd and many other adolescent children. Amanda’s mother, Carol Todd, has been a positive leader in addressing bullying, especially on social media in memory of her daughter and a way to promote a change toward positive digital citizenship from the moment one decides to connect online. Amanda is a prime example of how “vulnerability has increased” (Techpremier Media Limited, 2022) on social platforms, specifically of adolescents. This particular case demonstrates the desperate need of parents and educators to teach children that “our actions have consequences to others” (Mike Ribble, 2017), but that there is still continuous support if a mistake were to occur.

Amanda Todd Resources:

• Amanda Todd Legacy
• “Dark Cloud: The High Risk of Cyberbullying”
• “Sextortion of Amanda Todd” (The Fifth Estate)“
• “Stalking Amanda Todd – The Man in the Shadows” (The Fifth Estate)
• “Web of Lies” Discover ID channel
• Sextortion: The Hidden Pandemic

Educators must demonstrate and provide insight to students on how they can form a positive digital awareness and begin to create positive digital citizenship of themselves. Well-educated students are more likely to “make good decisions online” (Mike Ribble, 2017) and connect to others through the various new technologies being created respectfully. Promoting digital literacy within a classroom provides the students with the opportunity to explore “effective ways to quickly find information and utilize” what they are enduring, and “knowledge, skills, and resources to succeed”. Further developing digital identity includes an educator obtaining “free access in the community or providing resources for the home” (Nina W, 2019), ensuring students are using digital technology safely, but this is not always possible. Educators should obtain “free access in the community or provide resources for the home after the development of digital fluency” (Nina W, 2019) as ongoing learners. A key component to understand while experiencing digital identity is that it is essential in “protecting others both online and in the real world” (Mike Ribble, 2017) because of the reason that everything portrays a visual representation of one’s reputation. 

For a digital identity to be created and a change to occur, digital citizenship must become “incorporated into their routine school life,” while the content is visibly “relevant to behaviour in any venue, real or virtual, digital or analog, local or global” (Jason Ohler, 2011) to the students. Students should understand the fast-changing online world by experiencing the “use technology, but also question it” (Jason Ohler, 2011) during the process. Instruction and curriculum content can stem from integrating the vast technology students are surrounded by. Incorporating “creative strategies” (Nina W, 2019) is essential when learning about digital citizenship because it encourages students to stay in touch with the virtual and real life worlds they experience on a daily basis. 

This can be successful through: 

• Demonstrating a learning project 
• Connecting, sharing and inspiring peers in a positive digital way
• Playing digital educational games 
• Watch educational videos
• Read educational information
• Opportunities to experience student-appropriate websites and gain insight about why “refraining from posting personal information about themselves and others” (Nina W, 2019) is important 
• Hosting/ participating in a live tweet
• Creating a hashtag for content material
• Having platforms for students and the teacher to digitally connect

Education is continuously expanding “beyond the classroom to a world within keyboards and html codes”

(Nina W, 2019)

Digital citizenship can be a cross-curricular tool for students to demonstrate a learning project or play educational games to use the internet to become more educated and develop positive digital fluency. The Grade 5 Health Education outcome asks students to “analyze the connections between personal identity and personal well-being, and establish strategies to develop and support a positive self-image” (Saskatchewan Curriculum), which can happen through a digital platform. Students can begin to “investigate knowledge and information about self-image,” and the reputation they portray on various digital platforms. Students should “reflect on self-image as “the way you see yourself as a result of what you believe about your appearance, abilities, and character” (Saskatchewan Curriculum) to develop a deeper understanding of the effects of not being able to control what is online unless you do not post what you do not want on the internet. To further understand digital self-image, students can “discuss the influence of self and others (e.g., family expectations, family values and beliefs, culture, religion” (Saskatchewan Curriculum) on particular aspects of an individual’s life. Likely, every student will not have a device at home to have digital access, therefore educators must discuss how “privilege, lack of privilege, and/or unexamined privilege (e.g., levels of education, wealth, access to resources) distort our views of others, limit our potential, and impact our own and others’ identities” to promote a safe and accepting learning environment for the students to be present within. Examining various digital media with the students will help students accurately identify is a “source is reliable” (Saskatchewan Curriculum), while providing real-life examples like Amanda Todd, Abbie, and Emma’s stories will help students to refine various “misunderstandings and/or misconceptions” they might have and understand the “effects of stereotyping and discrimination on self and others” (Saskatchewan Curriculum) and their personal actions. The connection to real-life examples brings special meaning to students because it is something that can relate to their personal life. This connection enables students to better develop and “ask questions for a deeper understanding” (Saskatchewan Curriculum) of what they are learning. A good activity for this outcome could include student having a assigned hashtag on a social media app such as Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.