Digital citizenship and its concerns for students

Nowadays that we are living in the technology era, it is crucial to get familiar with terms and expressions

in this domain as well. “Digital citizenship” is a phrase that I was not familiar with before my EC&I

830 class.

Digital citizenship refers to “the practice of defining the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with

regard to technology use”, according to Hedges (2016). Just like any other types of citizenship, there are

several issues and concerns in digital citizenship that divides appropriate and ethical use of digital world

from the misusing of it. These are how Marlborough Public Schools specify them. You can read it in

detail here.

As other school subjects that parents are not supposed to be  knowledgeable and professional at,

digital related issued and citizenship are not exceptions. Technology specialists are required to instruct

students how to use or keep themselves secure in the digital atmosphere which can be called “Digital

Literacy”. Tips of Sara Wanasek on digital literacy can be helpful for educators.

Some concerns of the users of online world can be summarized as: cyber bullying, digital footprint,

plagiarism and copyright and digital addiction.

Since digital harms or benefits can directly affect

children’s emotionally, physically and socially, not only

schools and educators but also parents are required to educate themselves regarding this issue to be able

to protect their kids and youngsters more against the hazards of misuse of digital zone. So let’s join

Parent University.

Whether to like it or not, digital technology is surrounding us and our children, so rather than taking a

guard towards it, why not to hug it by increasing our digital literacy to experience good digital

citizenship?