Last week’s EDTC 300 lecture discussed the digital citizenship, specifically Ribble’s nine elements of digital citizenship, further.
The Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship
Digital Access: How do we access technology? Where do we find resources in modern society? Digital Access is responsible for the technology we can access today. If you have a phone, a computer, a laptop, a projector, a PlayStation, or any devices, then you have digital access. For a classroom, students have digital access to online sources such as video lessons, the course website (like UR Courses), and more. For Educators, they have digital access to making lesson plans and make it accessible for students online, communicating with other educators and building relationships. Digital access also helps educators to connect with students and their parents digitally.
Grade 11s have a subject of Media Studies. This is a great subject to start talking about digital citizenship in depth. If anything, Media Studies should start at a younger grade. The outcome MS20.1 (Investigate the history of mass media and its role in society) falls under digital access in a way that we get to learn about mass media and why we can access these medias.
Digital Commerce: This element talks about the digital buying and selling of goods, the safety of buying and selling goods, and the various career paths for students. Digital commerce is a huge element in digital citizenship because of eCommerce. Sites like Amazon, Shein, and eBay are types of eCommerce. For students and educators, this is a great way to set up student’s career path, giving students a head starts to think about their future.
Media Studies is such a great subject to teach students as the outcomes MS20.5 and MS20.8 discuss about the role and power of marketing and advertising and researching career opportunities (in media related industries). RW9.2 Outcome for Social Studies 9 talks about the importance of trade and transportation. This is also a great way for Mathematics educators to teach students about the market and computations.
Digital Communication and Collaboration: People communicate with others through social media a handful number of times. Digital communication has been a huge help for society since we can share ideas and communicate much faster than meeting up in one place and discuss. We can even communicate to those who are living in different countries or provinces. It has also made collaboration easy since, as stated, we can just discuss online rather than meeting up in person.
The outcome DR9.1 in Social Studies talks about the challenges of obtaining information about the past and RW9.3 talks about the technologies of the past. This is a great way to compare the technology of the past and the current society in terms of digital communication and collaboration.
Digital Etiquette: Being aware of what we view or post online is a digital etiquette. I feel like this is one of the most important to teach students since this society is becoming more digital as time goes on. The conversion of lessons to digital has been greatly accelerated when COVID-19 happened.
Social Studies 9, 10, 20, and 30 focuses mainly on studying societies. This is a great way to talk about the digital etiquette and its impacts in small versus huge societies.
Digital Fluency: This is the element that talks about how well we know the digital world. Are we updated with all the famous apps and their function? Are we aware of the data that are used when we use an application or visit a site?
This is a great element to be discussed in a computer science class. Computer science classes requires students to be fluent enough of their digital presence that they can easily learn the codes and how they work, as well as using these codes to create something such as apps, games, or even a calculator. Both computer science 20 and 30 curriculums do not really accommodate digital fluency in their outcomes. It will be helpful if it is included.
Digital Health and Welfare: Although this world is becoming more digital, we have to think about our physical and psychological well-beings. For educators, this is a way to teach our students how to keep a healthy boundary between online and real world. For students, this is a great way to learn about the benefits of becoming digital and how to take care of our physical and mental well-being when consuming digital sources.
I think this is a great element to teach in Physical education since the subject also talks about our psychological well-being affects our physical well-being. W5 in Wellness 10 tackles about self-awareness, and self-management to optimize well-being of self and others. This is a great outcome to also talk about digital citizenship, specifically digital health and welfare as wellness is not only about the physical part of the body.
Digital Law: This element is also important, and I think it relates to digital rights and responsibility as well as digital security and privacy. For educators, this is a great opportunity to teach that the digital law has rules as well that we should be mindful of. For students, this is a great way to learn and to be knowledgeable of the rules and regulations of the digital world. These laws protect us from online dangers such as cyberbullying, scam websites, harmful websites, and more. It also teaches us to be mindful of what we share in digital world.
I think this is also a great topic to talk about in Social Studies, Computer Science, and even in Media Studies.
Digital Rights and Responsibility: As digital citizens, we are tasked to be responsible of what we do online. For educators, we can help students to be mindful and be responsible of how they access the online world. For students, this is a great opportunity to learn what to do and not to do in the digital world
Media Studies 20 has a very great outcome MS20.4 that tackles the role of ethics, rights and responsibilities in the production and consumption of mass media. The outcome indicators talk about the relationship between rights and responsibilities, the elements of digital citizenship, and analyzing the rights and responsibilities of a Digitial citizen when consuming media. Although it is specific for media consumption, this is a great steppingstone for the general digital literacy, specifically for rights and responsibilities of a digital citizen.
Digital Security and Privacy: In my opinion, one of the most important elements of digital citizenship is digital security and privacy. As society becomes more digital, cyber-attacks are becoming more relevant. For educators, we have to be mindful of these viruses, cyber-attacks, malwares, ransomwares, scammers, and more to promote these safety precautions to students.
I think this is not talked about much in SK Curriculum. This will be a great addition to Computer Science and Social Studies as these subjects tackle a more advanced digital literacy. CS20-CS2 talks about the “impacts of information technologies on privacy, including security practices.” This a great outcome to teach about digital security and Privacy.
As a future mathematics teacher, it does not hurt to talk about safely use of online resources during classes. I think every educator, regardless of the subject they are teaching, should talk about these digital elements as they are extremely important in this modern world.