This week we had the pleasure of listening to Mike Ribble share his research and information to our class.

“Digital citizenship is the continuously developing norms of appropriate, responsible, and empowered technology use.” – Mike Ribble

There were many takeaways from Mike’s presentation, as well as the readings this week, but what stuck with me was the notion that it is continuously developing, as well as the idea of empowering others to do more using technology. I found myself nodding in agreement when Mike described the differences amongst students and their abilities. You will have those who use paper and pencil with no problems, and others who could show their knowledge in different ways. His question of “Are we ready as educators? Are we ready…to accept more of that and using that to be able to show how how we understand things…” really had me thinking of my own use of technology in the classroom.

Reflecting on my own teaching practices and experience, I feel as though I am treading in the shallow end when it comes to using technology in more meaningful ways with assignments. I have tried to provide opportunities for students to create videos, cartoon creations (Chatterpix is the one we’ve used the most – I’m sure there are better ones out there!), and voice recordings to share what they have learned, however I truly feel I only lightly touch on how to use that technology in an empowering way. I’m curious for those who are teaching the younger years (ie younger than middle school) on how you may be using technology in the classroom in a deeper way?

Image from Socially Savvy

Reflecting on the 9 Elements of Digital Citizenship:

As I was learning about the 9 Elements, I realized that I have seen some – but not all – of these in action both at home as a parent and in the classroom.

Digital Access: A fun little fact about me is that I happened to be on maternity leave during the crazy covid year of online learning (or at least the heaviest part of it!), so I do not have the same experience as others when it comes to navigating and pivoting to the online teaching world. However, I was still teaching when schools initially closed and it was an eye opener to the realization that not everyone has the same access to technology. Even to this day, the expectation for parents and students to be using online platforms for communication with schools (ie Edsby, School Cash Online, etc) is concerning as we need to recognize that access to technology may not be the same.  On the flip side to that, does this new policy of no (outside) technology in the classroom help ensure everyone has equal access to technology provided by the school? Would it help with the divide amongst peers as to who has newest devices or not?

Digital Commerce: For this element, I cannot say I have seen it in action in the classroom at the level I teach, however I have heard of older grades using technology to explore banking and budgeting activities. The other day at home I did see a SaskTel Commercial that made me think of this element, where it shows how technology could help them in business or future paths.

Digital Communication and Collaboration: As described on the Digital Citizenship  website, “All users need to define how they will share their thoughts so that others understand the message.” This area I have seen in the classroom a variety of ways to help students communicate, such as using google read and write, speech to text, or translating apps for students who are struggling with language or reading/writing skills.

Digital Fluency: As part of my ELA instruction, we complete an “Advertisement” unit, where students look at various advertisements they see, and we discuss the good information given, poor information given that might just try to “hook” you in, and we also spend a lot of time identifying real life vs fake – for example, in GTA you can run people over… we don’t do that in real life.

Digital Health and Welfare: I think for me, personally, this is the one area I focus a large amount of my time monitoring and discussing with students, and my own child. As posted in my previous post , I spend a disturbing amount of time on my phone for no real reason (It’s getting better, I SWEAR!). As a mom this is something I have been more and more mindful about and have been trying to reduce screen time.

Image from Digital Citizenship

Integrating Ribble’s 9 elements: 

The digital citizenship progression chart, shared by Mike Ribble, is a fantastic resource to help us understand where and how to integrate the 9 elements. While digging into the elements more, I wondered if we did have a guide like this here in Saskatchewan that I maybe just wasn’t aware about, and sure enough I found this publication from the Government of Saskatchewan with an outline for REPS from K-12. I am guessing it is not the most up to date as it refers to REPS (Respect, Educate, Protect) as Mike Ribble said was from quite a while ago.  I’d be curious to see if or when updated resources like this would become available here.

As mentioned above, my digital experience as an educator is just beginning and I am hoping to use this progression chart as a way to organize and provide instruction in ways that move beyond Safety and Protection, but ways to empower students and use the digital world as a tool.

Thanks for reading!

Kathleen