Digital citizenship is “the continuously developing norms of appropriate, responsible, and empowered technology use” (taken from Digitalcitizenship.net). It’s an approach and skill set that can empower and open options in an ever-changing world. The way I see it, other than teaching certain skills, we need to teach also how they connect to other cultural, social, and other topics, and especially to learn how to learn new skills. Ed-tech can make this connectivity open even more doors.
Digital citizenship and the curriculum
Digital citizenship can be embedded in so many parts of the SK Curriculum. I’m a strong advocate for cross-curricular lessons. When we teach things connectedly, with other topics, skills, and the students’ interests, we can have a more natural understanding of what we learn.
For example, the SK curriculum identifies at Career education, grade 6, under cross-curricular education and “developing thinking” themes, that “Learners construct knowledge to make sense of the world around them” (Taken from this link in the SK curriculum).
Integrating digital citizenship in my future classroom
Integrating digital citizenship in my future classroom will require us to be curious cats. It means to learn the above and more, adjust, and be flexible and curious to make it work in an ever-changing environment.
We can have guidelines to help us through, which is a huge help, but we also need to keep an eye on the class’s needs and how we can make it work best in our own environment. To do so, I think it will be helpful to focus on 2 things mainly.
- the students’ needs
- the students’ interests.
The guidelines can be the 9 elements of digital citizenship:
Ribble’s nine elements of digital citizenship
Ribble’s nine elements of digital citizenship can provide us with guidelines for how to embed digital citizenship in our classroom and more. One of the elements discusses digital access. This one is an issue I have had to work around, as I taught over zoom in northern communities close to home that has limited wifi access. I was a guest in the class that day, and the grade level was pretty young. I was mostly in touch with the teacher who collected the students’ zoom info and made an “online classroom”. The biggest thing was troubleshooting during class and being flexible with students. It was helpful to have more adults in the class, so one can admit students in, be in touch with parents who tried to log in and had issues, and so on, and one was teaching the subject. It was also helpful to have the class’ teacher with us, as her relationship with the students helped overcome the online gap we were missing in communication. This included knowing which students need more help and approach them often (they may be muted and not know- so the teacher knew to keep an eye on them). There is so much to navigate through, but I think with flexibility and collaboration, it can be done and even open new doors. One new door was reaching communities I could not have made it to otherwise, because of the distance and winter driving conditions.
Digital citizenship has many elements that can be embedded in the curriculum, from commerce, law, health, collaboration, and more. If we see the connection of it to core competencies and content, it can be a way to teach in a relevant and interesting way. Like planing a new seed every time, and seeing how the plants connect in one big network of gardens.
What do you think of digital citizenship? Let me now if the comments!
Yours,
Maya
Hey Maya,
it was great reading your post and you brought up a lot of really great points, particularly when it comes to digital access, and how this is something that is not always equal for everyone. As well, in EDTC 400, we have talked a lot about the importance of being a good digital citizen and how as teachers it is important that we begin to teach students how to be good digital citizens themselves. Kids are moving online at a younger and younger age, and with that, comes the need for them to learn about privacy and safety online.
Once again, thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Caleb
Thanks so much Caleb, appreciate your message! Students sure go online at younger and younger ages- some of my students know more than me about online tools! This class has been a huge help in using online tools in the classroom and cultivating digital awareness and citizenship!
Hey Maya! This is a really great post. I appreciate how you are always thinking of the students first and consider what their needs & interests are in relation to each topic. Digital citizenship is something I wasn’t even really aware of until EDTC 300, but I sure have learned a lot since then! I definitely think teaching about digital citizenship is something our students’ need, as they are growing up in a world of technology & social media and deserve the skills required to navigate that properly. Just wanted to let you know that it seems like your keyboard may have been acting a little funky, as there’s some mixed up/missing letters in some words, especially in the second paragraph of your post. Might just want to give it a quick read through & edit those little errors 🙂 Fantastic post though, Maya! Good luck to you in this last week of classes!
Thanks so much, Sarah, appreciate it all!
I have not been aware of digital citizenship prior to EDTC300 as well (was more familiar with the scare tactics when it comes to the digital world). This is all so interesting to explore. Thank you also for the spelling note, I’m on it! I installed “Grammarly” and it seems to make more damage than good in undermarking parts of words and fixing them into the words it suggested on top. A lesson for me to not blindly rely on technology! It seems to have marked “check” on what’s not checked and I also changed the “correct spelling automatically” to not automatic so I will remember to go over it properly. May need to uninstall and install again if it keeps acting up. I was wondering why some things were off when they should have been ok, but didn’t see it was everywhere! I always struggle with new technologies, even just extensions, so your feedback this semester is so helpful, in big and small issues alike – and I appreciate it very much! Honestly- it’s been so great to have you this semester!
Hope you have a colorful day,
Maya