In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that According to research, teaching students about online safety in the classroom is essential to assist them in growing up to be responsible and safe technology users. This is especially true if the students are taught how to manage risks rather than avoid them. Although several educational institutions prioritize imparting children with functional digital skills and one-way messages about online safety, there is potential to support a more dynamic and interactive pedagogy. 
Teaching students how to interact with others, follow rules, stay safe, learn, and so much more is a major responsibility of being an educator. Nonetheless, educators now need to instruct students on how to participate in both the real and virtual worlds. That being said, whether we like it or not, technology is a part of everyone’s life and only gets bigger every day, so it is crucial to teach our students how to be responsible digital citizens and keep themselves safe. Since most of our students already use every social media platform known to man, it is essential that we teach them how to be responsible digital citizens. After all, when they leave the classroom, no one will be keeping an eye on them to keep them safe—they will have to learn how to do this on their own.
9 Digital Citizenship Elements by Mike Ribble include:
https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2015/09/embracing-9-themes-digital-citizenship
1.Digital Access: Acknowledging that not all communities may have equitable access to technology and online services.
2.Digital commerce is concerned with the security measures taken when conducting business online.
3.Electronic information exchange is a component of digital communication and collaboration. For some students, technology gives them a voice in society.
4.Digital etiquette refers to the practice of considering other people when utilizing the internet.
5.Digital fluency is the ability to understand and use technology. separating reliable online information from unreliable information.
6.Digital health and welfare refers to the mental and physical health of interacting with the digital world.
7.Digital law refers to laws and regulations pertaining to the internet.
8.Digital Rights and Responsibilities: Online conditions and liberties are met.
9. Digital security and privacy are the electronic safety measures we implement.
As stated in Mike Ribble’s article Nine Elements, there are nine components to digital citizenship (see above). It is our online personas and the ways in which we decide to responsibly represent ourselves. We must keep in mind that in today’s world, technology has become indispensable to lifelong learning.
Since my degree would be in elementary education, I checked the Saskatchewan Curriculum and its relationship to digital citizenship. Respect for oneself and others, as well as understanding and respecting the community around us, are topics of much discussion in many subject areas. Take, for instance, kindergarten health outcome USCK.1 or grade 2 social studies outcome IN2.1. While it is possible to apply and teach these concepts in both the physical and digital worlds, most connections in lower grades are focused on the former.
Health education is one of the subjects that offers the greatest opportunities for connections to digital citizenship. The health education outcomes for grade six, USC6.1, USC6.2, USC6.5, and USC6.6, are all related to how people can cultivate a positive sense of self and others in a variety of settings. Digital fluency, digital etiquette, digital communication and collaboration, and rights and responsibilities can all be linked to that alone. There is a connection between digital communication and collaboration and how students use technology to have appropriate conversations with one another. Giving students the chance to learn more in the classroom and expand their knowledge on subjects they are interested in will help them develop digital fluency and equip them to use and critically think about the information they are given and receive. The appropriateness of one’s interactions with others in an online setting is referred to as digital etiquette. When using technology as a tool, there are expectations and understandings of what can and cannot be done with it. These relate to rights and responsibilities. Since the health curriculum is designed to safeguard users’ integrity and wellbeing on all kinds of websites and programs, it also has connections to digital health and welfare.
In my future classroom, I will start teaching and talking to students about digital citizenship from the beginning of the school year so that they know what is expected of them and how to navigate the tech world. I will also give rules that students has to follow in class while using technology and also work together with the educational assistant in the classroom( if there is one) to ensure students are on task always and not browsing sites like Youtube instead of reading or playing educational games as assigned .
I also want to be able to begin teaching digital citizenship to my students at an early age. They can use technology to enhance their learning in a safe and efficient manner in this way. Educating students on basic skills like making secure passwords, distinguishing between authentic and fraudulent content, identifying potential scams, and resisting the allure of attention-grabbing content are just a few examples. Every student can benefit from and enjoy a plethora of online learning resources! But we are not preparing them for the future if we do not teach them how to use them appropriately and how to “be” in the digital world.
Ribble, M. (2017). Nine Elements. Digital Citizenship. Using Technology Appropriately. https://www.digitalcitizenship.net/nine-elements.html. Retrieved: 2024 June 9.
Saskatchewan.ca. (ND). Saskatchewan Curriculum. https://www.edonline.sk.ca/webapps/moe-curriculum-BB5f208b6da4613/. Retrieved: 2024 June 9.