(InfoQ, 2021)

 

The subject of digital citizenship offers educators and learners a unique set of challenges and opportunities. It is complex because it is not just skills but practices. Skills are the technical aspect of the tool and practice is how it can be utilised with a specific  goal (Bennett and Folley, 2018). The work of John Hattie found that the mere presence of online and digital tools in itself does not lead to a statistical benefit to learning beyond 0,29, short of the point of statistical significance of 0,4 (Hattie, 2015). Therefore it is the intentionality and method of delivery in the curriculum from educators that is vital in ensuring that digital learning is relevant and effective.

There are many reasons why digital citizenship must hold an embedded place in curriculum, not least of which, is that the children of K-5 and beyond are already connected digital citizens. This includes personal digital environments and access to content and also being part of the many aspects that make up the school’s digital learning environment. We now live in what many call the digital age with digital connectivism now taking a prominent place in the increasing emergence of what are termed ’21st century skills’.

Just as transdisciplinary skills help to inform children to be more successful citizens and learners in the physical world, so they may do so in the digital world. In fact it is a prerequisite of being a responsible digital citizen that one must at first have the skills to be a responsible citizen in the more traditional sense of the word. It can be argued that increasingly, in modern times, citizenship is actually in itself digital (Krutka and Carpenter, 2017).

As connection online now permeates into most areas of learning, so it should not be thought of as a standalone subject. Rather, it is important to embed digital citizenship standards in unit plans across subjects in order to create authentic contextual links and capitalise on digital citizenship learning opportunities that are already present across different subject unit planners in the curriculum. It may be assessed within authentic formative and summative assessments just as it is embedded within real life scenarios.