Responsible Practice
The awareness of digital learning spaces and design of a DLE needs to be done with a robust understanding of digital citizenship skills and attitudes. Digital environments afford new learning opportunities embracing 21st Century skills, where educators model positive behaviours and set boundaries to promote positive behaviours or attitudes.
Responsible practice in a DLE is demonstrated through a combination of Learning 2.0 skills (Wheeler, 2015), 21st Century skills and Digital Citizenship skills.
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Learning 2.0 – A phrase used by Wheeler (2015) when explaining the move from passive to active, individual to social and consumer to producer and refers to Federman’s (2012, as cited in Wheeler, 2015) 4 C’s of Connection, Context, Complexity and Connotation.
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21st Century skills – Different constructs for the teaching of key skills for the 21st Century have been adopted across the world selecting different skills and attributes and establishing them as learning outcomes for students in primary and secondary schools (Lamb et al, 2012, p. 4). Australian Education Ministers have identified these as the development of broader skills in areas such as social interaction, cross-disciplinary thinking and the use of digital media, as well as in areas such as citizenship and contribution to community (Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians, MCEETYA, 2008, p. 5). This has been embraced by primary schools in a variety of ways, such as the 4Cs of creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking (Anzac Park, n.d.). Equally in America schools are utilising 21st Century frameworks for student learning:
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What is Digital citizenship?
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Digital citizenship is not soley about safety online (Ribble, 2011, p. 46) but encompasses a wide range of behaviours, according to Lindsay & Davis (2012, p. 99) these predominantly concern relating to people. There are many different models to investigate.
The Enlightened Digital Citizenship model proposed by Lindsay & Davis (2012, p. 99) offers five areas of awareness that act as filters to determine appropriate behaviours in different situations.
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The Nine elements of digital citizenship created by Ribble (2011, pp. 16-42) provide a framework for understanding the technology issues that are important to educators.
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The Council of Europe (2019) recognise digital citizenship as three online states; Being, Well-Being and Rights. These are further divided into ten domains.
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What does this look like in the school space? Students are using or have been exposed to technology before they even start school where their primary source of digital citizenship attitudes and skills are their parents/caregivers. Ribble (2010, as cited in Ribble, 2011, p. 46) asserts that digital citizenship should be a part of the curriculum beginning in kindergarten and building each year. It is important to embed the ideas of digital citizenship into the educational process (Ribble & Park, 2020) to provide a foundation for educators so that they in turn can help the students to be effective, collaborative users of technology. Equally, ‘Digieducators’ should be customising, monitoring, planning and facing their fears (Lindsay & Davis, 2010) to empower student-centred learning to teach digital citizenship effectively in a rapidly changing digital landscape. Students practicing safety, responsible communication and respectful collaboration develop effective learning habits through digital fluency skills used whilst navigating the technologies available. This supports the International Society for Technology in Education (2018) standards indicating:
- Educational administrators need to promote, model and establish policies for safe, legal and ethical use of digital information and technology
- Educators need to develop and model understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools
- Students should demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.
A number of agencies have offered digital citizenship programs that could be personalised to a specific school setting. Investigate further by clicking on the images below.
Click on the image for further readings and resources on this topic or go to the ‘Resources’ section of this web guide and select the ‘Responsible Practice’ tile.