Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Digital citizenship is the ability to use technology to engage confidently and ethically when participating in an online environment. It entails more than having digital literacy skills, to include how you use those skills when collaborating, curating and creating. Mike Ribble’s elements of digital citizenship grouped under the maxims of: Be Safe; Be Savvy; Be Social struck a chord with me highlighting how schools should be educating students to be the best version of themselves online (Ribble, 7 June 2018). The whole idea of digital citizenship is how to act in the global digital environment and yet we are holding the world at bay, limiting global collaboration, ignoring students’ digital learning environment outside the school grounds and expecting them to become digital citizens without letting them leave the confines of the school digital learning environment.
Schools are missing the mark when preparing students with the skills to use their digital environment effectively by persisting to ignore the world they currently exist in. Schools have taken a reactant approach to how students use technology instead of being proactive. You can see this in the policies and agreements many schools have in place, with the focus being on fear and negativity (Forde & Stockley, 2009). We have focussed on everything you should not do online, through our ‘Acceptable Use Policies’. We focus on referencing in assignments to avoid plagiarism and being ‘caught’ by programs such as Turnitin, when many teachers are failing to cite their own sources in day to day lessons. We restrict access to the many programs and platforms our students are currently living their digital lives on, except when we are scaring them with the ramification of the negative impacts of their involvement.
In effect, we are not educating students how to be lifelong learners, we are teaching them how to get through the education system. This has led to a dual mentality of how to act at school and how to act at home. This divide is a figment of our imagination, as our actions physically and virtually cross boundaries, as many of our politicians recently discovered. Through understanding that all our actions are linked, whether it is for a school assignment or posting a comment on Facebook we show digital citizenship.
How can we prepare students for a digital world if we do not engage them in it? I first made this observation in week one of this course and it continues to be a source of my frustration. We are living in a technical world that enables us to communicate and collaborate across the globe. What better way is there of teaching students to be global digital citizens than affording them the opportunities to do so through blogging, curating, and collaborating with other global students on projects that will provide authentic learning opportunities to deepen their understanding. Why aren’t our language classes setting up Skype partners across the globe? Why can’t our social action groups virtually collaborate with other schools to empower social change? We should be encouraging active participation in this fertile environment, demonstrating and providing opportunities to develop digital citizenship skills.
Prior to doing this subject I thought I was an active digital citizen. In hindsight, I was not fully participating or engaging. I was curating through Twitter and Diigo, but not sharing my insights. I was constantly on the search for digital artifacts that I could use; but would never dream of making one myself. I called myself a team player and collaborator; but had never used technology to collaborate past my school grounds. This subject has opened my eyes to the power afforded to me by technology as a GLOBAL digital citizen. Nonparticipation is not the answer. I need to be the active digital citizen that I want my students and children to be.
Forde, L., & Stockley, R. (2009). Techno nightmare: Legal issues for teachers and schools. Teacher: The National Education Magazine, June/July, 48-51. Retrieved from Informit
Ribble, M. (7 June 2018). The top 3 elements of student digital citizenship. EdTech.