Digital citizenship is the concept behind being aware of your actions online. It is teaching ourselves and our students that there are consequences to be had if we do the wrong thing online. Digital citizenship is not taught nearly enough in schools and this can result in students thinking that they are invincible and not able to get caught if they harass or bully someone online.
I have completed a unit with my Year 8 English class about social media and the effects it can have alongside looking at the Community Standard that govern the actions of their users. They were shocked about what they contain and the methods that some people go to intentionally hurt others. They were also shocked at the lengths that any social media user should go to, to ensure that they are protected online.
In preparing a school digital learning environment, the IT/e-learning specialist should ensure that it is appropriate, easy to use and above all, keeps the students safe. If these three requirements cannot be met, then the considered platform should not be used. If the platform cannot show our students practical ways to keep them safe and if the platform cannot help teachers model the behaviour that we want to see in our students than we should not use that digital learning platform.
ETL523 opened my eyes to what a digital learning environment is; however, it was not until my experiences with teaching and monitoring online learning in my site that it really sunk in and made sense. One thing with topics is that a lot of it comes across with a practical application but we do not often get a chance to apply it and I feared that this would be the case with a digital learning environment. However, with COVID-19 and having to make the transition to online learning and use a digital learning environment, it really reinforced what we were studying within ETL523. I enjoyed the chance to apply the skills we were learning in a practical sense within my own classes and I have enjoyed the challenge of moving past the theoretical content that we were learning within ETL523.
The role of leaders in the digital sphere was seen quite a bit within my site as we made the transition to online learning then back to face-to-face. We had strong leaders and motivators within our site to guide us in the transitions and to also create interactive content for our students to utilise. We were also giving the opportunity to be our own leaders and to lead other members of our faculty and to lead our students into the changes that were happening.
Overall, I have learnt a lot during ETL523 and along the way had opportunities that I otherwise would not have had. I am grateful to have completed this topic and to have learnt about what it means to have a digital learning environment that accommodates both the students and the teachers needs and requirements.