The importance of teaching digital citizenship.
Digital Citizenship: a concept which helps teachers, technology leaders and parents to understand what students/children/technology users should know to use technology appropriately. Digital Citizenship is more than just a teaching tool; it is a way to prepare students/technology users for a society full of technology. Too often we are seeing students as well as adults misusing and abusing technology but not sure what to do. The issue is more than what the users do not know but what is considered appropriate technology usage.
According to Wikipedia a digital citizen commonly refers to a person that participates in society using a certain amount of information technology (IT). To qualify for the unofficial title of digital citizen a person must have the skill and knowledge to interact with private and government organizations through means of "digital" tools such as computers or mobile phones, along with access to these devices.
People characterizing themselves as digital citizens often use IT extensively, creating blogs, use social networking and other means of modern communication.[1] Digital citizenship begins the first time any child, teen, and/or adult signs up for an email address, posts pictures online, uses e-commerce to buy merchandise online, and/or participates in any electronic function that is B2C or B2B. Parents and teachers need to start teaching children and teens at an early age about the responsibilities of being online as a digital citizen.
I’m sure most of you have heard or seen some type of news report on cyber bullying and after the recent death of a Rutgers University freshman, cyber bullying is back in the spot light brighter than ever. Bullying of course is nothing new but the internet has changed the speed of these cruel behaviors. Pictures can be taken and uploaded in less than five seconds, live streams can take place and this can go on without the person being bullied knowing.
Along with teaching children how to use the computer and internet, teachers and parents should go a bit farther and teach them digital citizenship. Just because the internet allows you free speech doesn’t mean that it should be exercised in every way. In no way am I saying that the internet should be censored but just as people “are suppose to” conduct themselves in a certain way in public they should also conduct themselves in a certain way behind the computer screen.
It is so easy to act up online and do whatever one pleases because it’s anonymous and the internet allows you to create any and every type of identity. One of my goals is to learn as much as I can about social media and networking so that I can teach and show younger generations a more positive way to participate in it. Students are being watched unknowingly and having their information broadcasted to the entire e-world and there aren’t any real consequences to doing this.
Social media has a lot of pros but to me I think the cons outweigh those pros. People are creating false accounts with cruel intentions just for the heck of it. They don’t care who they hurt and why. So this is my plea to you, teach digital citizenship, tell these kids that it’s not okay to be an online bully. It’s more than about being safe online its teaching people how to use a computer to be a fully functioning, competent and good member of the online society.
What does this have to do with emerging and new media? Cyber bullying is happening and taking place through FB, Twitter, Myspace, message boards, recorded on the cell phone, with the click of an iPad. As I said before these newhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif_hyuncompressed and quickly evolving technologies are allowing it to happen at too fast of a pace to stop it.
Start with yourself and practice digital citizenship. Who knows you could save someones life and what happened at Rutgers University will never have to happen again. The following is a link to Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship.
Discussion question:
- Do you feel that you are a responsible digital citizen and if not how can you approve your appearance in todays social network?
Social media creates pros and cons simultaneously. I watched a featured story yesterday, and it talked about how the social media hurt the commercial companies. It mentioned how the workers keep surfing the social media webpage during their office hours.
ReplyDeleteThe ethics and behaviors you outline have everything to do with emerging media, Danelle. I think this goes back to what we were talking about week before last in terms of robot and animal ethics - the ways that we behave online demonstrate something about us as humans, citizens, etc. If properly narrowed in focus, this could be a topic for your final project.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I feel like there should be some kind of class that everyone is required to take that talks about how to conduct oneself online. Not sure when you'd be required to take this class since cyberbullying starts very early in some cases, but perhaps it should be a unit covered in the computer class that all kids are required to take in order to graduate. I think some children are not made aware of the consequences that occur with posting on the internet, and someone (parents? teachers?) needs to make sure these kids know what they are putting out there and how it will affect them and others now and many years into the future.
ReplyDelete