Digital Citizenship: Boy, Are We Bad at This…
Let’s be honest: In the area of digital citizenship, as educators, we are not doing our jobs.
Sure, there are pockets of excellence and teachers here and there that are raising this issue, but overall, it’s just another buzz word that we read about in the headlines, right next to “cyberbullying” and “blocking/filtering.” But why does it feel like a ghetto? It’s as though digital citizenship has been relegated to the bottom rungs of curricular society, clearly taking a backseat to a student’s ability to identify the hypotenuse or bubble in the answer “B” for question 23.
- Digital citizenship is not someone else’s job. It’s your job. If you interact with children under the age of 18, it IS your job.
- You don’t have to know ANYTHING about computers to teach digital citizenship. Any argument otherwise is like saying you need a law degree to teach what it means to be a good citizen in our society. We can grasp some basic tenets without needing to understand JavaScript.
- Stop thinking that the “technology teacher” is supposed to do it or that they’re better at it than you. In an era that is increasingly tech-ubiquitous, relegating the term “technology teacher” to just one person is offensive. We should all be using AND TEACHING with and about technology as it is the layer through which our students understand the world around them.
We’ve spent enough time worrying about our kids being online, it’s time for each of us to step up and actually do something about it. Be creative! Work it into your lessons! Start small, maybe a discussion about appropriate times to use cell phones (hint: anything with a cell phone is instant engagement) and then work your way up. For example, later this month, my 8th graders will make instructional videos for elementary school students, teaching them how to be safe online. Look for ways to incorporate these ideas into your lessons. Digital citizenship doesn’t teach itself and no, they won’t just “figure it out.”
Our students have at their fingertips some of the most powerful and capable inventions known to the history of the world. Are we really going to withhold the instructions from them?
7:55 am
“You don’t have to know ANYTHING about computers to teach digital citizenship. Any argument otherwise is like saying you need a law degree to teach what it means to be a good citizen in our society. We can grasp some basic tenets without needing to understand JavaScript.” I completely agree! These are topics that need to be woven into our curriculum.
9:40 am
There are other examples that have evolved as you mention. Originally we had “business” teachers as the “original” computer teachers because the focus was on Microsoft Office. Thankfully, this has become interwoven into the rest of the curriculum. With the evolution of technology, we need to see this continue. Certainly, there are going to be issues that may germinate with tech teachers but they need to evolve as well.
Thanks for the post as I agree with you …
7:06 am
We have just written it into our primary school pastoral programming as important as any other social aspect.
10:11 pm
Great thoughts. We also need to move beyond a model of ‘policing’ in order to encourage citizens. we have just rewritten our student guidelines to encourage this. Have peak at http://hereishobbo.tumblr.com/post/12012746039/creating-an-aup-or-smashing-a-peanut-with-a-sledge
8:07 pm
Great post. At my school we found that parents would like to be more active in teaching digital citizenship too but felt it was hard to have a conversation with their teens if they don’t know ANYTHING about computers and social media.
We decided therefore to set about teaching them through a site we set up called http://www.iCyberSafe.com Parents subscribe and we post the latest information about all sorts of things in their children’s/teen’s cyber world. Many of our posts are what we call, ‘Conversation Starters’or ‘Teachable Moments’ – enabling parents to begin conversations which lead to discussions of what is and isn’t appropriate behaviour on the ‘net and how what they write and do can effect their digital reputation.
A partnership between parents and school!
3:24 pm
Very true. And unfortunately, the most some schools are doing is have the police come in to scare kids. But what about kids demonstrating knowledge, or dare I say it CREATE something…or have kids HELP each other navigate positively. If you would like to join us in a great Digital Citizenship project: https://sites.google.com/site/orechdigcit/
Find out more and join here!