http://www.edutopia.org/blog/digital-citizenship-need-to-know-vicki-davis
This article jumped out at me as I was going through the websites looking for my next professional reading. With technology useage at an all time high I think students need to learn not only how to be productive citzens in their everyday lives, but also how to conduct themselves and how to use these digital resources to their fullest potential, safely and wisely. I touched on some of this briefly when giving my Internet Safety lesson in September. I also gave the 3rd and 4th graders a mini-lesson on digital "netiquette". I was suprised at how many students didn't know the proper etiquette for how to conduct themselves online. (Just because they are being "raised" in a tech world, doesn't mean they automatically know how to use it properly)
The author listed the "9 Key Ps" of digital citizenship.
1. Passwords: How to create a secure password (there is a system called LastPass for remembering passwords-how does that work I wonder?)
2. Privacy: How to protect their private information
3. Personal Information: How to chose what information to share online (so it can't be used to identify you)
4. Photographs: Some private things (like license plates/street signs) can show up to locate you. Do students know how to turn off geotagging features?
5. Property: Copyright laws!! How to cite properly (you can't just say Google Images as a source) and to see if you can even use the graphics that you cited.
6. Permission: Do students know how to ask permission to use things before citing it?
7. Protection: Do students know about viruses, malware, phishing etc. Identify theft?? (Interestingly enough, our district just had teachers/staff take a quiz online about the various dangerous of using computers and students personal information.)
8. Professionalism: Here is when we teach them netiquette, online grammar, understanding cultural taboos etc.
9. Personal Brand: How do you want to be "perceived" online?
In addition to the list, the author mentioned various ways and tools she uses to tackle some of the above issues. For example, turning students into teachers, they have to expose scams and how to protect themselves.
I also think this would be a good thing to teach parents and community members. Everyone could benefit from learning more about this-might also lead into a discussion about cyberbullying as well.
This is an excellent article and could easily be applied to what we are doing in the classroom. I have read news articles that students and young adults are being more and more judged by the content they post online. Not only for jobs, but also in the court system. I whole-heartedly agree with helping parents and community members model these digital citizenship guidelines. This would definitely help students learn if the standards are the same between home and school.
ReplyDeleteI think your last statement is a great one -- that this could benefit parents and community members, even teachers. I was aware of all of the things on this list, but there are some that I am better at than others and it is always good to be reminded of them.
ReplyDeleteThese are not things we can assume that students know.