Prezi: Digital Citizenship

Included in this blog is:
(1)  My reflection on the topic of digital citizenship
(2) A link to my prezi on the topic of digital citizenship

Digital Citizenship reflection:

Digital citizenship is an important topic. I feel that I know a fair amount about the topic, since I teach it, along with the resource officer at my school, however there is always much to learn and discuss within the topic. I have created an educator account at Common Sense Media and will spend some time getting to know my way around the web site. It is an impressive web site with a wealth of information on the topic of digital citizenship and online safety.

I found some of the statistics regarding computer and technology usage enlightening. The article entitled Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics, lists some interesting statistics. "Within days of being born many children have digital images online. More young children can play a computer game than ride a bike. 58% of children aged 2-5 can play a computer game, verses 43% of the same age that can ride a bike".

What’s important to remember is that students live in a digital world, and have since the day they were born. The image in the video Digital Dossier, where the baby’s sonogram was digitally saved, brought the issue to light. Today’s teens are surrounded by technology, as the article Staying On top of Your Teens Technology states. They use their phones to communicate, search the web, play games, use apps, use social networking sites, find directions, watch TV and movies, and much more. Many sleep with their phones charged by their pillow (I know my kids do). They use technology in school. They are on their computers, i-pods, smart phones, and e-readers outside of school. It is important for these children to understand the responsibility that comes along with technology. They must understand that anything typed or posted on the web is never really deleted.

   A typical day for a teen ..

Source for image:

It is important for all teachers, technology as well as academic teachers, to understand and teach digital citizenship. Everyone must be responsible while using technology. Teachers should be good role models for proper technology use, so that it becomes obvious and a standard for their students. Click here to read about how parents can learn about digital citizenship. Even though it is very important for parents to play a major role in their children's education, especially to be on board in regards to digital citizenship, typically the main source for education on this topic falls on the teachers in the schools, especially because many parents are not technology savvy. Everyone should be teaching and promoting digital citizenship from the administrators, to the parents, to the teachers, and students. Click here to see NetSmartz web site on Internet safety.

I teach middle school students and feel that I currently cover most of the nine of the digital citizenship elements. I show a video entitled Technology issues in Science and Technology via Safari which addresses technology in the developed and developing countries. The students are always amazed at what they take for granted, and how other countries do not have the same technological advances in important areas such as food production and medicine.  I also talk about digital literacy and etiquette often in all four of the grades I teach (5-8).  Kristin Hokanson wrote an excellent blog on the topic of digital literacy.

In the 5^th grade the resource officer and I team teach a class on netiquette and Internet safety. As a result of the presentation the students create a safety poster from what they’ve learned. In the 8^th grade the resource officer does a presentation on computer ethics and digital citizenship. He covers topics such as cyberbullying, computer crime, texting, sexting, child pornography, illegal downloads, RIAA, social networking, and plagiarism. As a result of this presentation I work with the students to create a brochure on the topics of digital citizenship. We have an interesting classroom discussion on the research the students find. Their final artifact, a brochure, then becomes one of the technology artifacts they upload to their e-portfolios.

I wasn't too surprised when I wrote down the information on my digital footprint, but I assume most of my middle school students would be surprised. I am always looking for activities to give the students once they finish up the lesson for the day, as some finish sooner than others. I plan on giving the students the digital footprint paper to fill out. After the students have completed the lesson we can discuss what they've found.

Digital citizenship is an important topic that should be addressed in all areas of the student’s academic classes. With the constant teaching and reinforcing of good digital habits we will create good digital citizens. One of the items I will be pursuing in my own middle school is the issue of BYOD (Bring your own device). This article by Edudemic discusses some of the major concerns around students using their own devices, such as security issues, and network issues with filters and firewalls. Currently at my school we do not allow our students to use their smart phones or i-pods in class. However, if we educators teach our students how to use their technology devices for educational purposes, it can only benefit the students in the long run. There will be much discussion around this topic in the future.