The nine elements presented by Mike Ribble in Digital Citizenship in Schools, Nine Elements All Students Should Know explains in detail the responsibility of being a digital citizen. The nine elements are: digital access, digital commerce, digital communication, digital literacy, digital etiquette, digital law, digital rights and responsibilities, digital health and wellness and digital security. Being able to safely and responsibly manipulate and contribute to an online environment is crucial to being a digital citizen.
Teaching students at a young age how to use technology responsibly is important. Students do not understand the consequences of online misuse or irresponsibility. These are things that have to be taught, they do not come naturally. However, students must first be taught how to be good citizens face-to-face before they can understand how to be a good citizen digitally. Sometimes, teachers forget where students come from. Some young students have heard and seen things that teachers may never hear or see in their lifetime. Recently, some second and third grade students performed Google searches using inappropriate words. When confronted with what they had done, most of the students were embarrassed. When told that their parents would be called, some cried. Young students do not understand that everything they do digitally can be found or seen. Because of the searches, the district began requiring that all students log onto the internet with their own personal sign-in. The students were told that teachers and administrators will be able to see everything they do on their iPads. The teachers modeled through Apple Classroom, to show them that they can see exactly what they are looking at and typing. Their responses were amazing to see. They truly thought that what they did on their iPads was private, that no one would know what they did. This is an example of digital dualism. They believe that what happens online is a separate and distant reality. (Kuropativa, 2019) Some people believe that they can say things online, through social media, that they normally would not say when face-to-face with a person. People hide behind the keyboard and become bullies and complainers. Because of this, people/students do not have a grasp on what it means to be a digital citizen. Being a digital citizen requires a person to participate in a digital community in a positive, caring, fair, trustworthy and respectful way. Most teens and young children do not understand good citizenship, personally nor digitally. Students need to be taught empathy and respect for others. They need to be taught that humor at another's expense is not appropriate behavior whether online or in person. Because students do not understand this, cyberbullying often occurs. Too often there is a disconnect between personal communication and digital communication. In today’s teen society, cyberbullying is an issue that needs to be dealt with. “We define cyberbullying as, “...willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones and other electronic devices.” (Hinduja & Patchin, 2015) There are many types of cyberbullying: spreading rumors, flaming, posting pictures and videos, captions, commenting and messages, photoshopping, confession pages, information spreading, impersonation, tagging and untagging, cyberstalking, self-cyberbullying, and physical threats. However, the key word in the definition of bullying is “repeated”. The harm must be inflicted repeatedly to be classified as bullying. Teens are mainly affected by cyberbullying. “However, research has also consistently noted that adolescent girls tend to participate in more indirect , less visible forms bullying. It makes sense that most studies show that girls are just as likely, if not more likely, to be involved in cyberbullying, both as a target and as a perpetrator.” (Hinduja & Patchin, 2015) In several ways, cyberbullying is much easier than traditional bullying. Mainly due to anonymity. The fact that teens believe that no one will find out it is them being the bully gives them a sense of authority over their victims. What these bullies do not understand is that they have an IP address that leaves a footprint on whatever they do online. Teens also do not realize the impact cyberbullying has on their victims. Monica Lewinsky speaks in her TED Talk of how she was one of the first victims of cyberbullying. In this talk, she stands up and demands that cyberbullying and online shaming be stopped. Her boldness to speak out against online shaming is impressive. Monica states “With every click we make a choice, the more we saturate our culture with public shaming, the more accepted it is, the more we will see behavior like cyberbullying, trolling, some forms of hacking and online harassment. Why, because they all have humiliation at their cores.” She goes on to say, “This behavior is a symptom of the culture we’ve created. Changing behavior begins with evolving beliefs. What we need is a cultural revolution. Public shaming as a blood sport has to stop. It’s time for an intervention on the internet and in our culture. We need to return to a long held value of compassion and empathy.” (TED, 2015) Today’s society has lost almost all compassion and empathy. Especially, our teenagers. They seem to have no regard for others feelings. Why? Has our teens become desensitized to other’s pain? Has shaming and harrassing become the norm? Media is partially to blame for some of this. Television shows and movies are filled with shaming, hate and disrespect. The negating of others has become comedy for many. We must openly discuss these issues with children at a young age. Teens need to understand the effects these actions have on others. This is why it is so important to teach appropriate digital citizenship at an early age. Students need to learn that their posts have consequences and sometimes grave ones. According to Hinduja & Patchin, one of the first steps in preventing cyberbullying is education. Teachers, students and parents need to be educated on what cyberbullying is and how to recognize and prevent it. One way to educate is to hold staff meetings discussing cyberbullying, completing an assessment of students to find out if there is cyberbullying in your school. Using relatable stories is a good way to educate students about cyberbullying. “Stories should be shared with students to constantly remind them about the reality of fallout from unwise electronic communication.” (Hinduja & Patchin, 2015) We also need to teach students to think before they post. Students need to understand the impact their words have and that they need to assess whether or not their posts are going to be hurtful. We need to teach our students how to show empathy and compassion. “Students should be exposed to cyberbullying prevention programming through signage at school, assemblies with compelling and vetted speakers, the dissemination of interactive materials, and with creative strategies to combat hate among peers and promote a healthy and respectful school climate.” (Hinduja & Patchin, 2015) Implementing a good character curriculum at an early age can help. Teaching students to have compassion, empathy and respect can save them hurt in the future. "Without guided practice, inappropriate use of technology can occur without students being aware of it." (Ribble, 2015). Good character must be modeled in the classroom. Then, students will be able to transfer that good character online. However, students need to be made aware of the fact that their online environment must be treated as if it were face-to-face. If students think of it in those terms, they are more likely not to post or respond to others inappropriately. Presentation Reflection I chose to create a Google Site for my culminating project. I decided to do this so that I could easily add to or update at anytime. I also chose this platform because I felt that it would be easy to share with colleagues and for them to manipulate. I wanted this to be a resource other teachers could use to help teach digital citizenship. I made sure to place a Creative Commons license on my site so that others could use, attribute, or modify for their own use, if needed. I am extremely happy with how the site turned out. I created a homepage for an introduction to the site. The homepage includes my mantra, which I created using Canva and then loaded to my site as a header across the top, a short video explaining digital citizenship and an infographic by ISTE comparing the nine elements to regular citizenship. Then, I created a page for each of the nine elements. I also included my references at the bottom of each page. However, I am not sure if I need more detailed descriptions over each of the elements. I did not want the site to be too “wordy”. I feel that when there is long, drawn out text, it is less likely to be read or used. My goal was to make each description short and to the point. I added videos and sample lesson plans for teachers to use, to help teach students and themselves about digital citizenship. Hopefully, this will be a resource others will be able to use for years to come. References TED. (2015, March 20). The price of shame | Monica Lewinsky. Retrieved March 29, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_8y0WLm78U. Hinduja, S., & Patchin, J. W. (2015). Bullying beyond the schoolyard: Preventing and responding to cyberbullying. Thousand Oaks: Corwin. Ribble, M. (2015). Digital citizenship in schools: Nine elements all students should know(Third ed.). Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education. Anthology, T. B. (2015, July 16). Darren Kuropatwa - Digital Ethics and Digital Citizenship #BLC15. Retrieved March 5, 2019, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbMsbxYvr4E (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2019, from https://luonline.blackboard.com/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_141909_1&content_id=_3724086_1.
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AuthorSecond Grade teacher and lifelong learner. Graduate student at Lamar University. Archives
April 2019
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