Digital Citizenship

This week’s #EdublogsClub Prompt #28 is about Digital Citizenship. We read this article on Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship based on the book Digital Citizenship in Schools by Mike Ribble and Gerald Bailey, published on the webpage DigitalCitizenship.net

The nine elements of Digital Citizenship:

  • digital access
  • digital commerce
  • digital communication
  • digital literacy
  • digital etiquette
  • digital law
  • digital rights & responsibilities
  • digital health & wellness
  • digital security (self-protection)

The article is worth reading and mentioned aspects I had yet to think of as being part of digital citizenship, such as access, commerce, law and even health and wellness. Certainly all important aspects of digital citizenship.

For 20 years now, my students in a variety of grade levels (K-8 since the late 90s) have had digital access. Together we have learned about respecting fellow students’ digital file folders when they weren’t password protected, how to share six laptops for 25 students, managed a digital environment with MacBooks for all, and, of course, the never-ending learning curve of navigating the Internet.  In the past and where I spend most of my time as teacher is on Ribble and Bailey’s elements of digital etiquette, literacy, and communication.

Teaching and modeling etiquette in many areas of life are important, I believe, and one of those areas is teaching digital good manners. We can’t let up or leave it to chance learning. It has to be taught explicitly.

Here is a Prezi I made with my junior high students in 2011. I believe it still has a lot of truth about Netiquette (or Internet Etiquette). It was inspired by this online summary of the book Netiquette by Virginia Shea, which is well worth the read.

We spend time on digital literacy and communication in class. My grade 5 students can do a lot already, but I try to take them to a more advanced level of responsible usage. For instance, we learn to use Creative Commons images instead of the ubiquitous Google search and snatch method. They learn to post photos and videos on their digital portfolio to share with their parents. They learn to create and edit Google documents while they write novels. And more.

In addition to etiquette, literacy and communication, there is another important element of digital literacy I model and teach. It is that of digital production. I attempt to inspire my students to be more than consumers. When they are with me, they produce–online publishing, forming connections with world-wide audiences, and adding their voice to make the Internet a better, warmer, friendlier place than it could be without them.

Used with permission from Krissy Venosdale, digital producer extraordinaire.

What do you think?
Is digital production another element of digital citizenship?
Are there other elements not mentioned?

5 thoughts on “Digital Citizenship

  1. Denise, thank you for sharing! I’ll be checking out that Prezi! I’ll be finishing the book Social Leadia today, and it’s got many of these ideas. Gotten me really revved up about sharing the goodness of using social media with my 7th graders. Thank you for sharing – nice to see you blogging again! Hugs from the states!

  2. Hi Joy,
    Thanks for stopping by and reading and sharing. You might have seen that Prezi years ago, ha ha!

    So many good books to read, aren’t there. I’m loving my summer to read and write and think and rest! I hope to be refreshed and ready to teach again. Hugs to you, as well!

  3. Love your Prezi, Denise. It’s perfect for covering the essentials in a kind and illustrative manner–digital citizenship at its best! Thank you for sharing it, and also for sharing how you work with your students on digital production. I suppose it could be considered part of digital communication, but it’s so much more, so maybe that digital 9 should become digital 10.
    BrP

    1. Barbara,
      Thank you for your comment. I agree with you–it is a form of communication, but it’s so much more. I like the way you put it.
      Denise

  4. Hi Denise,

    I’ve been thinking a lot about making and design since I saw the draft ISTE standards for students last year. I keep thinking about the necessity for, and role of, making in education. I think that digital production is a part of that. I agree with you that digital production is important, because we consume so much of it that we should understand how it’s made so that we can be more critical of what we consume. It also allows to make different types of products, and to share them with various audiences. I’m interested in the integration of digital and physical production and representation.
    Damianne

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