What is digital citizenship? How should we address it in our classrooms? In our increasingly global and digital society, we must prepare our students to be digital citizens who are conscious of their digital presence.
According to digitalcitizenship.net, digital citizenship is defined “as the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with regard to technology use. As teachers, we model appropriate behavior for our students everyday. We don’t use foul language in the classroom, we don’t throw temper tantrums, or pick our noses, or do anything else that is inappropriate. We teach our students the proper way to behave in school, and hope they continue that behavior in the “real world”. Our students live in an increasingly digital and connected world…we need to teach them how to behave in this world as well!
So many of our students only see social media as a way to post their “selfies” (can you believe that was Oxford’s word of year in 2013?!) or tell their friends about their lunch, or OMG can you believe she did that hashtag crazy…I think I just felt my IQ drop by typing that!! There is so much that our students can gain from using social media in a positive way! Shouldn’t we take time to teach them how?!
Infographics are becoming an increasingly popular way to communicate information…and I love them! Here’s one I found that is perfect for students to remember about posting information or images online.
So many of our students do not have this afterthought…they snap a picture or type a supposedly funny comment and BAM! To Twitter, or Facebook, or Instagram it goes. They simply don’t think about who or what could be harmed by their posting. Many employers today do a different type of background check today-they check your social media activity. What type of pictures do you have on your Facebook? What do your “tweets” say about you? Is what you post something you would want your grandmother to see? Many teachers, including myself, actively use Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Edmodo to enhance our students’ learning. There are so many awesome benefits to using an LMS like Edmodo or Schoology or Moodle, but we need to make sure our students are prepared to use such a system. Perhaps, if we teach our students good digital citizenship, and model that behavior in our classrooms, they will apply those skills in the “real world!”
Below are some GREAT articles, lessons, and other resources for teaching digital citizenship to our students. Enjoy!
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