When I think of digital citizenship, I think of it as the way we conduct ourselves on the internet and what we do to make the internet a safer and better place for everyone. This idea us SORTA similar to how I see regular citizenship though.. Our duty as citizens of a country, nation, school, home, anything, is to do what we're supposed to by following the law, and try to help others so that we can live in a safer world. So what does this actually look like? Well.. people on the internet post some crazy things sometimes.. I have seen pictures of people just casually doing drugs on instagram like it's just no big deal and I sit there thinking to myself, do they not realize that when they want a job one day this stuff is gonna come back up? It's crazy like how do people think that is even remotely okay? Recently we acquired a new coach who made us COMPLETELY clean up our social media accounts.. like to the point if there was even the side of a beer can in the bottom left corner of the picture that NO ONE would even notice, it had to be deleted. I actually really struggled with this because turns out that was the case in most of the best pictures I had taken, OF COURSE 😐 . After deleting around 150 pictures, I realized it was actually for our own good.
Using digital citizenship in the classroom can be a really simple thing to do and really easily done. I find that lots of teachers have decided to leave it to the parents to deal with but really it needs to be done from both the home and school. Since BYOD is gaining ground and becoming way more widespread, we as teachers must monitor our students and make sure that they are staying on task. School computers must have filters and blocks to keep students from websites that will harm them. Parents and teachers must also work together to prevent one of the biggest problems we are having today.. cyberbullying. Everyone wants to feel safe. Children know from a young age stigmas associated with areas and people and places that are considered "unsafe," when we can teach children that there are areas on the internet and people that have bad intentions just like in the real world, then maybe our children will be more cautious. Newton Conover City Schools reported that 30% of teens have made plans with a stranger on the internet to meet up! THAT IS A HORRIFYING AMOUNT. We have to teach our children without scaring them that there are people out there who want to hurt them whether that is physically or emotionally, we have to protect our children by teaching them safe internet use.
I love this post! I can completely relate to on having to monitor your social media constantly because of your coach. My sorority has a very strict policy about how we present ourselves on social media with the same rule of alcohol appearing in our pictures. At first I found it to be quite silly and to be completely honest, a bit ridiculous, but just like you I took a step back and realized that this is simply just holding me accountable and is going to be better for all us in the long run in both the professional world and personal world. Obviously (well at least hopefully) we won't be warning students of the dangers of posting a beer can in their pictures, but what is safe on the internet. Regardless, I think the two situations can go very hand in hand because one day when they get older and are in college about to enter the professional world, the hope is that they can think back and remember what their parents and teachers told them about safe internet use. Which brings up the point you made about the shift that people believe this type of education should be left up to the parents. I completely agree with you when you say that we as teachers need to educate students on this topic as well as the parents since much of our daily lives is on the internet!
ReplyDeleteThis was a great post Christine! I completely agree with you when having to clean up my social media. My coach and my stepmom were strict as well, and I was quite frustrated too since I thought my pictures were pretty darn good but now looking back at it I am glad I did it. I am still shocked as well when I see people with drugs, I am just shocked they don't realize they are going to have a really hard time getting a job with that type of social media behavior.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I agree with all the ways Digital Citizenship should be used at school in classroom. At my highschool, everything was blocked or censored at my school. I thought it was obnoxious in high school but now looking back on it, some of the students at my school could have gotten into some very inappropriate and not safe thing. I also can't believe that it's 30% students meet up with a stranger online, that is so crazy to me. I'm hoping that teachers will still educate students on what to do and what not to do online, and parents do as well.
Good post, Christine! I like the points you make about the similarities and differences between general citizenship and digital citizenship. I appreciate that you made connections to your personal life- something that a lot of us as college students can relate to: keeping social media clean. I also like your points about the importance of teaching our students to be good digital citizens.
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