Week 3 - Blog - Digital Citizenship

Digital Citizenship is a "concept which helps teachers, technology leaders and parents to understand what students/children/technology users should know to use technology appropriately." (Source) What I find most interesting about this concept, is that it even exists. As I mentioned in this post, I thought that John Palfrey made an excellent point when he mentioned that when technology is good, that's great, and when it is bad, let's work to try and curb it a bit so it isn't as negative. I feel that Digital Citizenship is the perfect example.

The internet is its own entity and with all the technology we have today, to access this vast 'place', our lives are now saturated in it. I touched on a few reasons why I think technology is important in this post, and I definitely still think it has created some very wonderful things for us. However, without knowledge of what to expect or how to act, people (of all ages) are likely to abuse and misuse the technology. I think it is crucial that Digital Citizenship is in place and that is is enforced.

(Source)
Which leads to the question: Who should be enforcing it? I think that responsibility is the hands of both parents and teachers. Both are huge influences in a child/students life, and they also spend the most time with that child/student. In order for teachers to educate students about Digital Citizenship, they have to engage in it themselves. Like in Suzie Nestico's post, she mentions that teachers still need to be "in the know". Educators can not teach about protecting oneself, if they are not actively participating in technology to understand how to protect oneself. I think this is perfectly logical, because that is the case for absolutely anything. You can not teach what you don't know (well, effectively anyways). 

As for parents, I think the same idea applies to them as well. The only difference is that I think since they are parents, they should be more involved on a personal level. As in, that they should use media together with their children. In Edutopia, they suggest that parents ask questions, share values, and be very open about everything together. They should be able to discuss the hard topics such as cyber-bullying, pornography, and online predators. 

A really great exercise that could be done by either teacher or parent, is to create a Digital Footprint.
 

 (Source)


After I created one of these footprints, I was surprised to see how much of an imprint even I have. I think it would be a really great visual for anyone to understand the impact of what they do with technology, and could be a great starting point to connect with the students/chidren.