Digital Citizenship

When researching the importance of digital citizenship this week, I chose to look at a blog post on the SMART Technologies page. http://edblog.smarttech.com/2015/12/the-importance-of-teaching-digital-citizenship/  I figured why not go with the people who create SMART boards they must know a lot about digital citizenship.

Author Rebecca Penna Simon was an elementary school classroom teacher, she moved to New York in 2013 to become the Director of Educational Technology and Innovation at the Solomon Schechter School of Queens. Rebecca is a SMART Exemplary Educator, a SMART Certified Trainer in Notebook and Response, a SMART amp Champ, and a SMART Certified Lesson Developer.

According to her blog she describes,
 "Digital Citizenship is the understanding of human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and the advocating and practicing of safe, responsible and ethical use of digital information and technology. (ISTE, 2007)"

  I liked her approach in the article of being proactive in teaching digital citizenship as compared to being reactive. It was a very short blog, but she brought up some questions to think about as an educator.  She asked the questions listed below and if you answered "NO" to any of them she added a resource to her next post to gain the resources to teaching digital citizenship. 
The questions she asked were: 
  1. Do you know what website your students are using? 
  2. Do you know what your students are doing online?
  3. Do you have a proper filter installed? 
  4. Is social media allowed or blocked?
  5. Do your students have the ability to communicate with others online?
  6. Do you have Google SafeSearch or another safe search engine enabled?
  7. Are there inappropriate ads on the websites that your students are using?
  8. Last but not least, is there someone in your school who can guide you in taking the proper steps to ensure that your students are using their devices appropriately?
  As a teacher answering these questions, I'm not so positive I'm teaching digital citizenship. I'm reflecting on my own answers and I was assuming these things were already in place! But, reading these questions I do not know if I this is completely true. Some of the questions like, Do I have Google Safe search? How can I tell? Is that my job? Apparently yes! It makes me think about who do I ask if I do not have these things already set up, and who can help me put these precautions in place? 

  As a future administrator these questions made me realized the IT person in my building doesn't really discuss these safety precautions with anyone.  Like I said earlier, I was assuming they did their job. How do I know if they did or not? As a future administrator, I would have a PD in the beginning of the year asking the Technology Team leader or IT person of the building to check the equipment and show the staff what to look for to make sure the students are using the devices appropriately and who to contact if we notice things are not set up right. 

She made a follow up post with resources to Teaching Digital Citizenship which can be found @ http://edblog.smarttech.com/2015/12/resources-for-teaching-digital-citizenship/

Other resource sites for teaching digital citizenship include: 

Comments

  1. UnknownJune 28, 2017 at 4:01 AM

    This is such an important area of need that can easily be overlooked. I really liked the resources you included in you blog. They are great ways to encourage teachers to easily implement this topic into their classroom. The list you provided from Simon is a great approach and effective checklist for everyone to reflect on their own digital citizenship. I know I am very cautious about what I post. There are many times I cringe a little when I see co-workers or other educators choose to post. Thanks for sharing.

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