Thing #11: Being a Responsible Digital Citizen

In talking about digital citizenship, I think a lot of the discussion needs to be with the adults in the school setting first and foremost. The teachers in particular set the tone of learning in their classrooms and even in common areas such as the library. But other educators such as principals and librarians need to be ready, willing and able model and demonstrate appropriate online behavior.

For me, it breaks down into cyberbulling, identity protection, copyright issues, and the care of hardware and other resources. We all have to share the hardware and the materials. The abuse of such makes it hard on others. A perfect example was the inappropriate use of Wikipedia made it impossible for our group to work in and learn about adding and editing info to that particular resource. We all know what happens when computers and other "machines" are not treated carefully. This includes going behind the scenes and doing malicious things that cause problems. Again, it affects the success of all.

We teach our students to be careful in the real world about talking and interacting with strangers. Things can happen at the corner bus stop. Why we think we do not need to teach those same types of things for the protection of our students online concerns me. We need to be sure that the students understand appropriate behavior and then we must trust them to do the right thing. We can not control their every move online, just like we can not monitor their every move at the bus stop.

The same goes for being nice and polite to each other online. We don't accept bullying on the playground; we should not accept it online. In some ways, I think this might be hard to accomplish. Many facets of society now days do not reflect much respect for each other. I am afraid the anonymity of the online world makes this even more of a problem in some cases. But I try not to surrender to the accepted norm; I try to rise above it.

Copyright issues have always been a concern in education. We need to be sure we encourage our students to credit others who provide the information and resources they choose to use. The copyright changes of a few months back have made it a little easier to use things...provided credit is properly included.

Each participant of 11.5 More Things has addressed this topic of digital citizenship. The Lifeguards have placed all those thoughts and any resources included on a wiki page for eveyone's use.