Digital Citizenship

During this weeks module I came to realize that a lot of the knowledge I take for granted regarding technology use is perhaps not quite as obvious as I thought. For example, I was noticing that in the article, 'Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship' the author highlights digital commerce as a theme. They go on to describe it as, "The mainstream availability of internet purchases of toys, clothing, cars, food, etc. has become commonplace to many users. At the same time, an equal amount of goods and services which are in conflict with the laws or morals of some countries are surfacing (which include activites such as illegal downloading, pornography, and gambling)." I just assumed this was generally common knowledge.

As an employee of the federal government (US Navy Reserves and Dept. of Veteran's Affairs) I have to take annual computer security and usage training. I have taken some form of this training every year for 10 years, of course it's common knowledge to me! I realize now that is really the point, Digital Citizenship as a curriculum should be taught to everyone, not just people with technology-centered jobs (and really how many jobs are there that are not technology-centered these days?). I think that teaching people when they're young how to be competent, respectful, safe users of technology and the internet is the smart and responsible thing to do.

I think the best way to do that is through the action plan that my Module 4 partner, Sarah Newsome and I put together. We propose utilizing free resources (including curriculum) from Common Sense Media to teach school staff. We then propose directly instructing the students with a lesson plan designed around digital citizenship. Our next step is to incorporate the tenets of digital citizenship into our regular course materials. Finally we propose utilizing parent nights to provide them with basic internet security tips and materials so they can reinforce the digital citizenship tenets our students learned in class.

For more on our action plan, please view our presentation here: