Week 4: Digital Citizenship

Though I am very well familiar with the concept of Digital Citizenship, the term itself is new to me. In the last class, all major aspects of Digital Citizenship were mentioned and summarized, and I learnt that they are: 1) Digital Access, 2) Digital Commerce, 3) Digital Communication, 4) Digital Literacy, 5) Digital Etiquette, 6) Digital Law, 7) Digital Rights & Responsibilities, 8) Digital Health & Wellness, and 9) Digital Security (self-protection). That gave me quite a full picture of Digital Citizenship, which before primarily consisted of digital security, law, and commerce.

Moreover, I discovered for myself Common Sense Curriculum, freely available at www.commonsensemedia.org, as well as numerous resources and webinars related to it.  Neither did I know before about cyberbullying and that it can be tougher that regular bullying since it is not limited to school or the playground, bullies can stay anonymous, and it is harder to spot. As for the video on cyberbullying posted in the module, I doubt that fighting cyberbullying is as easy as it is shown in it. The collaboration of parents, teachers, and police is not enough; children, including bullies, should be educated on its inhumanity, the high probability of lethal effects of bullying, and their personal responsibility for them.

As for Digital Dossier, it was not new to me. A year ago, I decided to google my name, and to my astonishment, there were several pages containing my name and the websites I visited. Then, I deleted my accounts from several forums and social networks, which I was not using but which still contained my information, and my date of birth and any piece of information that could connect me to the current or previous location from social networks I still used. Later on, I wrote several lesson plans for ESOL students that revolved around different types of identity theft and ways to protect yourself from it. So now I always remind my students to be cautions of what information they post online, and every semester at least half a dozen of them remove sensitive personal information from social networks. We also often talk about spam, email scams, and phishing. However, it took me some time to realize the rules of cybersafety, and I always try to share my knowledge with my students, some of whom have recently arrived to the USA and might not have had a chance to do so on their own.

I agree with the article The Importance of Teaching Digital Citizenship that teaching Digital Citizenship should not be limited to safety only. Our students should also be aware of cyber etiquette, rules,  norms, and laws of the Internet space. A way too often, some individuals pour out their anger and negativism on other innocent members of the web, some of whom have come there to get emotional support and advice. It goes without saying that such cases might have rather adverse consequences. Others do not realize that illegal downloading or plagiarizing might have very negative and far-reaching effects on their real life. Who should help students learn all this? Parents and teachers, since it is their goal to raise humane, well-educated, healthy, productive, and responsible members of this global society, which has already merged with the cyberspace.