Tool #10 - Digital Citizenship

For me digital citizenship involves most of the same rules one should be following in dealing with one's fellow man. We tell our students that school and neighborhood are communities that work best for us and for others when we deal in kindness, fairness, and service to others. The same is true on the web, where we should learn to communicate our concerns graciously and civilly, where we treat others online as we would wish to be treated, and where we look for opportunities to share the positive things we know and can do with the community at large. And like our neighborhoods and schools (unfortunately) there are dangers. We need to let our students know what kind of information is safe to present to the world at large and what is not. We need to inculcate in our students an understanding that there are consequences for the things we do and say online just as there are consequences for this in the real world.

On the ed-tech website, there is a list of resources we can use to help present these ideas, including such programs as Cyberethics for Kids, Digital Citizenship, and Cybersmart Kids. There are others, designed to be age-appropriate.

I think a way to teach these concepts is probably to start with the kids' prior knowledge. I would want them to discuss and present to each other the ethical considerations and rules of which they are already aware and why these are important. I think this discussion using prior knowledge could be further focused by having these discussions on specific topics (like flaming) prior to showing the appropriate video presentation and following with further reflection.

As we devise on-line projects for the coming school and prepare to undertake them, I may find it necessary to communicate with parents by letter and e-mail, letting them know what we plan to do and making sure I have a prior awareness of what restrictions parents have already indicated on things like press-release forms and special notices in children's files in SASI.