Week #7 Digital Citizenship

Digital Citizenship is an important issue and responsibility facing children today. Nearly every aspect of children's lives are digitally involved. The digital landscape of our culture has completely changed the way people share, learn, communicate and express themselves. Digital citizenship has numerous implications about the way we need to be educating our youth. The website, Digital Citizenship, does an excellent job of expressing the multifaceted issue of Digital Citizenship with nine different elements. Of the issues listed, I believe the three most pressing in our classrooms today are: digital communication, digital literacy and digital etiquette.

Digital Communication: 
Unlike life 20 years ago, communication is now constant. Most children have access to talk to whoever they want, whenever they want, and nearly all of that communication can happen without adult supervision. With access to texting, email, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, SnapChat, Kik and many other forms of communication, students are capable of sharing and developing socially at an astounding rate. Although students have these new forms of communication available to them, many are not being taught how to make appropriate decisions with their various communication options.

Digital Literacy: 
Although schools have made a lot of progress in the area of infusing technology into the classroom, there is still room for improvement. Children need to be equipped to be digital learners in this digital age. Technology is changing rapidly. The technology that students learn today might be outdated a few years down the road. That's why digital literacy is so important. Students need to learn how to adapt and thrive in a landscape that is constantly changing and growing. In the age of immediate information, this means that children need to be equipped to be able to learn anything at any time, any where.

Digital Etiquette:
This is, perhaps, the most important aspect of digital citizenship. We are taught how to respect one another in person by learning manners as children. "Manners" are socially accepted norms regarding how people treat and respect one another. As time goes on, some manners phase out, while others become reinforced. Keeping your elbows on the table, for instance, is no longer enforced by most families, however, simple things like holding the door open for others and respecting your elders are still practices relatively ubiquitously. Manners also vary by culture. In Japan, for example, it is polite to bow when meeting someone and to take your shoes off when entering a home. Regardless of culture, digital etiquette needs to be taught to our children so that they know how to represent themselves when they venture out into the massive and unforgiving digital realm. If left to their own devices, children will undoubtedly stumble and make poor decisions that could harm themselves or others. Many adults are not as experienced with technology as their children, so they may feel uncomfortable broaching these issues with them. It is extremely important that these issues be discussed though, so that children can make good decisions when using the internet, just as they need to be taught how to navigate any other situation. If children are not taught proper digital etiquette, there can be very severe ramifications. This website does an excellent job of displaying the disturbing facts about cyber bullying in today's world. As I had mentioned previously, digital communication can happen without any adult supervision, making it a prime place for bullying. Since it is not realistic to try and limit the way children communicate online, the best option is to educate our children as early as possible about digital citizenship.