Google says that Digital Citizenship is “The ability to use technology responsibly, safely and respectfully.” I think Digital Citizenship is tied to Our Digital Footprints and Digital literacy. Digital citizenship is the extension of those same ideas of safety, and understanding applied further. I think its important to focus on the word Citizenship. Often on the internet we say we visit a site almost as if we are tourists but there is a huge difference between being a tourist and being a citizen. A citizen is immersed in there community they are an active participant in daily life and help shape the future of the community through their actions. It is part of our reality that students are digital citizens in that they live in both the real world and in the digital world. As citizens of the Digital world students spend a lot of time online and it’s important that we shift them from being passive consumers into active members of community. If students are going to be active members of a community they should understand ideas around ethics, empathy, ownership, and responsibility. We need to be sure first and foremost that students are safe online but it is also important to teach them how to navigate online environments. Students need tools to decide and talk about things like information privacy, It is the role of teachers and parents to give students these tools and space to practice using them. Students need to be able to navigate how they interact online, what values do they want to preserve do they understand how and why information is collected and used. The online world has many things that students, despite spending time online, might not fully understand. It will be my job to help students understand how to navigate and use these tools. One of the things I think is the most critical is space and time to practice critical thinking, empathy and decision making. I think creating digital citizens starts by getting students to talk about how they want to organize things and how they make their decisions. When students start to use these tools they become better prepared to be citizens of the digital world. This is directly related to the educated citizen but extended and applied to the digital world.
This photo shows my phone which is how I interact in digital communities.
