WHAT IS DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP

Reflection Mantra: 

Digital Citizenship: Where the Golden Rule Still Applies

Introduction:

Terry Heick defines digital citizenship as the quality of habits, actions, and consumption patterns that impact the ecology of digital content and communities. (Heick, 2020). I had always heard digital citizenship and digital ethics being used synonymously but, Darren Kuropatwa, educational technology educator, explained the difference between digital citizenship and digital ethics.  I had always thought of these two ideas as interchangeable and synonymous.  Mr. Kuropatwa made a clear distinction and speaks about how digital ethics focuses on how we treat each other in a virtual world and how this can often be seen as a list of what not to do.  Digital citizenship, rather, focuses on how to make a positive impact in an online community. (Kuropatwa, 2015). Being a good digital citizen is much like being a good citizen in the community, both expect people to be kind, respectful, and responsible.  Children learn about the ideas of citizenship in grade school, but often the same tenets of citizenship aren’t always applied to the online community.  

Digital Citizenship Theoretical and Practical Understandings: 

 Mike Ribble establishes the S3 Frameworld that are the three guiding principles of digital citizenship.  These three principles are: Safety, Savvy, and Social.  Safety is all about protecting yourself and protecting others from danger, risk, or injury online.  Savviness is staying current to digital resources and educating yourself and others around you about the ever changing digital environment.  The Social principle focuses on cooperation, collaboration, and the culture of a digital world.  These principles create an overarching theme that nine elements of digital citizenship embody.  These are the goals of digital citizenship while the elements are the tools needed to reach the goal.  Mike Ribble, lists the nine elements of digital citizenship that expands on Kuropatwa's distinction between ethics and citizenship.  Ribble lists these elements as the following: Digital etiquette, Digital communication, Digital literacy/fluency, Digital access, Digital commerce, Digital law, Digital rights and responsibilities, Digital health and wellness, and Digital security. 

Digital Etiquette refers to respecting other people in the online community.  This is the conduct that is expected of digital members and how people should respond to each other in a polite manner.  This element is similar to what Darren Kuropatwa spoke about when he mentioned digital ethics and what I had believed digital citizenship referred to a few weeks ago.  Digital Communication focuses on how people should collaborate and exchange information online.  The online community facilitates the collaborative process and should be a way to bring ideas and people together.  Communication rules will vary online from formal to informal and it is up to the community to determine which rules of communication are appropriate for the members.  Digital communication expectations must be established in the classroom so that students know how to voice their thoughts and understand other people in a way that is appropriate to the setting.  

Digital literacy/fluency focuses on the process of understanding technology and its use.  This element encompases the importance of students understanding the ever changing digital world as well as using critical thinking to understand credible sources, misinformation, disinformation, and the bias of digital resources. Digital Access is the element that concentrates on the equity of digital resources and the ability for students to engage in the online world.  This element not only includes student’s access to devices, but about their access to free/cheap wifi and enough broadband that enables them to easily use all digital tools available. This is a growing problem as families are often sharing one or two devices as people learn and work from home.  Digital Commerce centers on the access to the open marketplace that a digital world fosters.  The exchanges of goods, services, ideas, money, and other financial transactions occur in the digital world and this element builds on the tools and safeguards for this to happen in a secure environment.  

Digital Law involves the rule of law and how actions online can have legal consequences. Students need to be aware of issues like cyberbullying, slander, sexting, and other issues that have rules and policies.  Digital rights and responsibilities describe how students are often provided opportunities in the digital world, like the freedom of speech, but these rights come with responsibilities.  The digital community needs to express these responsibilities so that users protect each other and use these rights in an appropriate way.  Digital health and wellness examines the physical toll that the digital world can take on users.  How much time on a device is okay?  How is mental health affected? What age group is appropriate for being on devices?  Digital security and privacy emphasizes the privacy of personal information of the user in the digital world.  What viruses, spyware, cookies, etc. are doing with the information that is collected?  Students need to be aware of how much information they share and with who, so that the digital community can be a safe and secure one for all members. 

Concentration for Mantra:

Most everybody is familiar with “The Golden Rule” and how it states that you should treat others as you would like others to treat you.  While all of the nine elements of digital citizenship are important, I believe that they all come down to the golden rule.  My mantra concentrates on the underlying ideas behind several of the nine elements of digital citizenship.  When you follow the golden rule in the digital world the digital etiquette, digital communication, and digital health and wellness elements are all being addressed.  As an educator in psychology, I’m always worried about how the digital environment affects our mental health.  According to Deseret News, "13 million schoolchildren nationwide were bullied electronically during the past school year.”  (Struglinski, 2006).  According to Siegle, "47% of teenagers surveyed have experienced digitally abusive behavior." (Siegle, 2010).  Both of these statistics point to the evidence that people are not treating and communicating with people how they should in an online environment and it is an issue that must be addressed.  According to research, the internet and social media can impact a person's mental health, and when the content is negative and hurtful this can lead to feelings of depression, dependence, and anxiety.  (Pantic, 2014).  Being disrespectful and hurtful in the digital world can have a negative impact on the mental and physical health of the people who are digital citizens.  Treating others the way that you would like to be treated can make a positive impact on the digital community.  The first step to living by the golden rule is to communicate with others in a way that is respectful, kind, and appropriate.  It’s impossible to be a cyberbully if you are treating others respectfully that upholds the communication standards with decency and civility.  Digital citizens provide a safe community for others by being considerate to others, communicating in a respectful way, and establish a healthy environment that will facilitate good mental health for all users and citizens of the digital world. 

Presentation:

I choose to present my thoughts on digital citizenship with a podcast split up into three parts or episodes.  I believe that podcasts are one of the best ways to dispel information and reach all sorts of audiences.  While visual presentations can be appealing, it requires the audience to give up more of their time and attention, when podcasts can be listened to on a busy schedule and while doing other things.  My time, like many teachers, is very limited and I’m much more likely to listen to a podcast about a topic I’m interested in than watch a Prezi or Video presentation.  Plus, the podcast app which I used, Anchor, to create my presentation posts the podcast on sites like Apple Podcasts and Spotify.  This allows my voice and ideas to be heard by a larger audience than just the people who come across my ePortfolio and blog.  The presentation turned out great and I didn’t have any issues with it since it’s a presentation format that I have used many times in the past.  The one thing that I wish I had done differently was to invite a guest speaker or someone else in education that could expand on how the mantra that I’ve created relates to their professional practice and their thoughts on the nine elements or the S3 Framework of digital citizenship set up by Ribble. 

The most difficult part of the presentation was how to split up the message into three parts that not only fill all of the requirements for the presentation but to be succinct yet complete.  The first episode focuses on what is digital citizenship, the second part dives deeper into my mantra and the most important elements of digital citizenship, and the final episode relates digital citizenship and my mantra to my professional practice. 

Conclusion

In summation, all nine elements are crucial components of digital citizenship but I believe educators' first step in addressing these is to focus on the golden rule and how that still applies to our digital environments.  Treating others in the way that you would like to be treated is the one idea that allows educators to tackle three of the nine elements of digital citizenship right away: etiquette, communication, and health & wellness.  When these big rocks are mastered then we will see positive benefits ripple out from the digital world to the real world and beyond. 

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References: 

Heick, T. (2020, September 08). The Definition Of Digital Citizenship: The Future Of Learning. Retrieved December 12, 2020, from https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/the-definition-of-digital-citzenship/ 

Kuropatwa, D. (2015, July 16). Darren Kuropatwa - Digital Ethics and Digital Citizenship #BLC15. Retrieved December 12, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbMsbxYvr4E 

Struglinski, S. (2006, August 18). Schoolyard bullying has gone high-tech. Retrieved December 12, 2020, from https://www.deseret.com/2006/8/18/19969197/schoolyard-bullying-has-gone-high-tech 

Ribble, Mike. Nine Elements. (2020, November 17). Retrieved from https://www.digitalcitizenship.net/nine-elements.html 

Pantic I. (2014). Online social networking and mental health. Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking, 17(10), 652–657. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2014.0070 

Siegle, D.(2010). Cyberbullying and sexting: Technology abuses of the 21st century. Gifted Child Today, 32(2), 14-16, 65. Siegle_Cyberbullying_and_Sexting.pdf