Digital Citizenship
ISTE identified five core tenets of digital citizenship.
Be Inclusive: respectfully and thoughtfully engage with others online, even when you have different opinions; be kind and show empathy.
Be Informed: evaluate online sources for accuracy and validity; consider the author’s perspective and possible bias.
Be Engaged: how can we use technology to unite and influence positive change in our communities?
Be Balanced: balance online and offline activities; take breaks from technology.
Be Alert: be knowledgeable about online safety and how to help others.
There are numerous resources to help guide our students to become proficient digital citizens.
Here are some places to explore:
DigCit Commit: A great place to start with curated resources organized by providers (BrainPop, Common Sense Education, ISTE, etc.) The Common Sense Education lessons are fantastic and have a variety of grade levels and topics.
Book Creator Activity Booklets: These 3 booklets are written by Common Sense Education, and each caters to a different age demographic. For example, the book for 5-8-year-olds focuses on using technology in a balanced way and being safe and respectful online, reinforced with a song and some reflection activities.
Get Digital Skills: How does digital citizenship connect with media literacy? Help your students become more educated citizens, “consume critically,” and create with purpose. On this site, you can take a questionnaire as an educator to help guide you to helpful resources for topics such as evaluating sources and interpreting information, expressing ideas online, and communicating with others.
Fact Check Sites: Share these with your older students to help them evaluate online sources, and encourage them to think critically about what they read online.
Our classrooms hold the next generation of leaders, creators, and change-makers. By investing time in educating students about digital citizenship, we help them engage with technology not just for entertainment but also to connect, think critically, and influence change.
This topic is not only important to teach our students, but I think there are many adults who should learn more about digital citizenship as well. Lately, many adults have been posting more and more opinions and thoughts online and also responding in the comments to others' posts. Unfortunately, many of these posts and comments do not seem to consider digital citizenship. As adults, we should be responsible of educating ourselves and being respectful to others. How can we teach our students to be proficient digital citizens if they are seeing adults online who are not? As teachers we cannot control other adults, but we can work to teach students digital citizenship and the ISTE five core tenets are a great place to start!
ReplyDeleteColby, I agree that lately many adults have no been showing digital citizenship. As teachers we need to be the example to our students; therefore, we much start with questioning ourselves "Are we a digital citizen?". The ISTE 5 core tenets are also tenets that we can connect to ourselves as citizen in a community. I think it would be important when introducing digital citizenship to also connect the ISTE 5 core tenets to ourselves and see where they connect in the real world outside from the computer. This is a very important topic that doesn't get enough notice.
DeleteI agree! Some adults are not reflective with their initial thoughts, and then when they express it online, they do not sound too bright. I find it very grateful that as teachers, we stay reflective (as we should), and further bring that practice onto our students. Children will mirror making the impactful mistake of having no digital citizenship as adults are. Ultimately, adults are the example to the children and as technology is advancing, we must follow the five core tenets.
DeleteI believe it is essential to teach our students the ISTE five core tenets of digital citizenship. Like Gabi and Colby mentioned, our teachers need to know and recognize these tenets before teaching it to their students. Especially nowadays, everything can be online whether it is accurate or not. It is SO important to teach our students about credibility of sources whenever they are online.
ReplyDeleteDigital citizenship is now becoming very common, considering that people can have their own personas online. There are students who would admit that they feel more comfortable expressing themselves online than in person! As I can totally understand with where they are coming from, I stress that there should be some boundaries: do not shut out reality. Additionally, this article argues an important factor of establishing rules when expressing ones' self online. Therefore, the students will be aware of it and stay cognizant for the future to prevent conflicts.
ReplyDeleteThis is such an important topic to remember as we discuss technology in education. I like that the ISTE five core tenets not only connect to how students interact with others online, but how they interact with online resources. It is important for students to understand that not everything they see on the Internet is valid and that we provide them with the tools and understanding to evaluate resources. I also think its interesting that one of the tenets mentioned taking breaks from technology- that is something that I'm not sure is discussed enough with today's students. Great post!!
ReplyDeleteEmily I 100% agree with you about how important it is for students to understand that not everything they see online is true and that there are websites which are completely biased. I believe that students need to be exposed to all types of information, but have to be able to synthesize the information to get the least biased opinion possible. I also agree with you about how taking breaks from technology is not talked about enough. There is definitely such thing as information overload, and I believe as a society we don't think about needing to take a break from consuming information online - whether through social media or websites.
DeleteJen this is a great blog! I think that it is so important for students to understand that not everything they read online is true and that there can be so many biases based on where they may be getting their information from. I think it is our job as educators to make students aware of how to look for these biases online and how to check for reliable and credible sources. Great job, Jen!
ReplyDeleteJen this is such a good blog post! It is very important for students to become introduced with digital citizenship. It is important for students to learn how to be respectful to others on the internet. I think something that people need to keep in mind, especially adults, is being kind to one another on the internet. Teaching students about digital citizenship early on will hopefully impact their lives into adulthood!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great post! I feel like we as teachers have a pretty firm understanding that not everything we read online is true, however, this might be new information for our students so it is so important that we teach them this. Giving them information on how to ensure a website it reliable and a credible source will help them now only now but in the future as well.
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