Digital Citizenship
This year my school implemented a 1:1 iPad program which involved not only deciding how technology was to be used for instruction but also how to teach our students to be digital citizens. Digital citizenship promotes a sense of community and respect for all when using technology and taking responsibility for one's actions. This includes an awareness and understanding that everything one does and says online has positive or negative consequences.
I am currently evaluating my teaching strategies that will model and support digital citizenship. Currently I do not use the iPad at all times. This encourages the students to focus without it when they don't need them and to use the digital media in the appropriate way at the right time. I also bring real-life issues to the conversation, for example discussing cyber bullying which reminds them of the negative consequences of not being a good digital citizen.
One of the challenges I am facing is the fact that my current students have grown up with technology without realizing the repercussions of such, no one anticipated the effect of technology and social media on today's generation. Parents and teachers of the next generation of students know what can happen now (good and bad) and can mold digital citizenship starting early; current generation is already groomed in particular ways and must make active, thoughtful actions in order to have the best positive effect.
Comments and suggestions are always welcome, I value your feedback!
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Hi Martha. I think you've identified a really important point about being an educator today. I've often reflected on this as "the gap" era. Parents are raising kids in the gap and educators are teaching students in the gap. Adults have grown up in an era without the internet and digital tools and on the other side of the gap is youth. They don't know life without digital tools. How do we, as adults, bridge this gap and ensure we teach them skills we did not inherently develop through our lives? I think one important step is participating in digital media ourselves. Your blog, for example, is teaching you how to have a responsible, public, professional digital identity. Kids need to see us out there, modeling how to leverage digital tools for good. That's a really important part of this. Once we acquire the confidence and skills ourselves, we diminish the gap greatly.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post.
Michelle