Now that we live in a digital age, citizenship and digital citizenship go hand-in-hand. Cellular smart devices are basically attached to bodies at all times, as more time is spent communicating and entertaining ourselves through devices. Students are relying more and more upon technology to foster their friendships, especially with habits created during COVID. Being a good citizen of the world now naturally requires students to be good digital citizens. Our students had to rely on technology to foster friendships and relationships with each other during a pandemic where they couldn’t be face-to-face. Students must successfully learn how to safely respect themselves and others, educate themselves and connect with others, and protect themselves and others (Ribble, 2015). It takes a village to create a safe online environment for all. As educators, the underlying important factors of having good digital citizens is by explicitly modeling and teaching how to be a good digital citizen, and teaching empathy.
In 2011, a Pew study discovered that 95 percent of teens aged 12 through 17 are actively online (Shapiro, 2014). It is likely the percentage is even higher now. Unfortunately, although students are digital natives, we cannot assume students understand what digital citizenship entails, as the span of the topic is very broad (Pulgar & Curran, 2017). As citizens of the world, students must keep the three elements of citizenship, the civil, political, and social aspects, in mind while exploring how to better citizens (Marshall, 1950). When it comes down to it, we cannot be good citizens without being good digital citizens. The idea of virtual reality and real life blending requires us to find balance as citizens of both “worlds” (Ohler, 2015).
Ribble (2015) organizes digital citizenship into three different categories that are all intertwined. As teachers, all three categories are important, but as a middle school teacher, it is especially relevant to discuss digital etiquette, communication and digital wellness. All three of those subcategories come together to educate students on cyberbullying, which has a huge impact on our students living in a digital world. Many of our students receive a phone on their 12-year-old birthday. As evidenced in the 2011 Pew study, that age group is at the start of the demographic of actively online students. Middle school is the perfect time to begin educating students on digital etiquette, communication and digital wellness because they are being handed their first opportunity to experience the digital world alone on their personal devices.
Three components of digital citizenship directly affect student’s learning and performance academically, they are access, literacy and communication (Ribble, 2015). Digital communication is “the electronic exchange of information” (Ribble, 2015, p. 58). Students are new to sending emails in a professional setting. They are comfortable with informal messaging to their friends and playing live video games. The standards and norms for the recreational side of communication are vastly different than in the professional setting. Students do not know how to send emails that are polite and sound appropriate without being explicitly taught. How do we support students in actually using what they have learned? We must teach students empathy through team building activities, role playing and peer support groups. So often students are hiding behind a screen and forget how there is a living, breathing human with feelings on the other side.
Digital access is known as the “full electronic participation in society” (Ribble, 2015, p. 47).Net neutrality is threatening digital access. As digital citizens, it is important for students to become aware of laws and happenings that are threatening digital access.
Digital literacy is “the process of teaching and learning about technology and use of technology” (Ribble, 2015, p.63). We need to intentionally work toward creating literate digital citizens in the classroom. Ohler also encourages his audience to think about digital health and relates it to sex education 40 years ago. One group of people believed
“[it] should be taught in homes to ensure that parents [are] in charge of their children’s moral perspective. The [other side] advocated for it to be taught by [teachers] to ensure that students would receive the information they needed to make informed decisions (2015)”.
We all know how the story ended and now sex education is being explictly taught in schools. It is likely that digital health and digital citizenship will follow a similar path. Students deserve to receive an education that has the basic ideas of digital citizenship integrated in it.
Etiquette, as well as, rights and responsibilities, and security additionally affect the school environment and the behavior of students (Ribble, 2015). Digital etiquette is “the electronic standards of conduct or procedure” (Ribble, 2015, p. 67). Students need to think about their digital footprints or digital tattoos. As a student, they must think about the Google search results if someone were to Google them (Ohler, 2015). Oftentimes, future employers will Google prospects to see what comes up. All students will need to work on their individual digital footprints (Ohler, 2015). It is necessary to incorporate parent involvement in digital citizenship (Ohler, 2015). Parents need to have cyberbullying talks with their students and frequently can impart wisdom by having discussions about how to generally handle cyberbullying situations. Parents need to be involved in order for the education to be effective.
Digital rights and responsibilities are “those requirements and freedoms extended to everyone in a digital world” (Ribble, 2015, p. 78). Digital security is “the electronic precautions to guarantee safety” (Ribble, 2015, p. 87) Students need to know how to create safe passwords and usernames. They also need to know what information to put online to contribute positively to their digital footprint or tattoo, and what information is too dangerous to provide.
There are also aspects that affect students’ lives outside of the environment at school. Digital commerce, health & wellness and law will follow students and maintain importance in their lives forever. Digital commerce is “the electronic buying and selling of goods” (Ribble, 2015, p. 53). With an increase in digital purchasing, students must understand how to safely buy and sell goods.
Digital law is “the electronic responsibility for actions and deeds” (Ribble, 2015, p.72). Teachers can support students’ understanding of digital law by regularly discussing where teaching materials come from and why we legally can use them. Another area of digital law that can easily be supported is educating students on how to attribute creative commons licensed media. Students frequently use photos in their presentations and we need to teach through modeling and integrated experiences in order for students to understand the all-encompassing nature of digital law. Teachers can also support student understanding of digital law by modeling good digital citizenship and only using resources they legally have the rights to and by citing sources.
Digital health and wellness is the “physical and psychological well-being in a digital technology world” (Ribble, 2015, p. 83). There are “side effects” of being a digital citizen. Students must also recognize the need for boundaries for technology in their lives. After adopting Chromebooks this year in middle school, students are getting exhausted by the constant technology usage. The balance between technology usage and the value of in-person experiences must be modeled for students. We can model this in the classroom with students and have conversations with students as this occurs.
In 2011, 88 percent of teens who are online have witnessed cruel or mean behaviors online and unfortunately, a majority of those teens report that they ignore those behaviors (Shapiro, 2014). It is likely that this lack of action in response to cyberbullying resulted in devastating tragedy. Essex describes cyberbullying as “the use of electronic devices to send or post hurtful, embarrassing text or images intended to create anxiety, intimidation, or emotional distress in another person” (2016). During 2011 and the first four months of 2012 (ten years ago), there were 18 suicides that were connected to cyberbullying (Shapiro, 2014). As a society, we must educate our teens, educators, and parents on how to correctly handle cyberbullying. Lives depend on it.
“Together, loneliness, empathy and self-esteem predicted incidence of both cyberbullying victimisation and perpetration” (Brewer & Kerslake, p. 258). We need to start explicitly teaching empathy to students. This can be done through role play of case studies based on real-world situations, discussions, and team building activities. “Self-esteem was a significant individual predictor of cyberbullying victimisation, such that those with low levels of self-esteem were most likely to report victimisation” (Brewer & Kerslake, p. 258). Developing both self-esteem and empathy is highly valuable to students. “Adolescents with low levels of self-esteem and empathy were most likely to engage in cyberbullying” (Brewer & Kerslake, p. 258). We must work to raise levels of self-esteem and empathy. Social emotional learning needs to be at the forefront of the conversation. Developing student self-esteem and identity need to be supported. We have the power to find ways to build empathy through team building, writing etiquette, and peer support groups.
We must work together to provide students with a safe digital environment to grow up in. Hinduja and Patchin encourage schools to create positive social norming and to continue learning about digital citizenship (2015). We must combat cyberbullying with our actions. We can explicitly integrate it into every lesson and model it for our students. There is no need to teach digital citizenship as a separate entity, as it will never occur as a separate topic in their lives. Students deserve to learn how to be a digital citizen in context, so let’s explicitly teach students empathy and integrate how to be a good digital citizen in our lessons.
We must create an empathetic environment, explicitly educate and integrate digital citizenship every day in the classroom. In order to provide a resource to teachers, I have created a Google site with all of the digital citizen information organized on it. I felt like I had too much information to toss in a powerpoint, and too much important information to cut information out so I could create a video presentation.
As a result, I created the “Balancing Both “Worlds” site so I could communicate and organize all of the information appropriately. I think the part that went well was finding information. I had so many resources and information I wanted to share. The part that was hard was finding a way to make it all flow and to allow the audience to pick and choose what they wanted to hear about. It felt like I had too much information to simply create a game, a Powtoon, or another video. Looking to the future, I think it would be powerful to create a podcast to go along with the site that allows me to share this information with another teacher and to hear their additional input and reflections on the topic.
References:
Brewer, G., & Kerslake, J. (2015). Cyberbullying, self-esteem, empathy and loneliness. Computers in Human Behavior, 48, 255-260. Brewer_Cyberbullying_Self-esteem_Empathy_Loneliness.pdf
Essex, N. L. (2016). School law and the public school: A practical guide for educational leaders. (6th ed.) (pp.111-114). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Essex_Cyberbullying.pdf
Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J.W. (2015). Developing a positive school climate: Top ten tips to prevent bullying and cyberbullying. Cyberbullying Research Center. Hinduja_Patchin_School-Climate-Top-Ten-Tips-To-Prevent-Cyberbullying.pdf
Marshall, T.H. (1950). Citizenship and social class: and other essays. Cambridge, MA: University Press.
Ohler, J. (2015, September 22). Digital Citizenship: An Opportunity for Everyone. Corwin Connect. https://corwin-connect.com/2015/09/digital-citizenship-an-opportunity-for-everyone/.
Ohler, J. (2012). Digital citizenship means character education for the digital age. Education Digest: Essential Readings Condensed for Quick Review, 77(8), 14-17. (PDF: Ohler_Digital_citizenship_means_character_education_2012.pdf)
Polgar, D. R., & Curran, M. B. F. X. (2017, December 5). “We shouldn’t assume people know what digital citizenship is.”. TeachThought. https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/we-shouldnt-assume-people-know-what-digital-citizenship-is/.
Ribble, M. (2015). Digital citizenship in schools: Nine elements all students should know (3rd ed.). Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education
Shapiro, E. (2014, January 22). The Case for Teaching Digital Citizenship. The Jewish Press JewishPresscom. https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/the-case-for-teaching-digital-citizenship/2014/01/23/.
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