Citizenship and Digital Citizenship so what's the difference?
When I think about citizenship in the traditional sense thoughts of democracy, being a part of a community, having rights, pride for your fellow man and country, and freedom come to mine. Citizenship may mean different things to different people depending on what part of the world they live in.
Unlike the traditional sense of citizenship, digital citizenship can cross from country to country and should have a standard no matter where you live in the world. Since technology allows for us to connect with people near and far we need these standards to help guide us when interacting in the digital world. Digital citizenship allows for responsible technology use, and this is very important because in a technological world once you hit the keys your words are out there for the world to see and there is no taking it back.
We have to be responsible and respectable digital citizens.
So how do we relay this to our students. I think this is hard students today have grown up with technology, they were given devices as toddlers and may know how to use most technology better than people in their 40's and 50's. It is hard for them to understand that what they do online from the beginning will carry with them the rest of their lives. Let's be honest it is a good thing we didn't have technology like this when we were kids! We have to teach them that no matter how many times they hit the delete key once something is published to the world it is stamped forever into there digital identity. This is a hard lesson to learn as a young adult. As educators we have to A. be a good role model and demonstrate appropriate digital citizenship through our actions, B. use others mistakes as examples so that they don't make the same ones, and C. hope that they understand the magnitude of how much weight our words can carry even from millions of miles away.
As educators we must mirror being a good citizen in the traditional setting and the digital one. We must know what resources are out there to help govern digital citizenship, and use those to our advantage as protection for us and our students.
For more information follow the link to learn about themes of digital citizenship and age appropriate incorporation:
We all must take steps to protect our digital citizenship. We must begin teaching digital citizenship early and often. Will you take the steps to become a Super Digital Citizen?
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/super-digital-citizen#
What an insightful and well-written post! The structure and style of your post is well-organized, making for a wonderful reader experience. Nicely done! In the future, be sure to include attribution for all media included in your posts.
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