Digital Citizenship

The 9 Elements of Digital Citzenship

Ribble (2015) discusses the nine elements of digital citizenship and groups them into three categories. Digital literacy, digital access, and digital communication fall under student learning and academic performance. This makes sense because students must be able determine which apps and programs work best for any given project (literacy), as well as know how to communicate their ideas, questions and concerns properly to their teachers (communication). However, before a student can be expected to complete digital assignments and projects or communicate with others, they first must have access to the internet at home and at school. School districts need to consider the level of digital access their families have before they can set expectations for online homework assignments, quizzes, and projects.

The next category, school environment and student behavior, encompasses digital security, digital etiquette, and digital rights and responsibilities. One of the main goals for many districts across the United States is to provide a safe learning environment where students can feel safe and respected. Since most students own some sort of electronic device and spend a lot of time online and communicate via text message or any number of social media apps, parents and teachers alike must teach them how to communicate with peers, parents, and teachers safely and respectfully. Just like we do in real life situations, parents and educators need to model good digital behavior and help their students understand that all people have the right to be treated with dignity in the digital world as well as the real world. Additionally, students must be taught that their digital interactions can have real life consequences, especially when they decide to engage in cyberbullying, sending inappropriate texts and pictures, and/or plagiarism.

The final three elements-digital health and wellness, digital commerce, and digital law-- are grouped in the student life outside the school environment category. While many schools prohibit the use of cell phones on school property during the school day, students who own cell phones tend to log a great deal of screen time outside the school day. Digital health and wellness has become just as important as physical health and wellness. Studies are showing that too much screen time too close to bedtime can seriously disrupt sleep patterns, and lack of quality sleep can lead contribute to any number of physical ailments and disorders. Furthermore, students must be made aware of other risks which can compromise their safety. “65% of online sex offenders used the victim’s social networking site to gain [personal] information” about their victim (Gaille, 2017), and scammers expertly build fake shopping sites so they can install malware to their victim’s devices, and steal identities and financial information. To help children to avoid falling victim to child predators and scammers, teachers and parents need to ban together to educate children these risks, as well as how to safely browse, communicate, and shop online.

Finally, since more assignments and projects are created digitally, students must be made aware of copyright law and fair use policies. Students who are well-informed about the proper way to interact with various online resources are far less likely inadvertently commit plagiarism in this “copy-and-paste” world or break the laws that govern online information they choose to use in their writing and multimedia projects.

In order to become a fully functioning member of our increasingly digital society, students must not only be educated on the nine elements of digital citizenship, but also how these elements relate to each other. As more young people become connected through social media and virtual learning platforms, educators must teach them the nine elements and how they relate to one another. It is difficult to teach one element without showing students how they connect with the other elements. Once students begin to understand how each of the categories build on one another. The three categories do not simply graduate from egocentric to eco-centric; they build on one another. Students must practice using each of the nine elements in concert with the other eight.

Of the nine elements of digital citizenship, the one that is most important for my students is digital access. My school is 80% socio-economically disadvantaged, and I knew that many of my students had trouble with having internet access. However, I did not realize the extent of this inequality until last year. The COVID-19 Pandemic brought to light the very real disparity of technology access among our students. My district did its best to close the digital access gap by providing Park-and-Learn areas in campus parking lots by boosting the wi-fi signals and issuing hundreds of hot spots for students to have at-home internet access. However, many of our students still do not have adequate bandwidth to complete online assignments, let alone virtually attend classes. In fact, my campus still has about 50 students who either cannot log in to Google Meet or are simply so overwhelmed by their workload that they shut down and refuse to do any school work.

Gaille, B. (2017, June 05). 39 important internet safety statistics. Retrieved March 08, 2021, from https://brandongaille.com/38-important-internet-safety-statistics/

Thoughts on Net Neutrality

Maintaining net neutrality has become a hot topic of discussion over the last several years. K-12 schools and higher-education institutions continue to move toward offering a more robust distance learning platform for virtual learners; however, if ISPs are allowed to control the flow of information, then they will essentially control what is being taught through distance learning platforms. Economically disadvantaged students and those who live in rural areas will be the ones who suffer the most. The end of net neutrality means that the existing education gaps would potentially become even wider, and student research could become more biased, as ISPs cater to those companies who can afford to push their information through at faster speeds and “block tools that interfere with their business interests or infuse educational content—and the pupils using it—with tracking, advertising, or other unwelcome intrusions” (Hogle, 2018).

With the repeal of the Net Neutrality laws, the gateway to internet censorship has been opened. The only way to ensure that our students are receiving all the information now is to do our research and only subscribe to those ISPs who do not filter the content they provide. It is my hope that Net Neutrality will once again be upheld by the federal government, or at the very least have internet service classified as utility (like electricity or water), so that internet providers cannot block or modify content that streams through their servers. “An open, affordable Internet is crucial to ensuring all students have access to educational opportunities in and out of school” (Gordon, 2017).