Digital Citizenship - Definition

     Digital Citizenship is defined as the standards and norms of behavior by which people utilizing digital / online resources conduct themselves in interacting with each other to impact the overall environment of the digital / online world. Digital Citizenship entails 9 key principles which this page will briefly define, and many of these principles tie into topics of digital citizenship discussed in subsequent pages. These principles include:

1. Digital Access
2. Digital Commerce
3. Digital Communication
4. Digital Literacy
5. Digital Etiquette or Netiquette
6. Digital Law
7. Digital Rights and Responsibilities
8. Digital Health and Wellness
9. Digital Security and Protection  

       Digital Access

   Digital Access involves ensuring that all students, regardless of background, enjoy equal opportunity to utilize digital electronic resources. While technology has evolved to play a key role in student life, many students - especially students from impoverished socio-economic backgrounds, those struggling with disabilities, and those residing in impoverished locations or school districts - face challenges in fully accessing digital technology. This website will address this topic in greater detail on subsequent pages, along with describing my strategies to redress this problem.

    Digital Commerce

     Digital commerce entails individuals purchasing or selling goods and services online. While the opportunity to buy or sell online has greatly expanded individual opportunities for personal enrichment, people utilizing this option must exercise caution due to financial and safety risks this endeavors may involve. People must avoid disclosing critical personal information because putting such information in cyberspace would allow unscrupulous or unethical individuals to access this information and allow them to inflict all manner of harm on individuals who are compromised. Many issues related to digital commerce falls under the category of Digital Security and Protection, which this website will explore in greater detail on a separate page. 

 Digital Communication

     Digital Communication is the act of people utilizing digital devices or networks - be they e-mail, instant messaging (I.M.), Text messaging, blogs, or Wiki, just to name a few means - to communicate with each other. While digital communication presents all manner of opportunity for people to contact each other and engage in commercial transactions regardless of location, digital communication also exposes people to all manner of risk due to any message with compromising information being permanently preserved on cyberspace, even if the sender deletes it. Many of the concerns of digital communication for this class fall under the principle of Digital Security and Protection. This website will describe Digital Security and Protection on this page, along with exploring how digital communication ties into the class-room topic of Digital Etiquette (or Netiquette) and Online Safety on a separate page.  

Digital Literacy

     Digital Literacy involves educating people to utilize digital technology, and taking advantage of digital technology  creates complications for teachers for several reasons. Teachers not only have problems due to the lack of time to educate themselves in utilizing digital technology, but students are often far more proficient with it due to having lived in a world where it was always available. The gap between students and teachers with respect to utilizing digital technology often prompts students to leave school, forcing districts to implement distance/online education programs. This class will seek to avoid this problem by integrate web content into lessons, along with allowing student online access to class.

Digital Etiquette (Netiquette)

     Digital etiquette, or netiquette, involves responsible digital behavior and appropriate use of digital devices. Many aspects of digital etiquette tie into online safety, and this website will spell out rules by which users of this website are expected to follow to ensure appropriate digital etiquette and personal security. While the rules for digital etiquette and online safety may appear self-explanatory for experienced users of digital technology, many inexperienced - young and old - make serious errors with respect to how they interact with other users online, along with using digital devices at inappropriate times. This website will define Digital Etiquette in greater detail on a separate page, along with explaining how it ties into online safety, on a subsequent page. This website will also spell out rules by which users are expected to uphold digital etiquette while preserving personal safety.      

Digital Law

     Digital Law focuses on ensuring the appropriate downloading and sharing of information from digital devices or sources, and it ties into the issues of copyright, plagiarism, and fair use. While digital resources provide unprecedented access information from almost any location, they also present all manner of opportunity to download and share material which violates copyright protection while encouraging plagiarism by students. Copyright is defined as protection of intellectual property from unauthorized recreation or reproduction for commercial or educational purposes, while plagiarism is the recreation or reproduction of works by other authors or researchers and seeking to pass it off as one's own. Finally, fair use is the appropriate utilization of copyrighted material for limited purposes of education or research  Digital law focuses on upholding copyright protection and fair use while prohibiting digital users from engaging in plagiarism. This website will describe copyright, plagiarism, and fair use in greater detail on subsequent pages, along with explaining how users of this website will uphold these principles.

Digital Rights and Responsibilities

     Digital rights and responsibilities involve digital users enjoying the right to access, download, post, and utilize digital information in exchange for exercising ethical behavior and decorum in their conduct in digital space. Users of digital information have the right to access and post information on websites without fear of vandalism of threats while utilizing responsible behavior in using technology at appropriate times for appropriate purposes. Many aspects of digital rights and responsibilities for this class fall under the category of classroom technology rules and acceptable technology use. This website will lay out the rules for classroom technology rules and appropriate technology use on subsequent pages, and parents and students will sign an agreement to abide by these rules before utilizing this website.   

Digital Health and Wellness

     Digital health and wellness entails digital users sustaining their physical health while avoiding addiction to online or digital sources. While most of the focus on digital safety involves online safety in cyberspace, use of computers and other devices providing online digital access leads to physical problems. Poor posture or background lighting can lead to physical disabilities and degraded eyesight, while prolonged focus on digital websites can lead people to isolate themselves and ignore assignments or responsibilities. This website will spell out the rules by which users will exercise to avoid these problems on a subsequent page which  describes netiquette and personal safety.

Digital Security and Protection

     While digital and online sources provide all manner of opportunity to access materials from seemingly secure locations, users often overlook the fact that they can expose themselves to all manner of risks due to messages which they send being permanently preserved in cyberspace, even if they subsequently delete it. The preservation of messages in digital space becomes especially serious if messages contain incriminating personal information such as passwords to online accounts, bank cards, or credit cards. Moreover, people also have no idea of whom they have contacted online. finally, people expose themselves to risk when they log on to unsecured websites and provide information which operators on these sites use to access incriminating private or personal information. The seeming anonymity of talking with strangers in digital space often instills users with a delusion of security or safety which is seriously misplaced, and users - especially students - must be made aware of these dangers. This website will explore the issues of digital security and protection in greater detail on a subsequent pages describing netiquette and personal safety, along with laying out rules by which users of this website will follow to minimize exposure to danger.       

 Webpage Sources

   Ribble, Mike. Digital Citizenship: The Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship. excerpted from http://www.iste.org/docs/excerpts/DIGC12-excerpt.pdf  

Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship. excerpted from http://digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html