What is Digital Citizenship?

 

To Think About : Is there more to Digital Citizenship than we have been taught?

   

 

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The term Digital Citizenship simply stated by many, is the act of respecting others and oneself while online. Others, more researched in the area of online safety and education, such as Anne Collier, author of NetFamily News, and Safety Advisory board member of Facebook, as well as Vicky Davis, author of CoolCat teacher blog, feel that the true meaning is far more encompassing than that. These two agree with the definition provided by Larry Magid, author of Digital Citizenship Includes Rights as Well as Responsibilities. In an article posted in Child Safety magazine in September 2010, Magrid stated “Some people are associating ‘empowerment’ with digital citizenship…”  As education is a broad field, some may be looking for the simple and straightforward definition, one that offers many pre prepared lessons and guides to introduce students to the general rules of responsible online behavior. It is believed there are a growing number of educators however,  that are of the opinion that the qualities of  21st century learning not only require but demand more. 


 

 

 

If one examines the morphology of the word citizenship, they cannot deny that the word citizen is the root. And in doing so, must acknowledge that the rights and responsibilities that govern citizenship of a particular body be applied in the case of the digital realm. In short, many feel that digital citizenship should involve not only the elements of respect and self protection of oneself online, but also encourage those citizens to participate in more of the freedoms that citizenship allows. Magrid references the following in support of such an idea, “Article 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (ratified by every country in the world except Somalia and the United States) states, ‘The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing, or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice. Clearly ‘any other media’ includes the Internet which means that, by international law, children have codified rights when it comes to what they can read and what they can say.’”   What Magrid, as well as Collier alike are supporting is that digital citizenship, more so, the teaching of digital citizenship to students, should offer students more opportunity and freedom to exercise their first amendment rights. As well as ensuring students are not sheltered from access to digital resources and the opportunity to express themselves while utilizing digital tools, such as social media. Magrid further supports and expounds upon these ideas in his article. He fully addresses the benefits and drawbacks of giving such rights and freedoms to minors, but with supporting facts from Collier, they make some very strong arguments for their cause. 

 

 

Again, whether one agrees or disagrees on the newest of definitions of what digital citizenship is or should be, it is always wise to remember,  that as everything changes, the digital realm seems to change in more quantifiable ways. Education, while it takes on a responsibility to protect, can be defined as an enlightening experience and the depths of what that means should be considered and taken into consideration.  We live in a digital age, the internet opened the door to some of the farthest reaches of the world as well as to terms such as global citizenship. Oxfam, a global organization for fighting poverty and hunger, defines global citizenship, in relation to education, as, “encouraging young people to develop the knowledge, skills and values they need to engage with the world. And it's about the belief that we can all make a difference.”  Many definitions of global citizenship echo this belief (GlobalCitizenYear, United Nations). While the internet has opened the doors to the world, and its many issues, such as hunger and poverty; in many educational institutions the doors to access information about such issues are locked and district IT departments hold the keys in the name of protection. 

 

For many in the year of 2020, education has a responsibility to teach citizenship in many forms. The qualities of the 21st Century Classroom encourage collaboration, critical thinking, communication, problem solving, as well as the integration of technology, and more.  These are tied directly to global and digital citizenship.  Moving forward, educational institutions, as well as innovating educators need to take the time to examine whether their definitions of digital citizenship may be outdated and need to be redefined. 

 

Below you will find an image link to Anne Collier's TedTalk Video

where she discusses some of the more indepth defininitons of Digital Literacy

 

 

Basic Digital Citizenship Tools and Resources

Click on each image below to find link to its source

 

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                                                                                                  Click the image to link to the Edutech Blog where this was found

 

 

Student Friendly  Digital Citizenship Video Links

Click on the image for each to connect to the video link

 

 

 

Resources

 

 

 

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