Thursday 10 January 2013
The Journey Towards Digital Community
The idea that I am living a digital lifestyle is a novelty to me despite the fact that I have an active profile set up on Facebook, LinkedIn and 2 email accounts. I don't even have television because I use my laptop for all of my media usage. Yet despite all of that "Digital Citizenry" is a new term for me. A term that has immediately become essential to the future well being of everyone who lives a digital lifestyle. The fact that I began using computers in school as early as 1991 and haven't even heard or conceived of this term disturbs me but therein lies the solution.
Parents begin the process of teaching their children right from wrong, good and bad from the moment they are born. And if parents choose to allow their children to participate with digital technology before school, it should technically be their responsibility to teach their children the same morals and abide by the same ethical codes of conduct when interacting with others online.
When the child embarks on his or her educational journey I wholeheartedly agree that school boards should accept the responsibility to "take on the task of creating academic and character education programs tailored for raising an intelligent, caring generation of students who understand the responsibilities and opportunities associated with living a digital lifestyle." (Ohler, J. 2011) The fact is that most North Americans use and are exposed to some form of digital media, no matter what their socio-economic status is, before they enter a school environment. I strongly believe there should be integrated programs in place and that it is both the government and the school board's responsibility to ensure this facet of education is being addressed.
Not having taught in the Canadian school systems as of yet, I don't have a fair assessment of what the state of digital citizenship looks like in the classroom first hand but I can say that if a video can be taken of someone being beaten up, not just at the school but in the classroom and then it is posted on YouTube, the state of digital citizenship looks dire.
The fact that only 8.2% of Teachers and 19.8% of Administrators are 'very aware of digital citizenship issues and only 'some teach students about these issues' (Hollandsworth, R., Dowdy, L., & Donovan, J. 2011) seems appalling and unacceptable. It is not enough to just be aware of these issues, educators need to teach these issues. And yes, it will absolutely need to involve everyone from parents, to media specialists, to technology professionals, to students, etc.
The difficulty is educating parents in order for them to effectively educate their children before entering school. Again, myself as an example, the term digital citizenry is new. I'm an adult and I'm capable of understanding the psychological effects of my digital expressions but a child is just learning the idea of consequences from their actions. The digital community provides a very powerful position for an individual who has not yet learned the concept of personal responsibility. So while I agree that firewalls and chaproning children while they research is a band-aid fix and not a solution, I believe scaffolding should be an integral method for proper integration into the digital community perhaps starting with parents first. I think it needs to involve Government and inter-national media campaigns.
References:
Hollandsworth, R., Dowdy, L., & Donovan, J. (2011). Digital Citizenship in K-12: It Takes a Village. Techtreds: Linking Research And Practice To Improve Learning, 55 (4), 37-47.
Ohler, J. (2011). Digital Citizenship Means Character Eduation for the Digital Age. Kappa Delta Pi Record,
48(1), 25-27.
Pacino, M.A., & Noftle, J.T. (2011). New Literacies for Global, Digital Learners. International Journal of Learning, 18(1), 477-485.
Burnett, C. (2011). Pre-service teachers' digital literacy practices: exploring contingency in identity and difital literacy in and out of educational contexts. Language & Education: An International Journal, 25(5), 433-499.
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Skye you discuss very interesting items in relation to Digital Citizenship (DC). I appreciate that you have discussed that although many of us are involved in numerous digital mediums, the concept of DC is unheard of by many. Why do you think this might be the case?
ReplyDeleteYou stated:
"I'm an adult and I'm capable of understanding the psychological effects of my digital expressions but a child is just learning the idea of consequences from their actions."
Do you think that this statement would be true for all adults? Do all adults understand and practice positive citizenry? So all parents and teachers then have the skills to pass this information on to children? If a child does not have a person in their lives who understand this type of citizenry or they do not see these ideals being modeled, how with they acquire these skills? Would they be at a disadvantage without?
Also above you discussed how it should be a governmental responsibility. How might a government or school division support this notion? How would the average citizen have their own sense accountability, responsibility or flexibility of approaching this topic?
What evidence of citizenry did you see, experience or teach in your assignment outside of Canada? This topic is not solely a Canadian one, but rather a global topic.
Please don't feel you need to respond to all questions I am posing here as I am providing additional food for thought that might be reflected upon.
Hello Skye,
ReplyDeleteI found your comments to be intriguing. You stated in spite of your significant experiences with technology, the idea that you are "living a digital lifestyle is a novelty," and that you find it disturbing that although you have used digital technologies for more than 20 years, you have never before heard the term 'Digital Citizen". I am not surprised by your comment. I often feel that as our society becomes populated by more and more digital natives, the elements of digital citizenship become an oversight or assumption: something people do (or do not do) without giving it much thought. Do you think that giving it a name will make a difference?
In some ways I am reminded of democratic citizenship - many people (myself included) take democratic citizenship for granted, often not paying much attention to their freedoms, rights and responsibilities until they become infringed upon or pertinent to some specific situation. Voter apathy provides one example of this. The same could be said about digital citizenship. It often seems that only when issues arise do conversations and actions occur. For example, discussions and solutions to address cyber-bullying increased substantially following the suicide of BC teen Amanda Todd. Indeed, even in my Grade 6 classroom, we used this incident to spark learning activities to teach about this aspect of digital citizenship. I am not sure that we would have necessarily addressed this topic as effectively if not for this incident. I certainly do agree that elements of digital citizenship should be intentionally planned and taught in schools and at home, but this does raise some interesting implications. As such, I think that your suggestion that media and government campaigns be involved could be considered quite valid.
Posted by Kim L.
(I tried to log in through my word press account to post but it wouldn't work)
Carmen, I think the concept of DC is new and as such, older generations were never exposed to computers or the internet. When I brought up the concept to a few friends of mine there were also learning of digital citizenship for the first time. When we leave the academic setting we are no longer exposed to latest concepts and theories. And so there is a "lag" in information being passed down from the academic world to the professional world or just those that have the information and those that don't and may never learn either from their own choice to avoid it or because of circumstances that would prevent them from gaining this information.
DeleteKim, I do think that by giving it a name does make a difference. Language provides deeper understanding just as situation gives practical knowledge. In your example of the Amanda Todd incident, your students were able to analyze the issues and develop greater understanding of their own digital citizenship. Which I think was brilliant by the way! Thank you for sharing that with us!