Note: This post is in response to Week 6 Module 6 Blog 1
Citizenship technically means being a member of a particular country and having the rights which go along with that. But where does that leave the globalised "country" of the internet? How do we become a digital citizen, and more importantly, how do we teach students to have good digital citizenship?
Citizenship technically means being a member of a particular country and having the rights which go along with that. But where does that leave the globalised "country" of the internet? How do we become a digital citizen, and more importantly, how do we teach students to have good digital citizenship?
Roblyer & Doering (2014) suggest there are several “controversies”
around the internet. I would argue that these are not so much controversies
(although I guess their effects may be controversial) but facts of life when on
the internet. They list them as follows:
#1 Accessing sites with inappropriate materials
#2 Safety and Privacy issues for students
#3 Fraud on the internet
#4 Computer viruses and hacking
#5 Copyright and plagiarism issues
Some of the issues listed related to both digital literacy and
digital citizenship. What is the difference? If you have digital literacy are you
then a good digital citizen? Some research (Jones
& Mitchell, 2015) recommends distinguishing between the two
– defining digital literacy as the skills to be able to do things – search,
protect privacy, cite online information, avoid scams and so on – and digital
citizenship as practicing respectful and tolerant behaviours towards others and
having civic engagement – much like the definition of offline “good citizenship”.
Jones and Mitchell (2015) also suggest that building specific good online
social skills rather than admonishing bad ones may be more effective. This is
an interesting point to me – many programs I’ve come across do focus on the “bad”
aspects such as cyber bullying. Would it be better to teach some good skills
alongside the warnings? One study cited showed that youth participation in
online interest driven activities (e.g. contributing to a discussion forum or
website around a hobby, or giving instruction to a less able person around an
interest area) predicted future civic participation in areas including politics,
volunteerism and community problem solving (Kahne,
Lee, & Feezell, 2013). Perhaps encouraging students to start
online interest groups within a school community and beyond might be one way to
help students be good digital citizens.
When it comes to digital lives, we can’t put the genie back in the
bottle. We must therefore learn how to manage it well in our own lives and
teach these skills to our students, just as we teach them other life skills.
References
Jones, L. M., & Mitchell, K. J. (2015). Defining and measuring
youth digital citizenship. New Media
& Society, 18(9), 2063-2079. doi:10.1177/1461444815577797
Kahne, J., Lee, N.-J., & Feezell, J. T. (2013). The civic and
political significance of online participatory cultures among youth
transitioning to adulthood. Journal of
Information Technology & Politics, 10(1), 1-20.
doi:10.1080/19331681.2012.701109
Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2014). Integrating educational technology into teaching (Sixth
international ed.). Harlow, Essex: Pearson.
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteGreat read, thank you for your interesting post. You make an interesting point with regard to programs focusing on the “bad aspects”; maybe the shift should be weighted toward good behavior over the bad. I like the idea put forward by (Jones & Mitchell, 2016) that digital citizenship education should have a greater focus on tolerance and respect. The idea that students “practice perspective-taking and respect as a way of improving digital citizenship and preventing online bullying and harassment is interesting. This method is maybe preferable to the current awareness raising strategies that have not proven to be effective (Jones & Mitchell, 2016).
References
Jones, L., & Mitchell, K. (2016). Defining and measuring youth digital citizenship. New Media & Society, 18(9), 2063-2079.
Thanks Kellie, interestingly there is a lot of research around fear campaigns and seemingly some division over whether they work. One meta-analysis I found (Witte & Allen, 2000) suggests that in order for fear campaigns to work, they must be accompianied by high-efficacy messages - i.e. people must believe they are able to do something effective to mediate the problem. So combining practical strategies with safety messages might be a good way forward. IMO Cyber safety and the like are effectively "public health" type messages.
DeleteWitte, K., & Allen, M. (2000). A meta-analysis of fear appeals: Implications for effective public health campaigns. Health Education & Behavior, 27(5), 591-615. doi:10.1177/109019810002700506
Hi Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and believe that focusing on teaching students good skills would be much more beneficial than focusing so heavily on the “bad”. I remember having guest speakers come to our school to talk to us about the dangers of the internet but I often felt the point of these conversations were more on scaring us then teaching us! I argue it would be more beneficial to teach students how to overcome these issues and how to use the internet safely. In an article written by Abigail Walthausen titled Schools should be teaching kids how to use the internet well (2014) she talks about the need to give students more opportunities and responsibility in being positive citizens of the web. Walthausen (2014) argues that students should have unfiltered internet access as this freedom will enable them to learn valuable internet skills. I believe your idea on encouraging students to use the internet to create online groups within the school community is a great idea, as this would allow students to practice being good digital citizens.
Walthausen, A. (2014, February 14). Schools should be teaching kids how to use the internet well, The Atlantic.
Interesting idea - unfiltered access... I do think there is a place for filtering certain content, although I think the need diminishes as kids enter a secondary school environment - they'll get around it anyway. I find a lot of education reminds me of sex education in conservative countries - e.g. abstinence. Apparently statistically it doesn't work - kids need to understand more than just "don't do it" to comply.
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