What is Digital Citizenship? Digital citizenship is the ability to navigate our digital environments in a way that's safe and responsible and to actively and respectfully engage in these spaces. So much of our lives are spent online, and learning to engage in a kind and responsible way can be difficult.
As digital citizens, students should have the ability to access, use, understand and engage with media (including online communities); apply critical thinking to all the media they use and consume; and know how to all these things ethically and effectively.
FIVE DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP COMPETENCIES
Balanced is about that balance between what you're doing online and offline. That behavior can influence whether it's hard for a student to close a device when they're not supposed to have it or whether or not they're trying to sneak a glance at their phone when they're supposed to be engaged in class.
Informed is about gathering credible information to process what you see online. That one is really important in schools, especially in content areas where you're doing research papers or citing sources. Being informed was a big part of my class when I was an English teacher.
Inclusive is really the citizenship part of digital citizenship: treating others with respect and empathy.
Engaged is all about using technology for good. A lot of times, we tend to focus on the negatives, which is understandable because the negatives can be very scary, especially things like cyberbullying or other sorts of unethical online behaviors. But there is a lot of good we can do with technology as well.
Alert is about safety, which previously seemed to be the primary focus of a lot of digital citizenship initiatives, right? There are a lot of places online where all people — students and adults — can get into trouble, and it's important to know how to be safe.
You can learn more about digital citizenship by visiting IUSD and learning about Digital Citizenship Week
Digital Citizenship resources for home:
