Educators have a duty to teach digital citizenship

Digital citizenship is a ubiquitous aspect of most people’s daily lives in modern society and the role for educators is to ensure our students are taught appropriately to take an active role in curating their own identity.

Ribbles 9 elements of digital citizenship outline foundational components to create and develop a personal guide for navigating digital issues.

First, digital access is a gateway component through which all the other elements follow. How do people access the internet and multimedia? Do they only have access at school or work? Are they only accessing media via a mobile device? The current discussion over net neutrality will be a critical factor for future access for many people at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum because cost of access may be unattainable or their location might have limited services.

Commerce is hard for educators to address in a classroom, Ribble states, because schools are often not directly responsible for a student’s financial well-being. Commerce is generally a domain to be learned at home. However, fiduciary concerns are education related because students often must purchase materials for class and those examples could be used for teaching. Privacy concerns are paramount due to hacking and identity theft and are included also with digital security concerns.

Digital literacy includes not only appropriate use for communication, but also for etiquette. One detrimental aspect of an open internet is that individuals or groups can create false identities and profiles that allow people to behave in ways they would not face-to-face. This also leads in to issues of safety as well. Some profiles may be used to troll sites and comment spaces, but also to bully, harass or insult other users.

Etiquette and safety also fall under the realm of monitoring self-behavior. I’ve had students who have run into issues when applying for jobs because of unsavory personal behavior posted like photos from drunken toga parties or posts that are inappropriately sexually suggestive.

Some of these same issues sometimes become legal concerns as well and may incorporate elements of appropriate use or copyright. In journalism, we frequently write about people and products. What are appropriate uses? What is libel? What is false light or defamation? When are those boundaries crossed? Is attribution enough or is permission needed? Was content acquired lawfully or just taken?

Digital security will continue to be one of the most challenging issues because technology is changing so fast and I think is beyond the average individual to control because hacking has reached an industrial scale. Users are not just confronted with casual hackers, but organized crime backed by nation-states with considerable resources and infrastructure to battle. It’s over the horizon warfare – how can you fight and protect yourself against what you cannot see?

Finally, health and wellness issues are now just coming to light with the first of long-term studies that have tracked addiction, the evolution of sleep-related disorders and anti-social behaviors among others. Technology use had developed at a pace quicker than general human development. These issues will continue to be larger part of health and wellness as virtual reality and artificial intelligence become viable products and come into wider use.

Educators will continue to be guides and advisors to our students for digital behaviors just like we always have for social behaviors.