Digital Citizenship

Lamar University class EDLD 5316, Digital Citizenship, has been one of the more difficult classes based on the amount of content required each week, but it has also been one that has proven to be beneficial to my professional development due to the reflective nature of the course. Having two holidays and a 12 year old on break breathing down my neck did not help with the amount of content in the course either. There is a good amount of reading and writing, which is not my strength, but there were also videos we could watch and create, which helped a little.

It seems that Dr. Ribble (2015) has produced a comprehensive list of elements that may arise through the development of technology and digital media. Personally, the most beneficial part of this class was the intentionality of thinking about elements I have already been practicing in my career, such as etiquette, communication, security, and literacy. Commerce is an automatic, because who shops in stores anymore? The remaining elements, access, law, rights and responsibilities, and health and wellness are all part of adapting to the digital boom, but were not aspects that tended to be thought about.

In my opinion, the section about cyberbullying was the most captivating, likely because of how personal the stories were. Cyberbullying is a pertinent example of digital communication expanding faster than people were able to control. Jobs, families, and lives were lost before conversations were had to able to catch up with the times. I believe the way to combat cyberbullying is the same way traditional bullying has been handled; with conversations of empathy and against bullying. The steps to battling cyberbullying have already begun, but it had to start with simply knowing there is an issue.

For the lessons in this course to be beneficial, it is important for us as educators to hit the pause button every once in a while to reflect on current advancements in technology. Similar to this class’s final digital assignment, relating all 9 digital citizenship elements to your occupation can help make sure you are keeping up to date with all aspects of technology. In thinking about all the possible adjustments a person could make in their digital career, I created the mantra “The Only Constants are Character and Change.” No matter how much digital media and communication changes, character will always count. It is important to maintain a good digital footprint as best as possible using good etiquette and positive communication. The other constant in digital citizenship is change. If there is one thing you can count on, it is that technology will inevitably change. Knowing that change is inevitable is important for the idea of having clear expectations of always looking for and being ready for any changes that may happen, especially in the 9 elements.

References

Ribble, M. (2015). Digital citizenship in schools: Nine elements all students should know (3rd ed.). Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education