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Project Objective
Introduction:
The overall goal of the project is to outline and create a section of a unit plan which combines grade eight curriculum outcomes with digital citizenship. Using Ribble (2015) as a guiding source, the use of the nine elements of digital citizenship create a pathway of which to educate students on digital citizenship. Since the project and activity are built for a grade eight classroom and curriculum, I have chosen three larger topics of focus; privacy, safety & security and literacy & etiquette as the focus with the other elements of Ribble (2015) filtering in throughout. Some of the nine elements require less focus, as they would be sections grade eights would already have attained much education/focus (ex: access) or to a certain extent, difficult for grade level and age (ex: extensive digital law).
Privacy:
The notion of privacy is a complicated concept. To what extent a student may want or need privacy is dependent on the user and role in an online environment. Privacy is also something that can be taken. Boyd (2014) explains “Social media has introduced a new dimension to the well-worn fights over private space and personal expression” (p. 54). Boyd further explains how young learners want privacy, while also having some control over who has access and knowledge of said privacy. The focus of this section would be to educate students on how to maintain privacy and the role of online privacy itself. It would begin with simplistic practices like password protection and the roles of sharing. The notion of privacy would emphasize to grade eight students the impact and importance of what they share and how they share said information. Privacy also concerns itself with security, in the sense of individuals invading an individual's privacy without consent or authority to. Castello (2020) emphasizes that we need to empower students in relation to digital citizenship instead of placing fear. Students need to embrace technology and have direct interaction with social media forms to learn as they do and don’t. The suggestion from Castello (2020) is to “have a classroom social media account and assign student roles… someone might be the Tweeter or the Instagrammer of the day, where they share what it is that they’re learning. You can also use it to start a discussion about online spaces and sharing information online” (para. 6). Start with the basics like password protection, public vs private viewing, private vs public accounts and move into the deeper levels of privacy and sharing. Interaction and discovery are the focus for creating safe and healthy privacy for both online and personal sharing/creation.
Example Activity: Social Media Classroom. Students in a class operate an Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or Threads account and the role and ideas of privacy build on the material both present in education and experiences online.
Safety & Security
Young (2014) when referring to digital citizenship states “Digital citizenship can be defined as how a person conducts [them]self while using digital tools. This encompasses understanding how to safely and appropriately participate in everything from texting to email to social networking” (p. 10). Learners need to understand how to engage, protect and participate in a digital world safely and securely. This section would focus on having learners interact with each other and recognize safe and unsafe environments and communication methods. Students would be introduced to rules and laws which may directly affect them at their current age. An example could include the rules on sharing photos without consent or accessing information that is not directly accessible to them. Aspects of cyberbullying and negative teenage interactions can be of focus such as in Cooper’s (2015) informational piece on lives and secrets of thirteen year olds. Safety and security also means finding balance between curiosity and appropriateness. Students have a right to be curious and explore the digital world, but that does not mean placing difficult or restrictive boundaries on all elements of the internet. In Griffiths (2016), a search engine was created called “Kiddle” which blocked certain terms or words which “Kiddle” deemed inappropriate. This is not to say that some elements of the internet are safe for all ages, but decisively restricting students from information such as menstruation or homosexuality does more harm than good. Students would be educated on appropriate internet boundaries, how to interact positively with the online world and learn to engage online in a way that protects themselves and others from harm.
Example Activity: Discussion pieces on how and when the internet and sharing has been used inappropriately. Show examples of phishing emails and texts. Have students communicate with each other in an online email forum and show their error and lack of safety or security.
Literacy & Etiquette aka Netiqutte
The goal of digital etiquette and literacy is to have learners properly engage online using appropriate context and literary ability to communicate and engage appropriately and effectively. This specific section ties into nearly every aspect of digital citizenship, as it deals with effective communication in an online environment. Shea and Shea (1994) exemplify a list of ten rules in relation to digital etiquette, these ten rules would become the guiding principle for online behavior set in the classroom, expanded slightly to meet twenty-first century issues and online decorum. Learners would be expected to demonstrate empathy when present online, show they can demonstrate the same behavior in real life and in an online environment/setting and show they understand the difference between the two virtual and real spaces in terms of behavior. Elements of the curriculum would be dedicated to showing learners how to respect others and themselves online, learn how to represent oneself online and how to separate false and expert knowledge for academic and personal purposes. This also directly ties into the other themes noted above. Students would learn how to respect themselves and other people's privacy online and how to use technology appropriately to not cause harm to someone or their own safety and security. This section would also dedicate time to building real life digital literacy skills such as using PowerPoints, Documents, Spreadsheets and other online software to ensure literacy is widespread and empowering. Students would be directly taught and provided examples of how to engage successfully online in multiple environments using multiple variances and levels of technology to successfully become digital citizens.
Example Activity: Monitor student engagement on an interactive social media platforms. Use examples of behaviors to demonstrate positive and negative online association. Model good online netiquette.
Conclusion
The overall purpose of the digital citizenship project is to expand upon the current grade eight curriculum to include and expand upon multiple different levels of digital citizenship. Technology is becoming more and more integrated and crucial in the academic and working environment. Students/learners need to have a foundation in digital citizenship to succeed moving forward, this success benefits all who are involved and participating. All pieces of Ribble (2015) emphasize the importance of a good digital citizenship, and I believe we can import these ideas into different sets of grades and age levels to build greater digital citizenship and greater digital citizens.
References
Boyd, Dana. (2014). It’s Complicated: the social lives of networked teens. New Haven, CN: Yale University Press. NSEECD.
Castelo, M. (2020). Q&A: How to empower students with digital citizenship in the virtual classroom. EdTech Magazine. Available from:
Cooper, A. (2015). “Being Thirteen: Inside the Secret World of Teens”. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-9LtTtkg04
Griffiths, S. (2016). Just 'Kiddle' it: Child-friendly search engine uses humans to weed out adult content - but not all racy images are blocked. Daily Mail.com.
Ribble, M. (2015). Digital citizenship in schools: Nine elements all students should know. International Society for Technology in Education
Shea, V., & Shea, C. (1994). Netiquette. Albion Books. Available from:
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html
Young, D. (2014). A 21st-century model for teaching digital citizenship. Educational Horizons, 92(3), 9-12.
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