LESSON 6
Digital Citizen
What you will learn in this lesson
- Who are Digital Citizens?
- Online Identity
- Positive Online Engagement
- Bad Digital Citizens
- The Bigger Picture
Introduction to characters
Angela
Digital Citizen
A secondary school student from Malaysia
She is active online and is discovering the internet
She likes to scroll on social media and post about exciting things that happen to her
Danish
Also a secondary school student from Malaysia
He is active online and very familiar with the internet
He likes to leave negative comments on other’s posts
He started an online hate group for one of his schoolmates
Zi Jie 'zijie123'
A boy on the internet
He likes to post negative comments on popular blogs
He also likes to get into online arguments with other netizens.
Andy
An older man on the internet
He likes scrolling on social media and following secondary school students
Loges
She posts adverts for jobs online.
She hopes to get people to send her money.
Have you heard of the word 'digital citizen'?
A digital citizen is a person who has the skills and knowledge to use digital technologies confidently so they can understand what they see online, engage positively and communicate with others.
You remember Angela, right?
Just like you and the other characters, Angela is a digital citizen.
As a citizen, Angela has always followed the rules and respected other people's rights. By doing so, she can live the best life she can. For example, she can go to school, spend time with friends and buy the things she needs or want.
Being a digital citizen is a lot like being a citizen in real life!
A good digital citizen can confidently use their knowledge in digital technologies to understand what they see online, engage positively, communicate with others and create digital content themselves.
There are 8 things that a good digital citizen should be able to do. Click on each icon in the picture below to know more!
However, do not let this overwhelm you. What a good citizen ultimately means is to use the internet effectively while treating everyone else with the respect you expect to receive. A big part of this is knowing how to communicate online with others in the digital world.
Online Identity
The way we communicate online can reflect our personality. But our online self can be quite different to our real self.
Do you think you behave differently when you are online? Or do you behave the same way?
Whichever it is, there is one thing that must remain regardless of your personality online or offline: being respectful and polite to others.
In the digital world, just like in the real world, we need to be aware of our digital manners or etiquette. There is a fancy name for this. What do you think is it called?
Yup! It might sound weird but that is the correct term. Now, let us have an interaction with Angela's friend, Boi. To start, type in the provided box when prompted. Even though in this activity Boi is a chatbot, remember to follow the netiquette!
If you were to choose an emoji to describe the emotion you felt during the discussion with Boi, describe your feelings and explain why. What are the things that you can do to improve the discussion? Would you respond the same way if you were speaking in person?
Write down your thoughts down below!
Positive Online Engagement
Click on the 'i' icon to read the elaboration of each picture. Remember to read the pictures by following the arrow! Start by reading the picture on top left.
Respecting others is another way to help you have the best online experiences and interactions as possible. Each person using the internet has their own values, feelings and desires.
Accepting and respecting the differences is an important part of being a responsible digital citizen.
In conclusion, there are 3 things you need to do when communicating with others:
1. Respect and accept differences in opinions.
2. Practice good netiquette!
3. Remember your personal code - don't do things to others that you don't like other people doing to yourself.
Besides following the 3 rules to communicate respectfully with others, you also need to know how to practice positive online engagement.
Why you might ask? Well, it can empower you to understand, help and connect with others online - making the online world more positive and safe!
There are five ways to practice positive online engagement. Click on each numbers to know more!
The picture below is an interactive picture. Click on the each number to learn on ways to practice online engagement.
Bad Digital Citizen
We have talked about the need to create a safe online environment and how we, as good digital citizens, can build and maintain such environment. However, if there are good digital citizens, there will also be bad digital citizens.
Let's look at these 4 situations that Angela has found herself to be in.
Situation 1
Image credit: Canva
Angela has just turned 19! She posted her birthday party picture on her Instagram. Suddenly, she received this message from a stranger named Danish..
Why do you think the stranger would send her that message?
Animation credit: Canva
Situation 2
Angela has a fitness blog. She posted this picture with the caption 'Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.'
A few minutes after, a user named 'zijie123' commented at that post, saying it is boring and 'posting my own personal pictures is more interesting'.
Why do you think 'zijie123' would say that?
Situation 3
Try and read this conversation Angela had with her new online friend, Andy. Is there a red flag?
Animation credit: Canva
Situation 4
Angela saw a job post for students that she is interested with. She has decided to contact the person, Loges who posted it. Is the response weird to you?
Animation credit: Canva
Now that you have taken a look at all 4 situations that Angela was in, try and match them in the activity provided.
The picture below is an interactive picture. Click on the moving button to learn more about the situation faced by Angela.
The Bigger Picture
Yes, being a good digital citizen is important and it's a responsibility of every digital citizen. However, it is just part of the bigger picture. There are actually other things to consider when engaging online.
The picture below is an interactive picture. Click on each plus sign (+) to learn more!
Before you end
What tips might you share with Angela on how to be a good digital citizen?
List them in the padlet below so that others could learn as well!