4.5 Use ICT safely, responsibly and ethically

During my professional practice I incorporated investigating and creating with ICT into my science lesson but in future I would like to make greater use of digital technologies for communication. The proportion of Australian households with internet access has steadily increased since 2004, and 97% of households with children aged under 15 years were connected to the internet in 2017 (ABS, 2018). Now that more young Australians are connected online, it is important to teach the how to use digital technology safely, responsibly and ethically.

I plan to teach the concept of digital citizenship to my students as I integrate ICT into lessons. There are varying definitions of digital citizenship but common themes across different definitions are respectful communication, safety and security, cyberbullying prevention. information literacy and ethics (Choi, 2016). In my classes, I want to focus on respectful communication and positive online engagement with the aim that students can learn to be a part of meaningful digital communities. This can be integrated into science classes without taking away time from the curriculum content.

1. Introducing digital citizenship

Most high school students are regular users of the internet and digital technologies so I would begin with asking them what they think digital citizenships is. Students’ ideas can be collected and displayed using a digital word cloud, Mentimeter allows students to easily share their responses using their own devices (Figure 2). This can be used as a discussion starter and an informal diagnostic assessment of what students know about digital citizenship. To continue the discussion, CyberWise, a resource website on safe use of digital media, has a useful introductory video on digital citizenship (Figure 3).

2. Embedding digital citizenship into science teaching

Timely, constructive feedback enhances student learning (Brookhart, 2008). The teacher is the key source of classroom feedback, but students can learn to give effective peer-feedback too. A classroom blog is a way students can practice giving feedback. In science classes, students may produce reports, short pieces of writing, concept maps, videos and other forms of multimedia – these can be posted on a blog where students are required to comment on each other’s work. To ensure feedback is constructive and respectful, students can be given a guideline on appropriate feedback (Figure 4) or guidelines can be created in a class brainstorm.

Another important skill is having respectful disagreements. Disagreements are inevitable and can be productive, but online disagreements are know to give rise to “trolling” – where someone seeks to provoke the other party though offensive comments (Binns, 2012). An alternative is respectful argumentation, where evidence is provided to support explanations. Argumentation is an important element of science education; it encourages students to develop their content knowledge, scientific thinking and reasoning skills (Osborne, Erduran & Simon, 2004). Disputes between scientists are an important part scientific progress, examples include:

• Pope Urban VII vs. Galileo on the heliocentric model of the solar system
• Afred Wegener vs. everybody on continental drift theory
• Ignaz Semmelweis vs. Charles Meigs on the importance of washing hands

Students could create mock Twitter feeds where they debate from the perspectives of different sides of a scientific argument. The task is to communicate opposing views concisely, respectfully and with supporting evidence. This can give students insight into the history of science and practice productive argumentation.

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2018). 8146.0 - Household Use of Information Technology, Australia, 2016-17. Retrieved from https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/8146.0/

Binns, A. (2012). DON'T FEED THE TROLLS! Managing troublemakers in magazines' online communities. Journalism Practice, 6(4), 547-562.

Brookhart, S. M. (2017). How to give effective feedback to your students. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Choi, M. (2016). A concept analysis of digital citizenship for democratic citizenship education in the internet age. Theory & research in social education, 44(4), 565-607.

Osborne, J., Erduran, S., & Simon, S. (2004). Enhancing the quality of argumentation in school science. Journal of research in science teaching, 41(10), 994-1020.