This is my first week in 5316 Digital Citizenship. Before reading through the syllabus, I honestly did not know what to expect. I mean I knew it was going to cover how to appropriately represent yourself online, but I did not realize there was so much to it.
We were asked if citizenship and digital citizenship were the same. It was then I realized that digital citizenship had a lot more to it than just representing yourself in a positive way. When looking through all of our resources, I found out that there is not one set definition for digital citizenship; there are several and each of them has its own twist on the definition. Ribble (2015) deconstructs digital citizenship into nine essential constituent elements.
The nine elements that Ribble describes are:
- Digital access – Citizens have different levels of access. Full access should be a goal of citizenship.
- Digital commerce – Buying and selling online is increasing exponentially, and consumers need to be aware of what to purchase and the legality of their purchases.
- Digital communication – There are numerous ways to communicate online, and citizens need to make wise decisions in what and how they communicate.
- Digital literacy – Technological literacy requires citizens keep up with digital changes.
- Digital etiquette – Citizenship comes with a responsibility to follow etiquette when communicating with others.
- Digital law – Citizens have a responsibility to behave ethically and be aware of laws governing them.
- Digital rights and responsibilities – The rights of users are shared equally. These rights come with responsibilities.
- Digital health and wellness – Physical and psychological issues can occur when ergonomics and other problems are not addressed.
- Digital security – Citizens must take action to protect their information online.
The three categories that Ribble created based on how they directly related to the students. The first category were the elements that directly affected student learning and academic performance, and the elements were access, literacy, and communication. The second category were the elements that affected the overall school environment and student behavior, and these elements included etiquette, rights and responsibilities, and security. The third category was the affect student life outside the school environment, and this included the elements of commerce, health and wellness, and law.
The three principles that branched from this was the principle to respect yourself and others, and these included the elements of etiquette, access and law. The second principle is to educate yourself/connect with others, and the elements included are communication, literacy, and commerce. The third principle is protection yourself/protect others and the three elements included are rights and responsibility, safety, and health and welfare.
The element that is probably the most important to me is digital health and wellness. During the first part of the pandemic we were all at home with little to nothing to do but be on our devices. I often found myself at times getting depressed because of all of the negativity that I was reading. My husband gave me some of the best advice, to step away. He told me that we need a break from things like this or it will suck us in and turn out bad for us. He was right, I could feel myself being depressed with all of the world issues that I needed a break, so I stepped away and was able to turn my focus back to the most important issues in my life, my family.
I have learned a vast amount of information this week in regards to digital citizenship and saw that it is so much more than acting right online. I believe that Darren Kuropatwa (2015) said it correctly, it takes more than just not doing bad things to be a good citizen, it also takes someone making positive contributions to be a good digital citizen.
References
Kuropatwa, D. (2015, July 16). Digital Ethics and digital citizenship. YouTube. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbMsbxYvr4E.
Ribble, M. (2015). In Digital citizenship in schools: Nine elements all students should know. essay, International Society for Technology in Education.
My Journey with Digital Learning and Leading 