Children learn to use digital media at a very young age. They play games alone and with others on tablets and iPads. They use cell phones to talk and text with other kids. And they do it all without really thinking through what they do. It’s done more by “instinct” rather than rational thinking.
One problem here is that children, who soon become students, are becoming digitally proficient before they become emotionally mature and socially adjusted. That leads to problems in how they communicate with other students and to the inflicting of harm, intentional or not, to their peers.
Social-emotional learning (SEL) is an important part of growing up. Children need to understand themselves before they can understand others. This self-awareness takes time, and unfortunately, it takes longer to develop than to grab a phone and start texting.
The influx of technical devices into schools and at home makes it very easy to express feelings to others, including harmful thoughts and comments, without too much notoriety or consequence.
That is why cyberbullying can occur so often. The Cyberbullying Research Center published a report last year which said that 33.8 percent of students aged 12-17 have been victims of cyberbullying.
This disturbing trend has led to the rise of a countermovement with the focus on digital citizenship and a growing number of organizations sponsoring or conducting lessons as a critical component of digital education.
Fostering Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) in a Digital Ecosystem
Digital citizenship is the awareness that you are not communicating in a vacuum. There is areal person on the other end of the digital device you are using, a person with feelings and beliefs and cultural heritage just like you. Those feelings and beliefs may be different from yours, but they are equally important to the person you are talking to.
One program that is tackling the issue in partnership with the University of Michigan (U-M) and students of Scarlett Middle School in Ann Arbor, MI.
Student teachers from U-M visit with the middle school students to discuss many aspects of digital use and its effects, such as Internet privacy and security and even cyberbullying prevention and protection.
The teachers try to educate the students on how to treat each other online and what it means to be digitally civil and compassionate. They try to teach digital etiquette before the students get too involved with using their devices in school.
Teaching students to think how others may react to their messages is fundamental to citizenship programs. The students themselves are getting involved in the education process.
One student has designed a program that uses an algorithm to detect if a student is about to post something offensive and then presents a dialogue box asking the student if he or she is sure about wanting to post it.
The product is called ReThink, and according to the research quoted on its website, when adolescents are alerted to rethink their decisions, they change their minds 93 percent of the time.
ISTE Standards Supports Digital Citizenship to Empower Students
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is a nonprofit organization that supports educators interested in making technology serve education. It serves more than 100,000 education stakeholders throughout the world and provides technology resources to support professional learning for educators.
ISTE believes that the first step to cybersecurity and the stop of cyberbullying is instilling a sense of digital citizenship.
ISTE’s “Standards for Students 2016” includes their definition of digital citizenship, describing those students as the ones who “recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal, and ethical.”
Skype Being Utilized to Teach, Embrace Cultural Empathy
As an education tool, Skype and other videoconferencing platforms can be used to teach students how to communicate with others around the world.
Meeting with people from other countries can develop empathy for their culture and show that students share the same problems worldwide. Students learn that there are other students just like them, no matter where they live or study.
Students love to share ideas, feelings, artwork and songs and develop a camaraderie that endears them to each other. This is what digital citizenship is about.
Facebook Awards Digital Citizenship Research Grants
Facebook’s goal is to make the world a more open and connected community where people can have a more positive impact on each other, changing the way we share, discover and learn.
Recognizing the importance of citizenship in a world of social media and technology, Facebook unveiled its Digital Citizenship Research Grants program where it gave $200,000 in grants to deserving organizations.
Facebook evaluated nearly 100 applications from 10 countries and based its awards on several criteria including Submissions were evaluated based on several criteriaincluding the global application, novelty of research topic, previous experience in conducting world-class research, and extent to which the research is open-sourced and broadly-shared.
Awards were granted to four recipients including the Education Development Center (EDC), the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE), Define The Line, McGill University, and European Schoolnet (EUN).
All four winners are doing research focused on the interlocking roles of teens, parents, educators, and companies working together to support and encourage digital citizenship, to use social media productively, and to reduce bullying.
Digital Citizenship Institute Teaches Online Ethics
The Digital Citizenship Institute is a consortium of educators working together to help students, educators, administrators and parents to navigate the digital world and to improve everyone’s understanding of it. Their goal is simply to help people use digital technology appropriately.
The Institute sponsors nine elements of citizenship including digital literacy, digital etiquette, digital law, digital rights and responsibilities, digital health and wellness, and digital security.
The nine elements are organized under three principles: respect, educate and protect. The Institute teaches users to be responsible for their owndigital experience and at the same time be responsible for the rights of others.
Comparing the use of digital technology to staying physically fit, the Institute encourages repetitions of practice exercises to maintain a healthy routine of digital access and use. It outlines digital exercise programs to be used at different grade levels.
Digital citizenship is everyone’s right and responsibility. Educators and students alike are starting to realize the importance of spreading the word and putting these words into actions.
