Digital Citizenship

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Before we can focus on curriculum in the classroom we must ensure that the students have a safe environment to learn. When we think about environments we often go straight to the physical spaces in our classroom. However, we must also think about how we are preparing students to deal with virtual spaces. Teaching digital citizenship and computer ethics can be a prime way to start an important discussion on ethics in general and how we wish to be treated and treat each other. The bottom line is that technology is neither good nor bad. Technology is neutral (Johnson, 2002). It is how we use it that can determine what purpose it serves. Students from a young age have a keen sense of right and wrong, fair and unfair (even if they don’t always use it in decision making). When I worked in a day care, the pre-school students often understood when one child received special attention because of a certain need. They understood it was fair even if they didn’t get the same exact treatment. When we begin to intertwine technology into the equation we must draw from these basic principles of right and wrong. For example, it is inherently wrong for a student to steal from a store. We should draw on this knowledge and connect it to situations that may happen in a less physical space. If we teach students at a young age to make this leap from a physical space to a virtual space they can understand how the principles are the same.

There is some imbalance between what we do in the digital world and what we would do in the physical world. People guess at passwords to gain access to unauthorized information, yet they wouldn’t dare to pick a physical lock (Johnson, 2002). One reason that it is hard for us to distinguish between the virtual right and wrong is because we do not have the same consequences. We feel highly removed when we are at home on our computers. We do not feel as threatened, so it is easier to be bold. We all have our own personal beliefs that help us shape our actions. These believes fall onto a continuum (Johnson, 2002). Every individual has constructed their own continuum based on their background, values, cultures and upbringing. Therefore, it makes it hard to judge cases that are both blurry in terms of ethics and happen in a virtual space. Our actions online are not as tangible as our actions in a real physical space.

As teachers, we should do our best to extend students understandings of ethics to these digital spaces. In my own classroom, before talking about computer ethics, I would hold a general discussion about classroom ethics. Having open conversation with students to discuss where we all get our believes from can help students understand why we see some differentiation. Once you come to an understanding that people may hold different values, you can discuss how at school we are held to certain standards that may be different from what we are used to outside of school. As a class, coming to a group consensus on standards creates a feeling of community and gives each student input. If students are involved in the process of making the rules, then they will be more willing to abide by these rules.

Once basic classroom expectations are set you can extend the lesson to digital citizenship. A lot of the basics will be the same, they may just look different. For example,students may have decided that when reflecting on each other’s work they want to give each other a positive statement and then constructive criticism. When you extend this expectation to the digital world, you may explain that when we are working together in a google doc, we do not want to give put downs to our group members. Instead, we want to provide them with helpful critiques so that they can improve on their work. It is important to give students models of what a good comment might look like. We need to teach these skills because they may not already have them. I think that when involved in the process students will be very willing to abide by these rules, even at a young age. Setting up a procedure for giving criticism can insure that students know what is expected of them and can then follow those guidelines. Technology is neutral, therefore, we must give our students the tools to make it a positive and safe zone.

Johnson, D. (2002). Developing Ethical Behaviors in Students. In Writing, Speaking and Consulting on School Technology and Library Issues.