ISTE Standard 5:

Digital Citizenship

ISTE Standard 5 revolves around the safety factor educators must consider and incorporate when dealing with today’s digital based society and curriculum. Educators have been tasked with teaching students to “practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology” (Wicks, 2017). This teaching of digital citizenship is the result of the rapid rise in technology use both personally and in education. One such factor I learned was called the “Passback Effect”. A new term for me but it is based on how modern parents “pass” children, even small children, a digital device to occupy them instead of more traditional methods of books, crayons,etc. This gives eventual rise to educational considerations, “teachers will have to realize that many young children will enter Kindergarten and pre-school with so much exposure to digital content and tools, there are many aspects of technology use that will have to be taken into consideration.” (BYOT, 2016). This listing of contributing factors was also presented in the article by Ribble and Miller, page 138, “parents ‘are not taking the time and effort to educate themselves, as a result they have made it the responsibility of the schools. But the schools didn’t give the kids their cell phones”. But no matter the contributing factors the need has arisen and schools and teachers are the main solution.

So, this need for lessons on digital citizenship and safety provided my personal trigger question, “What are some digital citizenship lessons and resources appropriate for the middle school classroom?” One article I found was for a curriculum schools could purchase.  The curriculum was geared specifically toward the middle school age set and gave a great explanation of the need for digital safety education in the middle school setting,

“Middle school includes grades 6 through 8, with kids ranging from ages 11 to 14. It is absolutely critical to develop middle school digital citizenship skills at this time in their lives. Why? Because they are beginning to take more control of their lives. Their minds are thinking “Me” most of the time, and they are becoming more independent. They are beginning to expand socially both in the physical world and in the digital world, if they have not been doing so already.” (Crockett, 2016).

The article I found that really provided an answer to my trigger question was titled, 5-Minute Film Festival: Teaching Digital Citizenship by Amy Erin Borovoy(aka VideoAmy) on Edutopia. This article covered the scope of what digital citizenship means. Relating that “"Digital citizenship" is an umbrella term that covers a whole host of important issues. Broadly, it's the guidelines for responsible, appropriate behavior when one is using technology. But specifically, it can cover anything from "netiquette" to cyber bullying; technology access and the digital divide; online safety and privacy; copyright, plagiarism, and digital law, and more.” (VideoAmy, 2012). The article then gives a list of video clips teachers could use as a launchpad for lessons in the various areas.

In combination with this blog post, 4 RESOURCES IN TEACHING DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP AND CYBER SAFETY, which was written in 2016, I have a strong base from which to work and create engaging lessons on digital citizenship and the vast elements it entails.

References

4 RESOURCES IN TEACHING DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP AND CYBER SAFETY [Web log post]. (2016, August 18). Retrieved March 3, 2017, from http://www.classroomtestedresources.com/2016/08/4-resources-in-teaching-digital.html

Crockett, L. (2016, December 08). Middle School Digital Citizenship: What Students Need to Know and Why. Retrieved March 03, 2017, from https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/middle-school-digital-citizenship

Posts about Digital Citizenship on BYOT Network. (2016, April 6). Retrieved March 03, 2017, from https://byotnetwork.com/category/digital-citizenship/

Wicks, D. (2017). ISTE Standard 5: Digital Citizenship. Google Docs.

VideoAmy), A. E. (2012, September 14). 5-Minute Film Festival: Teaching Digital Citizenship. Retrieved March 03, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/film-festival-digital-citizenship