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Stelly Reflection Week 01

Educators must take a more active role in educating students on digital citizenship to prevent negative changes to the virtual world. There are nine elements of digital citizenship including digital access, literacy, etiquette, laws, and security. Educators should teach students to respect themselves and others, educate themselves on new technologies, and protect personal information. When implemented correctly, digital citizenship education benefits students by developing important skills and spreads to other communities.

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78 views4 pages

Stelly Reflection Week 01

Educators must take a more active role in educating students on digital citizenship to prevent negative changes to the virtual world. There are nine elements of digital citizenship including digital access, literacy, etiquette, laws, and security. Educators should teach students to respect themselves and others, educate themselves on new technologies, and protect personal information. When implemented correctly, digital citizenship education benefits students by developing important skills and spreads to other communities.

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© © All Rights Reserved
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Creating More Digital Citizens 1

Creating More Digital Citizens

Jerrica Stelly

Lamar University
CREATING MORE DIGITAL CITIZENS 2

Creating More Digital Citizens

If educators don’t take a more active role in educating students on digital citizenship, the

virtual world will make a drastic change for the worst. Ribble (2015) defines digital citizenship

as the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with regard to technology. To better equip

educators to educate students on digital citizenship, educators must understand the digital citizen

as a whole, the best implication methods, and benefit of students becoming digital citizens. 

There are several parts of digital citizenships. When most educators educate students on

digital citizenship they fixate on the aspects that should not be done. The general notion most

educators teach is: if I don't do anything bad, I will be a digital citizen. Examples of bad acts are

plagiarism, cyberbullying, or sexting. However, there is more to digital citizenship. Darren

Kuropatwa (2015) explained in his lecture that being a citizen of any community whether digital

or in person, is not only about doing the right thing but making a positive contribution. These

positive contributions will be easily performed by following the nine elements that were created

to support the definition of digital citizenship. The nine elements can be used as a rubric or a

guide to ensure compliance. The nine elements are the following: digital access, digital

commerce, digital communication, digital literacy, digital etiquette, digital laws, digital

responsibility, digital wellness, and digital security. In order to implement the concept of digital

citizenship, it is best to explain them by the categories. 

The categories are respect, educate, and protect. Educators must teach their students to

respect themselves and others. This can be taught by skits or reading and reflecting on articles

and cases. These are the best teaching methods because it allows the students to practice

empathy. In addition, it is best for educators to teach students to be independent learners by

requiring students to educate themselves about new technologies and share that knowledge with
CREATING MORE DIGITAL CITIZENS 3

others (Ribble, 34). This can be done by assigning mentors within a class to help others or

designate a day for students to present a new Google extension or a new trick within an

extension that is more familiar. Lastly, educators must teach their students to protect themselves

and others. For example, students shouldn’t disclose too much personal information about

themselves or others. The only information that should be disclosed is the curriculum, helpful

digital citizenship tips, or promotional information about the community. 

When this method of educating students of digital citizenship is correctly done, the

benefit can be spread far and wide. For example, iCitizen Project is a program that was created to

practice digital citizenship at University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford, Connecticut, then

spread to a high school in Birmingham Alabama, and then to a town hall event where live

streams broadcasted from all over the world. In addition, the benefit will spread to a better policy

creating process. Most educators are quick to arbitrarily block the Internet resources and punish

students who broke rules and didn’t break rules. Ohler (2012) found this does nothing to help

students develop the skills and perspectives necessary to be digital citizens and reaffirm for

students that they are living two lives, not one, and that they should pursue their digital interests

apart from the help of adults, teachers, or the school system. This can cause long term detriment. 

There is a need of educators that will take a more active role in educating students on

digital citizenship. This will cause the virtual world to make a drastic change for the better. This

can be done by better equip educators to educate students on digital citizenship, understand the

digital citizen, perform the best implication methods, and expect the benefit to be seen in

students and possibly more! 


CREATING MORE DIGITAL CITIZENS 4

Reference:

Kuropatwa, D. [The Brainwaves Video Anthology]. (2015, July 16). Darren Kuropatwa-Digital
Ethics and Digital Citizenship #BLC15. [Video]. YouTube. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbMsbxYvr4E&feature=emb_title

Ohler, J. (2012). Digital citizenship means character education for the digital age. Education
Digest: Essential Readings Condensed for Quick Review, 77(8), 14-17. (PDF:
Ohler_Digital_citizenship_means_character_education_2012.pdf)

Ribble, M., & Bailey, G. D. (2007). Digital citizenship in schools. Eugene, Or: International
Society for Technology in Education.

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