Digital Citizenship

 (Ribble & Bailey, p.12)

Mike S. Ribble and Gerald D. Bailey wrote "Digital Citizenship for Questions and Implementation"to explain what they have identified as the nine areas of digital citizenship that need to be addressed and incorporated into schools today. These categories include the topics of digital etiquette, communication, education, access, commerce, responsibility, rights, safety, and security (Ribble & Bailey, p. 13). Ribble and Bailey researched these areas extensively because they feel that "personal misuse and abuse of technology have reached epidemic proportions in school as well as in our daily lives" (Ribble & Bailey, p. 13). In order to bring up a technology-dependent generation to be responsible, ethical, and safe stewards of the resources that they have been given, teachers need to teach and also demonstrate in their own lives the concept of proper internet and technology use. By incorporating the nine areas of digital citizenship into school environments, assignments, and lessons, teachers can adequately prepare their students for the "real world" in which they must understand and responsibly use technology, treat others with respect, and protect themselves against the possible dangers that lurk on the internet.

I have learned a great deal about technology and digital citizenship this semester, and definitely plan on transferring my knowledge in this area to my students. Thanks to the projects that we have explored in 422, I am confident that I can "develop information literacy and technology skill curriculum materials matched to content standards" by assigning activities that will be completed using Voicethread, Glogster, and other related computer programs (Ribble & Bailey, p.14). However, there are two aspects of technology education that I had not yet considered: electronic commerce and digital security. This article explains that teaching proper electronic commerce practices goes farther than simply telling students that piracy is wrong. Students also need to have a good understanding of "[purchasing] goods with emphasis on privacy, identity theft, and credit card protection" (Ribble & Bailey, p.14).  This is a very valid point, and I would love to come up with a way to teach my students this concept through a class activity somehow. Perhaps I could design a simulation in which students could use play money to "purchase" items from other students throughout the class, but they would have to check the seller's credentials and make sure that their own information was protected by refusing to share too much personal information with the seller. Some students could secretly be "bad" sellers, and the class could see the damage done to those sellers' customers at the end of the activity. Once we all reconvened, I could show my class real e-commerce sites and point out what information to look for in a seller, what information to trust, and what information to stay away from. Then piggybacking on this idea of self-preservation on the internet, I could introduce the second concept of digital security that I previously mentioned. My students would learn about viruses that can be picked up on the internet, how to protect their computer from such viruses, and how to save and back up all of their files so that if their computer ever did crash, they would still have a copy of all of their information. I feel that these lessons in digital citizenship and security are invaluable and should definitely be taught to students in our technologically advanced world today.

This article was a great source for information on digital citizenship, and it shed light on a lot of very important issues in the world of technology. Ribble's and Bailey's nine categories of digital citizenship will become an absolute necessity in schools as our society continues to advance and become dependent on technology. Issues like etiquette and responsible communication on the internet seem to be rising as popular topics in the teaching community. These are definitely important issues, but we as teachers need to be aware of all of the issues that come with using technology. Teaching our students lesser-known skills like engaging in safe electronic commerce and being prepared to counter the devastating effects of viruses on computers will be tremendously helpful in their academic and personal lives. We need to help raise the coming generations in a way that will enable them to be successful citizens of a digital age.

Students who become fluent in proper digital practices due to the information in this article and the commerce activity that I would like to implement in my class will fulfill NETS-S #5: Digital Citizenship.

Ribble, M.S., & Bailey, G.D. (2004, October). Digital Citizenship for Questions and Implementation. United States & Canada.