Digital Citizenship

Digital Citizenship

https://sites.google.com/site/361techcheck/digital-ethics

Tech Check is a resource website that is intended to help educators integrate technology into their classrooms.  On the left hand side of the website there is a long list of topics that educators can click on to find numerous web links, activities, articles, quizzes, etc.  The reason I chose this site was due to the vast amount of information.  There are specific links for digital ethics, Internet basics & safety, information literacy, and online tools.  Within each of these topics there are several subtopics that allow the educator to venture out to different helpful tools to enable them to better teach their students about proper online use.  For example, if you click on digital ethics, there you will see links for netiquette, blog and wiki info, copyright, email etiquette, activities and lessons for students, social networking and plagiarism.  Each of these subtopics has links for several different references that are suitable for all different age groups. 

I think it is important, no matter what age group you are teaching, to make sure they have at least a basic understanding of how the internet works and what kind of do’s and don’ts apply in different areas like email, online shopping, social media, literary references, etc. It is especially important in adult education because there is a good chance that you may get an older student in your class that is possibly information illiterate.  If so, a good place to start would be the link to 21^st Century Learning and/or Internet Basics & Safety.  Both of these links include the basics of the internet and how to navigate and participate safely.  I would use both of these links in my class and have my students work through the different subtopics gathering information.  Another link that I thought would fun and informational is under the Digital Ethics section.  There is a jeopardy-like game that students can play and another section called That’s Not Cool.  Although the content is a little high-schoolish for adults, the message is clearly stated and important to learn no matter what age you are and would also be helpful for parents of school age children.

http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/our-space-being-a-responsible-citizen-of-the-digital-world/

From the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, comes a group of professors, researchers, research assistants, and interns that have put together a project webpage called New Media Literacies: Learning in a participatory culture.  The website includes resources for educators to use in order to teach students about the online world.  The link above is for a resource on the website called Our Space: Being a Responsible Citizen of the Digital World.  Our Space is a collaboration of The GoodPlay Project and Project New Media Literacies. This is an exert from the introduction of the casebook: 

            “Our Space is a set of curricular materials designed to encourage high school students to reflect on the ethical dimensions of their participation in new media environments. Through role-playing activities and reflective exercises, students are asked to consider the ethical responsibilities of other people, and whether and how they behave ethically themselves online. These issues are raised in relation to five core themes that are highly relevant online: identity, privacy, authorship and ownership, credibility, and participation… Our Space was co-developed by Project New Media Literacies (established at MIT and now housed at University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism) and The GoodPlay Project (Harvard Graduate School of Education). The Our Space collaboration grew out of a shared interest in fostering ethical thinking, and conduct, among young people when they exercise their new media skills (New Media Literacies Research Group, 2013).”

Again, although this website says it is geared towards high school students, I feel that it is just as applicable to adult students.  In each section there is an overview of the section and learning objectives stating what students should learn after completing each section. Then it gives lesson instructions for the educator about how to teach each section. They touch on a lot of great subjects and truthfully there were quite a few things on there that I have never heard of or heard anyone speak about.  For example, I had no idea what a “flamer” was.  Come to find out, a flamer is “a person who gets into arguments and, instead of having a reasonable discussion, insults people or states his/her opinion in very blunt or insensitive ways.”  Really?  I always just thought that was an idiot or a jerk!  Who knew they had an official online title?  Not me!  Needless to say, there are 474 pages of great information and I would greatly encourage my students and even fellow educators to take a look at this casebook and see what kind of information they can learn from it.  I have put the link in my delicious.com account for later review because I know there are things in there that I need to learn. 

New Media Literacies Research Group (2013). Our space: Being a responsible citizen of the digital world.  Retrieved from http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/our-space-being-a-responsible-citizen-of-the-digital-world/