Digital citizenship is an emerging term in educational society, referring to the responsibility of internet users to engage with society on an appropriate level. This topic is essential to society from an educational standpoint, since there is so much information being posted daily on the internet and it is important to know how to deal with and assess this rapid information. I also like to think of digital citizenship as an alternate world that many internet users imagine themselves in-they place themselves in the real world as well as the virtual world. The drastic development of technology is much like the invention of the printing press in the Renaissance of the fifteenth century, however, there is a wealth of information overload which is tenfold compared to the printing press. Therefore, digital citizenship is an important topic to be educated on for both parents and young students to understand where and when information is coming from, as well as the potential biases that are evident sources to determine whether sources are credible or not. It is important to teach students the fundamental responsibilities to ensure one has safe, legal, and ethical engagement with online activities (Gleason & Gillern, 2018). By first understanding these foundational responsibilities in digital citizenship, students and parents can begin to understand the severe consequences of not following these safe responsibilities while they engage online. There can be further discussion on how digital citizenship is massively beneficial, particularly in the spectrum of accessibility to immediate information along with adaptability in learning activities (Huffman & Shaw & Loyless, 2019). This wealth of information, as it’s commonly referred to, has the ability to create more pathways for learning in and out of the classroom. Within the classroom as an educator, it is essential to consider how one might facilitate the education of digital citizenship within appropriate boundaries. A way to blend this new wave of learning with digital citizenship is to consider the role digital citizenship can play in engaging social studies with politics, which can be explored through social networks and different social platforms (Atif & Chou, 2018). I think an important way to embed digital citizenship into the curriculum is to have students pick a source about a particular political topic and assess it, which includes them determining whether the source is reliable, what bias the source reveals, and what surrounding factors contribute to the overall headline of a story. Ultimately, I think it is important and our responsibility to often consider the complexity of digital citizenship in an ever-growing technological universe, as well as the constant discussion surrounding the topic. It is imperative to analyze the benefits and disadvantages of the topic, responsibility and ethics, context of digital citizenship, and its ultimate educational value in the world of learning. Digital citizenship is, therefore, an important subject to bring to light in order to bring awareness to a potential bigger discourse down the road.

 

Atif, Yacine, & Chou, Chien (2018). Digital Citizenship, Innovations in Education, Practice, and Pedagogy. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 152-154.

Gleason, B., & von Gillern, S. (2018). Digital Citizenship with Social Media: Participatory Practices of Teaching and Learning in Secondary Education. Educational Technology & Society, 21(1), 200+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A524180840/CIC?u=unorthbc&sid=CIC&xid=4a0ce191

Huffman, Stephanie, Shaw, Erin, Loyless, Stacey (2019). Ensuring Ethics and Equity: Policy, Planning, and Digital Citizenship. Education, 87-99.