Digital Citizenship

As overwhelmed as I felt at the beginning of this course, I am actually quite eager to read, discuss, and learn as much as I possibly can about Digital Citizenship. We live in a digital society and my children will not know any other way of life. It is crucial that I, as an educator and I parent, model and teach my children how to be good citizens in this digital world. Mike Ribble organized Digital Citizenship into 9 essential elements in his book Digital Citizenship in Schools: Nine Elements All Students Should Know.

I had never really looked specifically at many of the elements he discussed and definitely didn't teach my learners about all of them. My leaners always hear about copyright and fair use, but we don't talk to them about Commerce or Health at all! I think many of the elements are also taken for granted, but after reading Riddle's explanations, I should probably make a more concentrated effort in making sure my learners and fellow teachers understand what they all mean.

Riddle also speaks about REPs. This helped me understand when we should be teaching/reteaching all of his elements. I LOVE that Respect, Educate, & Protect remind us that repetition is needed to strengthen our understanding of the material. We cannot mention these elements to our learners one time and expect them to suddenly become an outstanding citizen. We must learn them, model them, discuss them, and live them each and every day.