Digital Citizenship

There has been a lot of discussion among some of the teachers in our school district about digital citizenship. In fact several of the high school teachers, coordinators and librarians are planning a workshop for parents in the fall. Will an hour or even two-hour workshop be enough to get across the nine elements of digital citizenship as outlined by Mike Ribble on his Digital Citizenship site? I am glad that we are addressing this concept which has been thrust on us as educators by rapidly growing technology. As usual though we always seem to be rushing to catch up. I am afraid a workshop for high school student's parents will barely touch the surface of this dilemma. Digital citizenship needs to be taught from an early age just like we teach our children to say please and thank you, take turns on the slide, and chew with their mouths closed. A big problem as I see it is that more and more parents are leaving even the teaching of those skills to their day care providers. If this is indeed the case then we as teachers will need to pick up the slack.

Counselors in the elementary school teach lessons using Netsmart but those are taught out of context in short periods thoughout the school year. Middle schools may address digital citizenship during keyboarding and when computers are being used in research. High schools are probably touching on it when doing research with computers but there is no consistency. The teaching of digital citizenship is reliant on the technology level of the teachers, computer lab techs, and library media specialists who are working with these students and there is a wide variation in the technology skills within the school district. This is a real dilemma and this dilemma will continue to grow as technology escalates. This dilemma will no be solved easily.