ETL523 Activity #1 Sharing digital citizenship and DLE (Digital Learning Environment) ideas

This post is in answer to questions asked as part of ETL523, Module 1. 

1. What is your definition of digital citizenship? 

If you are a citizen, then you are a member of a community. In this case, it means a member of a world wide digital community and as such there are guidelines for your behaviour as part of that group. Digital citizenship means that a person behaves in a responsible, safe and ethical manner in the digital realm (Greenhow, 2010, para 3).

2. What is your stance on digital citizenship?

I think that one's view of digital citizenship has a range of different elements and that these elements are affected by cultural and social factors. What I mean by this is often what is considered responsible and safe in one context may not be accepted as such in another context. For example, during the webinar in which Julie Lindsay spoke, she talked to us about a group of Muslim students who had to be very careful how they interacted digitally as compared with students here. Another example, is the age of the student. That is, what is appropriate behaviour for a child over 13, is not considered safe for one under 13 years of age.

3. What should an informed, publicly engaged digital citizen look like?
If they are an informed, publicly engaged digital citizen then they should:

•  have a PLN that is constantly developing
•  be willing to experiment with different digital tools
•  be using tools  at home that  should be similar to the ones they use at work/school
•  be aware of maintaining a positive digital footprint
•  be curating information and contributing to the compilations and blogs of  others.

4. What direction are you (or your school) taking?

My school and I, I hope, are starting to be in sync. Our principal is very innovative and after the teachers and executive have attended the Future Schools Conference I think they are now starting to understand what I have been saying for a while about using the library and the digital tools in the school differently. 

I am hoping to survey the students and the teachers to find our what sort of digital citizens they really are and what I can do to assist them. 

I would like to see the  school reach out to each other and to the wider community by collaborating. There is a e-backpack developed by the department and each child has access to this. I will be experimenting with this and posting about this in the future.

Greenhow, C. (2010). New concept of citizenship for the digital age. Learning & Leading with Technology, 37(6), 24-25.