'Digital citizenship' needed in today's high tech schools |
On Board Online • April 6, 2015
By Cathy Woodruff
Senior Writer
Your district has installed broadband Internet access throughout its schools and purchased hundreds of laptop computers and other devices. The latest educational software is on order, and students are anxiously awaiting their first school day with unfettered access to their smart phones.
You are on track to become a perfect model of tech- inspired educational innovation, right?
Perhaps not, if your district has overlooked a critical piece of technological infrastructure: a well-established culture of "digital citizenship."
"That's step one," says Colton-Pierrepont Superintendent Joseph Kardash.
Stressing digital citizenship, Kardash says, means cultivating ethical principles and responsible online habits that will stay with students long after they graduate.
Digital citizenship encompasses an array of concerns that arise in the course of lives and careers led on the Internet: good manners and respect when using social media; online privacy and security; legal and ethical responsibilities to avoid plagiarism, fraud or other improprieties; protecting one's own reputation and more.
"Being a good citizen today means being a good digital citizen," said Colton-Pierrepont school librarian Melinda Miller, who shepherds the district's digital citizenship initiatives.
Miller often draws curriculum ideas and other resources from the non-profit organization Common Sense (www.commonsensemedia.org/educators) and shares what she finds with the school faculty and staff.
Common Sense organizes its digital citizenship curriculum into nine categories: Internet safety; privacy and security; relationships and communication; cyberbullying; digital footprint and reputation; self-image and identity; information literacy; and creative credit and copyright.
School districts must also take digital citizenship seriously as part of compliance with federal law, which requires adoption of an Internet safety policy to receive "e-rate" discounts on technology purchases, and with the state's Dignity for All Students Act, said Linda Bakst, NYSSBA's deputy director for policy services.
NYSSBA sample policies on bullying prevention, internet safety and computer use in instruction all include provisions related to digital citizenship.
Bakst advises school board members to include directives for teaching digital citizenship when they craft local policies.
"Aside from the legal requirements, as a practical matter, so much of a student's life occurs online," Bakst noted. "The district has an obligation to help kids understand the digital world and use it in a positive manner. Children are impulsive, and if they are not explicitly taught about the consequences of Internet misuse, they may make mistakes that have serious repercussions."