Reading Review: Part B
It has become rapidly apparent to me through my research on Digital Citizenship
that there is no shortage of information on the topic; but, also that there is
no consensus on what exactly should be included in lessons on Digital Citizenship.
There are certainly commonalities that can be found between the resources I have
looked at, but no one set of guidelines which everyone is following. Even the specific definitions of Digital Citizenship
vary. It seems a little bit like trying too choose the best chocolate bar--everyone has a different option.
For example, the Digital Literacy Framework created by the
Government of British Columbia to support the implementation of Digital Literacy
skills in the classroom has ten categories of skills listed under the topic of
Digital Citizenship. Whereas ISTE (the
International Society in Technology Education), a leader in technology education,
has nine categories of skills listed.
And, lastly Common Sense Media, another leader in technology
education, has eight categories listed.
One can imagine that a teacher trying to implement Digital Citizenship
skills in their classroom might find all of this information overwhelming and
not really know where to start. This is actually something that one of the academic
articles that I read noted. I will return to this later. So, where does one start?
Image 1
As I am looking at Digital Citizenship as a teacher-librarian working in
British Columbia, I am going to adopt the definition put out by the Government
of B.C. in the Digital Literacy Framework.
It lists Digital Citizenship as a skill where “Students understand
human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal
and ethical behavior” (Government of B.C., Digital Literacy Framework). It is a fairly broad definition and one that
can encompass a wide variety of skills.
However, when I look at the specific skills listed in the Digital
Literacy Framework, I am not convinced that each of them can or even needs to
be covered in the context of New Media 10 or New Media 11. I think that as we move forward with this new
curriculum it will be important for individual English departments to discuss
which particular skills they would like to incorporate into each course.
An academic article that I read called "Defining and measuring youth digital citezeship" (Defining and measuring youth digital citizenshipNew Media & Society - Lisa M Jones, Kimberly J Mitchell, 2016) offered a solution to this dilemma. The authors, Lisa M. Jones and Kimberly J. Mitchell, suggest that Digital Citizenship currently is a very
broad topic. They suggest that it would
be best to simplify the goals of teaching Digital Citizenship to include only “respectful
behavior online and online civic engagement” (Jones & Mitchell 2015 p.2063). They would like to see education on the topic
move more towards aligning with “general youth citizenship education” which allows
students to become active and engaged citizens in their community and to move
away from negative topics such as cyberbullying or sexting (Jones & Mitchell 2015 p.2065). They argue that
there is no evidence that a focus on these negative topics and using “awareness-raising
strategies” has been effective (Jones & Mitchell 2015 p.2066). To
support their claims they have a study as well.
This article was a really interesting read, especially since it had a
very different view point to the many online resources I had found on Digital Citizenship. Their suggestions actually make a lot of
sense to me and since they have data to support their assumptions, I think it
is something worth considering. Are we
trying to do too much by including so much information in the Digital Citizenship
skill set? Would it be better to simplify our goals and to focus on more positive
online behaviour? These are questions that
I would like to bring to my English department as we look to implement the new curriculum
and New Media 10 and 11 next year.
Interestingly enough, it's also something that ISTE is looking at. In a recent blog post titled "Digital citizenship is the new citizenship" they address many of the same concerns listed in the academic article. They note, just like Jones and Mitchell that "rather than just warning young people about online risks or trying to curtail their activities, leaders are realizing the importance of helping students leverage the power of digital media to work towards social justice and equity" (Kreuger 2017).
They even adjusted their definition of Digital Citizenship to include the idea that students can use technology to "make the world a better place" and become active civic members of society (Kreuger 2017). It seems like academics are starting to have influence on how Digital Citizenship is viewed in the educational sphere. I am interested to read some more academic sources and see what other findings exist.
Because the topic of Digital Citizenship can be overwhelming, I think
that teacher-librarians have a very key role to play in their schools. We have
the opportunity to be leaders with this topic and to work collaboratively with
departments to develop the best way to integrate Digital Citizenship into the
school in a way that skills are scaffolded appropriately. This is exactly what Leslie Preddy noted in
her article “The Critical Role of the School Librarian in Digital Citizenship
Education” (The Critical Role of the School Librarian in Digital Citizenship Education: EBSCOhost). She agrees with Jones and
Mitchell that the term Digital Citizenship is an “abstract, grandiose term” and
as a result it can be a problem to implement appropriately into the curriculum
(Preddy 2016 p. 4). While there will be a focus on
Digital Citizenship in the English Curriculum with New Media 10 and 11, I do
think there needs to be a more holistic approach taken where some of these
skills are embedded into all courses. This is something that I would like to continue to explore with my research. In particular, I would like to see if there are any teacher-librarians who have been successful in doing this at their school. To do this I need to expand my Personal Learning Network and perhaps look for more local resources. That is my plan for the final step of this project.
All images are taken from Pixabay.com and are used under the CCO Creative Commons.
Bibliography
Digital Citizenship.
(2017). Retrieved September 16, 2017,
Digital Literacy Framework. (n.d.). Retrieved September 16, 2017,
from http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/teach/teaching-tools/digital-literacy
Jones, L. M., & Mitchell, K..J. (2016) Defining and measuring youth
digital citizenship, New
Media
and Society, 18(9), 2063-2079. Doi:
10.1177/1461444815577797
Kreuger, N. (2017, September 14). Digital citizenship is the new citizenship
[Web log post].
Retrieved September 24,
2017, from
New Media 10. (2016, June). Retrieved September 16, 2017, from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/sites/curriculum.gov.bc.ca/files/pdf/10-12/english-language-arts/en_ela_10_nwm.pdf
Preddy, L. (2016). The
Critical Role of the School Librarian in Digital Citizenship Education.
Knowledge
Quest, 44(4), 4-5.
Ribble, M. (2014, June
25). Essential elements of digital citezenship [Web log post]. Retrieved
September 24, 20017, from https://www.iste.org/explore/ArticleDetail?articleid=101
Excellent post! Your discussion, description, and narrative style writing really helped contextualize and connect your search with the readers of the blog. I was also very impressed to see your connections between the big topic and the new curriculum that is coming into our schools. A strong meta-conversation about the differences and directions that digital citizenship are taking and I am comforted with these new definitions and inclusions. A good list of traditional and non-traditional sources as well.
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