What is Digital Citizenship? To me, this term means a number of things. First of all, being a digital citizen means being able to navigate the internet quickly and efficiently. Navigating from one place to another should not be a significant challenge, given the fact that an effective digital citizen has the skills to complete simple tasks. Along with this, a good digital citizen should be able to perform basic tasks like sending an email with an attachment or copying a picture to a document. In today’s world, these basic skills are really helpful given the fact that much of what we as a society do (particularly during covid) revolves around some element of online interaction.

Being a digital citizen means more than just being able to navigate the web. In fact, digital citizenship has moved into the realm of ethics as well. Being a good digital citizen means acting ethically online. Much in the same way that ethical behavior is expected in normal day to day life, ethical behavior is also important in the digital realm. Although there exist dark elements on the net (much the same as in real life) it is expected that a good digital citizen can avoid these pitfalls given the fact that they represent possible and sometimes even significant dangers.

In this day and age, I feel that is important to teach students about technology. This being said I plan to focus more on the side of teaching ethical online behavior, rather than hard skills. Although there is a certain level of practical teaching required to get kids started, I feel that kids (especially kids now) are so good at using digital technology that they likely will not need my help in using digital tech. For this reason, I believe that focusing on the ethical side of things will be a far better use of my time in the long run. By this, I will show my students the pitfalls of being rude to each other online. I think it is important to show that although online words and actions do not exist in reality, they can have very real repercussions. Online bullying can be extremely damaging and for this reason, kids need to be made aware of the consequences of poor digital behavior before they cause (usually unintentionally) something tragic.

Personally, I do not really consider myself a digital citizen purely because I am doing my best to remove myself from the digital environment. I find that it is so easy to waste time online. Given the fact that I am trying to get the very most out of life, I really see no need to be overly involved in a world that doesn’t really exist. Why is it that I would constantly text someone when I could just call them? Why should I spend hours a day in front of a screen when you could go outside? Of course, I see the benefits of digital technology, that being said I like to keep a balance between the analog and the digital. In school (given our current times) I am Infront of a screen for an immense amount of time. Why is it then that I would go on Facebook or Instagram when I could read a book? At least through reading a book I connect with a story. Knowing myself, I would likely just be scrolling the Facebook marketplace if I went on my phone.

In my class, I plan on giving kids the tools they need to interact with the web in a positive way. This being said, I also aim to teach my student the benefits of slowing down and doing things in a more analog way. I feel that kids need a balance between the two given the fact that it is far too easy to get wrapped up in the digital world. Hopefully, my students can see the value of both ways of doing things. It needs to be known that doing real activities and online ones are very different. Hopefully, in the future, we do not lose sight of this very important distinction.

Work Cited:

Digital Citizenship: Guide for Parents. (2017). Retriever from: http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/sp-ps/PS4-212-2017-eng.pdf