Module+5+--+Digital+Citizenship

**NETS Standards**

Students understand human, cultural and societal issues related to technology and practice and legal and ethical behavior. Students: a. advocate and practice safe, legal and responsible use of information and technology.

b. exhibit a positve attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning and productivity.

c. demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.

d. exhibit leadership for digital citizenship Compentencies to be developed Participants will be able to: 1. Use technology appropriately and share those skills with students in the classroom.

2. Address and discuss basic digital rights in their school district.

Digital Use in Our School

Honestly, I'm not exactly sure what all our school policies are. I know it sounds horrible, perhaps, but I signed a paper when I started teaching regarding internet use, and I haven't thought about it since. Likewise, we have students' parents sign release forms when they begin 7th grade, and they never have to think about it again until graduation.

I think that the usual disclaimers about avoiding illegal activities, obscene / pornographic materials, etc. apply but beyond that, I'm not particularly sure what all it entails. Certainly, there are no etiquette based issues that are raised. For that matter, I know there are students who violated the policy (re: pornography) and not been punished. I spoke with the teacher who caught the student personally, and heard the students talking about his lack of punishment later, so you see how strict our enforcement is.

Nevertheless... I think there are plenty of good points raised in this section of articles as to what our policy *could* be like. Every so often we pay lip service to online activity and its potential consequences (for example, they may have an assembly about the dangers of social networking), but it's quickly forgotten. I think that rather than having a scare session (which admittedly may work quite well), if we educated students on this list of nine elements and hammered it home early in their lives, we would eventually be much better off because of it. I can't tell you how many times I have been online whether through message boards or Youtube comments and been just disgusted not only by horrible use of the English language, but people who hide behind the anonymity of the Internet.

I think if there was a way to both teach about digital literacy and etiquette, but also to demonstrate how we buy and sell goods online, things like online banking, Amazon shopping, etc. then we could definitely prepare students for what's to come. Over the last week or two of the course, I've thought more about how an online literacy course would be a wonderful thing in our school coupled with basic knowledge of things like Microsoft Office. But then I remember that I am an English teacher, and that (supposedly) is the domain of other instructors.

It is very difficult to change students' behaviors and manners in the time you have with them. As I like to say, if they've been screwed up for 13 years when I get them, it's really difficult to change them in 44 minute chunks, but I do my best. That said, I *really* liked the article on online manners and ethics, and I think you could do all sorts of things there from roleplay to hypothetical situations in helping students understand their role online.