What is Digital Citizenship?
Digital Citizenship is a concept which helps teachers, technology leaders and parents to understand what students/children/technology users should know to use technology appropriately. Digital Citizenship is more than just a teaching tool; it is a way to prepare students/technology users for a society full of technology. Too often we are seeing students as well as adults misusing and abusing technology but not sure what to do. The issue is more than what the users do not know but what is considered appropriate technology usage (Ribble, 2007).
Why is Digital Citizenship important in schools?
Understanding the approrpriate way to use and act while using technology is important for everyone. In a world that can barely keep up with the new technological innovations being produced on a daily basis, it can be hard for teachers and students to know how to use the technology correctly. Teaching digital citizenship will create educational settings that use technology more efficiently and safely for the purpose of student success. And without a good understanding of digital citizenship this can not be accomplished.
Why is this website helpful?
Basicially, I have compiled information about digital citizenship in a one stop shop type of fashion. This information is more focused on assisting teachers of middle to high school age students that are most certainly using technology differently than those students in the lower grade levels. I have broken this website into three main sections, Digital Access, Ditigal Etiquette, and Ditigal Rights. Each of the topic pages will provide you with a deeper understanding of what digital citizenship is and how it can be supported in the upper grade levels. The information provided is a combination of research and experience that supports the necessity of teaching Digital Citizenship so that schools can be a safer place for technological users, for both teachers and students.
Digital Citizenship by Justin Comegys is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.