Digital Citizenship

Back from Calgary

Digital Citizen — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:18:40 GMT

Last week I was at the Emerge One-to-One conference in Calgary, AB. The participants were very interested in the topic of Digital Citizenship. I also was able to meet several other speakers from around the world - Ewan McIntosh from Scotland and Bruce Dixon from Australia. They spoke about the great things that can be done with laptops in the classroom. I hope that I brought at least some thoughts on what issues should be addressed with teachers, students and parents. Several of the participants came up and spoke about issues that they were having in their schools and how they were addressing them.

In our breakout session we were a small group but were opened up some discussion on how to begin the process of explaining Digital Citizenship to students. We covered the Digital Compass Activity and the Four-Stage Cycle. One of the participants, Patrick, said that they began the discussion of creating a new Acceptable Use Policy by using the Compass Activity in their school. He said that by involving the students it helped to open the eye's of the staff to what the students were thinking. He also stated that they left the Acceptable Use Policy flex and grow for a year before they set it as policy for everyone.

It was a great trip to Calgary and a wonderful opportunity to see that schools in other countries are struggling with many of the same issues that are happening here in the US. Being able to spend time with Ewan and Bruce also helped to see the bigger picture. There is still much work to be done but it should be an interesting ride.

I'm Baaaaaaack

Digital Citizen — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:33:04 GMT

Ok, I have set a new goal for myself - get back and post out to my blog sites. After a few months of laying low (writing other things) I am going to make a stab at putting down some thoughts about digital citizenship and its affects on education as well as society.

Since the last post there have been some changes - the NETS for both teachers and students have been refreshed and digital citizenship has found a place in both. Not only does this show that digital citizenship has found importance with those of you who have been reading our articles and book but it has larger implications. Now my concern is not just with the standards and the elements we created but where we go from here. I feel that we have a roadmap but now it is time to go and test these themes out and see where we end up.

My goal now is to begin networking with others who are interested in seeing where this may end up. I sometimes feel like Alice and am just not sure how deep this rabbit hole goes. Every day though it seems there is another issue - like the New York Times article about students now copying entire textbooks and putting them online - that needs to be addressed.

I hope that some users see this post and respond so that we can begin the discussion. I think we are at the beginning of something that could have ramifications for years to come - it sounds like fun!!!!!!!!! Let me know what you are thinking.

Hello and Welcome

Digital Citizen — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:03:24 GMT

Welcome to the Digital Citizenship blog. The work on Digital Citizenship has been going on for years but now that there is an overwhelming amount of technology out there we are beginning to see issues. Whenever there is a change in technology as we have seen in the last 20 years there was bound to be some backlash.

What is Digital Citizenship? It focuses on using technology in an appropriate way, but it does go further than that. It begins to look at how we are going to work and play in the years to come. It begins to look at how technology has become a part of our lives to an extent that sometimes it seems hard to separate. The issue at hand is how we handle the use of technology in our daily lives.

The other part of this issue is that we have an entire generation that has grown up with technology. By its design the technology community has not imposed many rules or regulations on its users. Now we are having issues in homes, schools, and in society with how technology is being used.

This blog will begin to explore some of these issues through the nine themes of Digital Citizenship. If you are interested in this topic go to the site www.digitalcitizenship.net and explore some if the concepts on those pages. Enjoy the technology, but don't let it become who you are.