Digital Citizenship - Week Nine

During the past couple of weeks we have been exploring a few things. One of those is the rights and responsibilities of digital citizens. There is never a right that does not have some sort of parallel duty or responsibilities. Freedom of anything is never really free. This is so true with respect to the community that we have created that resides in cyber space. It seems all to easy to do something that is not ethical when we do not have to look the other person in the eye. As part of the past two weeks we were required to create a brainstorm diagram of what we thought the rights and responsibilities are for digital citizens. I have attached mine. I have since adjusted (actually added to it) as I have explored the thoughts of my fellow students on this subject but this is the original.

Murrell, J. (2013) Digital Rights and Responsibilities

When we talk of these responsibilities we fail to realize that we as educators and parents have a greater responsibility that extends past ourselves. We have the responsibility of setting a good example and for building a structure for our children to learn and grow online. We must ensure their safety by properly communicating with them and by staying active in their digital lives. The computer can no longer be the babysitter that the TV was in the Eighties. Parents must act to inform their children and interact with them as they use technology. As educators we must build a sound Acceptable Use Policy for our institutions. We are not going to be able to stop technology but with proper guidance, the students will become better digital citizens. Part of the issue and the danger is that while bullying has always existed, until web 2.0, it was always very private. An incident would occur on one side of the school and rarely everyone would find out, and even if they did it, was face to face so others rarely would join in. Now it seems to explode and when it occurs, people around the world can be informed, never mind across the swing set.

 One of the most enjoyable things we have done in the class has been the voice thread exercise. I found that there are huge applications for education with this tool. I believe that it would become very addictive for most students who would then take the education and make it their own and in the process have the learning become part of them. They would critically reflect and  form real true deep learning and understanding of the topic. This will definitely be part of my PLE as a tool for collaboration.

I do think that a voice thread will have other applications as well. I am going to playing with this over the next  few weeks to determine just how well I will be able to utilize it in certain situations at work. In the past I have been involved, and very innocently, where I was pulled into a meeting that I had no idea what it was about, and a print out of one of my e-mails was thrust onto the table. The reader had missed not one but two punctuation marks, imposed what they thought was my tone and had interrupted the mean totally wrong. In fact, the other people at the meeting read my e-mail and were confused. To them, and what was actually happening, I was agreeing with and supporting the decision of the person who was so upset. I think that this could be a great tool for communicating around certain things so the person receiving the message can hear, and if you chose video, see you so there can be no imposed tone to the words written on the page. I found an interesting piece on tone in e-mails while reading weekly reflections by other students.

While reviewing my feed and through exploring links I picked up from twitter I really only found one the interested me and it really had nothing to do with this week. The general message is about how teachers can implement or learn how to implement the ipad into their classrooms. The more important message is near thee end. It speaks to the amount that the tech industry is coming into main stream more and more. Interesting how we one day soon are all going to be expected to be digital citizens.

I always believe that practice never makes perfect but rather perfect practice makes perfect and that goes so true with being a good digital citizen. I can only hope that I am learning and growing and improving.

Have a great week

Jeff

Noodlefood. (2013). The Problem of Absent Tone in E-mail. Retrieved from http://www.philosophyinaction.com/blog/?p=10144

Cool Cat Teacher Blog (2013). Daily Education and Technology News 11/12/13. Retrieved from http://www.coolcatteacher.com/daily-education-technology-news-schools-11122013/?utm_source=feedly

Stay Safe Online. (2013). Raising Digital Citizens, Retrieved from http://staysafeonline.org/stay-safe-online/for-parents/raising-digital-citizens

Education World (2013). Getting Started on the Internet: Developing an Acceptable use Policy, Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr093.shtml

Ribble, Mike. (2011). Digital Citizenship in Schools (2nd ed). Washington, DC. United States of America

Linda Kalmikov. (2013). Weekly reflection and Post Week 8. Retrieved from http://lindakalmikov.blogspot.ca/2013/11/a-couple-of-great-articles-from-my.html