Overview of Digital Citizenship, adapted from the LISD Moodle site: http://moodleweb2.lisd.net/schoolweb/course/view.php?id=3912&edit=0&sesskey=j3EItp97YW

1. Digital Citizenship
To the 21st Century…and beyond!

2. Your classroom is going digital…
• What do your students already
know?
• What do you need to know?

3. In his book Grown Up Digital, Don Tapscott
describes the Net Generation student as having
these characteristics:
• Prize freedom and freedom of choice
• Want to customize things, make them their own
• Are natural collaborators, who enjoy a
conversation, not a lecture
• Scrutinize you and your organization.
• Insist on integrity
• Want to have fun, even at work or at school
• See speed as normal
• Believe innovation is part of life

4. No matter the ages of your
students…
They deal with information overload.
Now and in the future, their ability to think
critically, to behave ethically, to make
good decisions, and to communicate
appropriately will be important skills
necessary for success in the classroom, in
the workforce, and in life.

5. Students want to work faster and better, but
with all kinds of information at their fingertips:
• Are our students ready to become
part of the 21st century workforce?
• Are they being prepared for jobs that
haven’t even been invented yet?

6. Employers of the 21st century view “soft” skills
as more important than work readiness.
Students often lack:
• Professionalism or work ethic
• Oral and written communication skills
• Teamwork and collaboration skills
• Critical thinking or problem-solving skills
“Are They Really Ready to Work? Employers’ Perspectives on the Basic Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to
the 21st Century U. S. Workforce,” 2006.
Soft Skills

7. Teachers have the ability to
impact their students…
We model how to become good
citizens in our classrooms, in our
schools, in our cities, in our state, and
in our nation.
Why wouldn’t we want to teach our
students and model how to become
good digital citizens?

8. The important questions…
• What is digital citizenship?
• Why is digital citizenship important?
• Why should digital citizenship be part
of the everyday learning experience?

9. Digital citizenship is…
• using technology in an appropriate
and responsible manner
• complex in nature
• at the center of issues such as the
use, misuse, and abuse of technology

10. Mike Ribble and Gerald Bailey are the
authors of Digital Citizenship in Schools.
9 Elements of Digital Citizenship:
– digital access
– digital commerce
– digital communication
– digital literacy
– digital etiquette
– digital law
– digital rights and responsibilities
– digital health and wellness
– digital security.

11. Learning about and modeling digital
citizenship is important because…
• we are inundated with media-reported incidents
of cyber bullying, of individuals openly blogging
complaints about others, of students going to
inappropriate sites during school time, and of the
theft of the personal information of others.
• digital technology is rapidly growing and
changing constantly and teaching digital
citizenship and communicating its norms will
result in knowledgeable and safe digital citizens
(“digizens”)

12. 5 of the 9 elements of digital citizenship will
often be encountered daily in the classroom:
• Digital communication in the electronic
exchange of information
• Digital literacy in knowing when and how to use
digital technology
• Digital etiquette in standards of conduct
• Digital law governing the rights and restrictions
of technology use
• Digital rights and responsibilities and the
behavioral expectations that are part of the
privilege

13. Knowledge of the basic elements of
digital citizenship results in the
type of powerful learning
experience that students will need
to encounter every day in the
classroom in order to compete in
a global, digital world.

14. “…digital learning technologies are the
disruptive technologies that should be of
concern to educators, for these are the
technologies that are now transforming the
way the world learns.”
Phillip C. Schlechty, Leading for Learning
A final thought…