Digital Citizenship and the School Library

All nine elements of digital citizenship merit inclusion into Plano’s Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).  Because the current policy tends to be stronger in chronicling prohibited actions and their consequences, an updated AUP would include many positive guidelines for digital media; in other words, an AUP should suggest the many capabilities of electronic tools for students and staff who use them appropriately and ethically.     
    As a matter of course, libraries must both teach and model digital citizenship in partnership with all members of a school’s staff.  Librarians must:

1.  Advocate and promote access to digital media for all students and their families.
2.  Provide training to students regarding smart practices of digital commerce.
3.  Equip students with the know-how needed to communicate appropriately in form, content, and mechanics via the many forms of digital media.
4.  Underscore the importance of extending general principles of manners and etiquette to the electronic setting.
5.  Encourage digital health and wellness by monitoring students’ form in using technology, evaluating workstations for ergonomic soundness, and addressing related social and emotional issues.
6.  Further the digital literacy of students in understanding technology, accessing its professional potential, and discerning credible resources.
7.  Inform students about digital law, the legal repercussions of plagiarism and intellectual property theft, and accurate, responsible citation of sources.
8. Educate students on their rights as users of digital resources and of their responsibilities in response to these privileges.
9. Stress the importance of digital security from malware, identity theft, and thoughtless posting.   

Librarians should conduct seminars for faculty, demonstrate openness in addressing staff questions, and moderate an ongoing campus discussion about a district’s AUP, perhaps through a wiki, blog, or discussion group. Through collaboration and teamwork, librarians play a vital role in keeping faculty abreast of new technological developments and of the promise that appropriate technologies hold for classrooms and students.

Digital Security

First of all, students need knowledge to protect themselves in a digital society.  Knowledge indeed wields power in the Age of Information, and acting upon that knowledge proactively can often save heartache and trouble in the future.  In order to protect their identity and their technology, students need to be fluent in the lingo of digital security; they need to be familiar with what (computer) viruses are, how they may be transmitted and prevented, and the definitions of such key terms as “firewall,” “phishing,” and “spyware.” 
    Students need to understand the importance of not divulging personal information (financial information, identification numbers, passwords) online or to solicitors.  Parents and educators should emphasize the avoidance of clicking on pop-up boxes, unexpected attachments to e-mails, or forwarding spam.  Keeping up with security updates and patches can help maintain the integrity of an operating system.  Using alphanumeric passwords (rather than common words or terms) and refraining from recording passwords in a centralized location can also inhibit the ease with which unscrupulous characters could access personal information.  To be sure, even these precautions are not foolproof, but these basic steps can certainly help reduce the risk of identity theft or virus infection for both personal technology devices and the communities and networks with which they connect.
    The You Tube video “Think Before You Post” drives home the importance of considering the ramifications of any posting.  As the parent of a 12-year-old boy, I am discovering daily that young people and, amazingly, their parents, can be remarkably obtuse about the premature use of such social networking sites as Facebook.  My son remarks frequently that he is one of the few in his grade without a Facebook account, just as the Heartland AEA Digital Citizenship page describes.

Digital Law

    Students, like all individuals using technology, sometimes use it the way it was intended.  Evaluating or critiquing the young requires that adults honestly consider at themselves and their actions.  What ethical behaviors do adults model for students?  Do instructors engage students in thought-provoking discussion and allow them to practice (supported) digital discernment?  Undoubtedly, abuse and misuse of technology exist; young peoples’ moral compasses develop incrementally and require guidance along the way. Certainly children who have never known any world other than the digital age face the particular danger of not entertaining any options to unethical digital behaviors.  This conundrum underscores why educating students regarding their choices is important.
    Sometimes students do infringe on others’ rights by the way they use technology.  Inculcating the young with a sense of responsibility, honesty, and integrity regarding technology is a necessary step to preventing such infringements.  For example, though students may be tempted to plagiarize, those who have been instructed upon the implications of such an action for their character and upon its potential academic and legal consequences would be less likely to do so.  Downloading material illegally, sharing too much information about oneself, or accessing inappropriate media likewise carries social and possibly legal ramifications which could follow a student for years.  Awareness of such issues and engagement in ongoing discussion tends to provide a measure of inoculation against unethical behaviors.
    Students should definitely be accountable for their use of digital technologies.  While as Johnson and the Ribble text have pointed out the pitfalls of overreacting to a breach of ethical behavior, students need to have age-appropriate consequences for their actions, good or bad.  As painful as it can be, allowing students to experience the effects of their judgement with unconditional support from family and educators provides an undoubtedly memorable learning experience. 

Digital Etiquette

Whether in person or through technology, students possess varying degrees of understanding how their actions and words affect others.  People in general feel empowered by anonymity (or perceived anonymity).  Before caller ID, bullies sometimes chose prank calling, for example, to intimidate or tease others. The Pew Internet and American Life Project’s statistics support the idea, however, that the underlying behaviors of bullying or harassment have not changed, even if the venues have.  The ease of distributing potentially harmful material electronically and that material’s persistence do change the ramifications of cyberbullying or harassment (p. 9).  Despite media hullaballoo regarding cyberbullying, 31% of teens report being bullied at school (compared to 13% online).
    Having said this, digital etiquette in particular, and etiquette and empathy in general, need to be emphasized throughout the education of our students.  As many scientific reports substantiate, human beings arrive wired for face-to-face interaction and physical contact. Infants who receive little human interaction or cuddling often suffer from attachment disorders and failure to thrive.  In the same way, students need to interact with people in person to understand that people drive technology.  A human, with real feelings and emotions, lies on the other end of the cell phone or text message.  Neither children nor adults should ever lose sight of this elementary truth, and both need to forge a solid connection between their use of technology and its effects on others.
    Despite some of the risks of digital interaction, Kolb’s article presents some fantastic ideas for positive and productive applications which elevate the status of the sometimes teacher-reviled cell phone. Prompting discussions with class polls, podcasting, taking photos, and pinpointing locations all have great potential to increase student learning and to provide a foretaste of the professional capabilities of the technologies at their fingertips.

Digital Literacy

    Digital technology enables teachers to facilitate learner-based tasks for students which enable them, ultimately, to teach and to learn from one another.  Lindsay and Davis’s article prompts reluctant teachers to take advantage of Web 2.0 tools, such as blogs and wikis, to provide a collaborative academic framework which can transcend the physical limits of homes, classrooms, or nations.  As the article stated, knowing how to navigate these tools and how to conduct oneself properly in these forums could impact the formation of e-portfolios which may be accessed by prospective colleges or employers.
    “Point of View on Technology Drivers’ Licenses” advocates ensuring that students demonstrate basic knowledge regarding digital media before accessing the privileges of its use; the authors describe the relative lawlessness of the frontiers of the flattened digital world.  Indeed, the thought has occurred to me more than once through this class that the Internet and other electronic advances behave much like the old American West.  In the same way that Anglo-American civilization pushed west before law enforcement and jurisprudence could catch up, so do digital technologies strain ethical, judicial, legislative, social, and emotional conventions, requiring creativity and innovation in response.  Digital literacy is an essential component of both development of and response to questions raised by the evolution of technology; how can people manage tools which they understand little?
    Because of this “flattening” of the world, of the pervasive elements of electronic media in our culture, and of their potential, students need to know how to use technology and how to obtain accurate and credible information from its portals. They also need to know how to cite it, to discuss it, to share it, and to behave while doing so.  Neglecting these aspects of their education would do them a tremendous disservice.

Digital Communication

“Do, or do not.  There is no try.”  -- Yoda

    I try.  I try to use e-mail, cell phones, and instant messaging technologies appropriately.  I e-mail decently well.  I refrain from texting while driving or while having important conversations with others in person.  I do find myself trying to take care of too many things at once, leading to my talking on the cell phone in public places and in the car more than I would wish.  I do not have loud private conversations, but I sometimes cram as much as possible into my grocery shopping trip or other errands.  This represents an area in which I need to grow.  With my sister living overseas, I need to speak to her at very specific times when our awake time coincides.  Sometimes this means that I am out and about during these conversations, though I always put down the phone or hang up while I interact with people at stores or at restaurants.  I want to do more than try with setting limits on my cell phone use in public: I want to do it, and I want to set the best example possible for my own children.
    Students need to be aware of how the tone of written messages conveys meaning beyond the stated word.  A lack of face-to-face interaction and body language can make it difficult to “read” e-mails.  Good grammar, polite words, and proper spelling when communicating in school or professional environments ranks as a high priority.  Features such as auto-correct can create possibly disastrous or humorous situations, as well; students, parents, and teachers must proofread even the most inane of messages.  Paying attention to the details of digital communication smooths the tricky road of human communication, in general.

Digital Commerce

Digital commerce will be a major component of the adult lives of most young people in the United States.  Twenty-first-century learners must learn to navigate this brave new commercial realm safely and smartly.
    Completion of the activity in the Ribble text prompted me to think about the pros and cons of teaching about digital commerce.  As I said in my group e-mail, I cannot imagine any cons of teaching safe practices and consumer savvy when it comes to dealing with online purchases.  Setting children free in an online purchasing environment without support and training would be akin to letting them cross a busy street alone.  My preteen sons must always ask before conducting a digital transaction.  When my husband and I make purchases electronically, we try to point out things to look for when determining if a purchase is secure: the presence of a padlock in the URL or in the frame of a window, ratings for vendors, privacy agreements, passwords, etc.  While nothing is fail-safe, paying attention to these matters can make a difference when it comes to identity theft, credit fraud, and the quality of merchandise purchased.
    Furthermore, because vendors understand that millions of young people (many with considerable financial resources) are online, they are marketing actively to them via all possible means: through TV, gaming websites, social networking sites, smart phones, etc.  The potential for individuals to get in trouble with debt and poor credit ratings is considerable. Online purchasing requires shrewdness for both children and adults.  We have tried to teach our own children to deconstruct commercials from a very young age: we don’t want them, or ourselves, to get caught up in believing on any level that the latest this-or-that will make them happy in an advertising-saturated environment.

Definition of Digital Citizenship

First and foremost, digital citizenship encompasses guidelines for appropriate, creative, and ethical behavior regarding how to utilize the vast electronic resources available to the international community linked by technology.  While certain behaviors may be proscribed within digital citizenship, the concept encourages members of the online community to actively pursue good ends for both themselves and others through the tools available to them.  Drawing from a wide variety of sources, Ribble and Bailey identify nine major elements of digital citizenship which are inextricably tied together (access, commerce, communication, law, rights and responsibilities, health and wellness, security, literacy, and etiquette). 
    Though not mentioning these nine elements explicitly, the American Association for School Libraries’ Standards for 21st-Century Learners articulates the concept of digital citizenship within four broad areas of skill development and resource utilization: 1) critical thinking and learning; 2) drawing conclusions, making informed decisions, applying information in novel situations, and creating new knowledge; 3) communicating and participating “ethically and productively as members of our democratic society;” and 4) using technology for personal and aesthetic growth.  In addition to a manageable breakdown of instruction in digital citizenship, AASL’s standards mention the continuing importance of personal interaction and underscore the vital roles that creativity and imagination play in both education and personal life. 
    Defining digital citizenship more narrowly, National Education Standards for Students presents the subject as a discrete component; however, a glance at the other standards communicates that the implications of digital citizenship extend to benchmarks such as “research and information fluency” and “communication and collaboration.”  NETS’ inclusion of electronic resources in these other standards clearly indicates that membership in a digital community entails more than just being polite and legal; it requires inquisitive minds, wisdom, open hearts, creative thinking, and commitment to making the world a better place.