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.