What is Digital Citizenship?
Digital Citizenship is becoming more relevant as more people are living as much time in their daily lives online as they do in real life situations. Learning skills to practice digital citizenship is an important aspect because of this. Digital Citizenship can be defined as the understanding people have that they should be respectful and outstanding citizens online, respect privacy, and leave a great long last digital presence (Ottesen, 2018). Another definition of digital citizenship states that it is our ability to focus on the direct effect of our actions online and to nurture others to become respectful citizens in our online environments (Ribble, Bailey, & Ross 2004). From these two definitions I can see that digital citizenship is a broad accumulation of many aspects of general respect and leadership principles to help the digital community as a whole better themselves and respect others ideas and environment.
From my perspective, digital citizenship is our ability to continually respect others throughout online platforms and take lead in promoting this culture throughout our participation in different platforms. I also believe that it means that we should be conscious and easily be able to adapt to new social norms and literacies that develop throughout social media platforms and communication styles online. It is similar to how we are citizens in the real world, everyday there is new knowledge and information that guide how we act and think in our day to day lives. For example, in our real world situation right now with COVID-19 we are given new policies on how to structure our everyday lives (e.g. social distancing, stay at home). If you are someone who respects this order and leads others to follow it you are showing strong signs of being a good citizen in the circumstances, if not this shows poor respect and leadership to the community. This can translate to online forums very easily, with the heavy use of video networking platforms such as Zoom, we must show adaptive digital citizenship skills by being collaborative and respectful learners in an online environment where some of us have had little experience. If we lead by example we can bring together our online community very quickly compared to if we choose to not respect these new environments and policies.
Digital Citizenship vs Digital Literacy? Is there really a difference?
Digital Citizenship and Digital Literacy seem to be similar concepts when we discuss them in general, but there is a distinct difference. Digital Literacy defines how we effectively use our skills in using the internet and social media, and how good our abilities are to use these tools for their positive functions such as learning and promoting valid content (Deye, 2017). On the other hand, Digital Citizenship is a term that includes building on literacies, but also emphasizes protecting yourself in online environments, promoting a culture of respect, and understanding what material is valid and trustworthy and knowing how that it affects us (McGuire, 2019). From these two definitions I can see these two concepts are similar because someone must be literate in their digital life to be able to promote digital citizenship and understand it. Digital Literacies show that a user is proficient in the process, but to be a good citizen the user must also know how to respect others, lead others to promote cultures, and surround themselves with safe digital citizens as well. The big difference between these concepts is that they aren’t two terms that can be used interchangeably. Instead, Digital literacies promote a person to understand and cultivate a culture of digital citizenship. Digital Citizenship is an accumulation of digital literacies a person has and this person bringing them together to form themselves as a respected and knowledge online participant and learner.
What can we do to support Digital Citizenship for adult learners?
I think digital citizenship can be supported throughout proactive lessons from our educators to facilitate respect and fluency in online environments. I think that many college aged students have difficulties understanding how to lead others to promote a respectful environment online. Many people get a false sense of security online because they are indirectly, instead of directly making comments and statements online towards other people. The reality is that even though the person sending it might feel less responsible, the person receiving it is still taking directly like they would in person. This leads to a community where mental health can be severely affected by people not supporting a community of digital citizenship. Cyber bullying may seem like something of high school, but in my daily life I still see examples of cyber bullying and harassment online (and I haven’t stepped foot in a high school since 2015). This shows that if these concepts of digital citizenship aren’t promoted by post-secondary education institutions that people may fall back into old habits, or never learn about the concepts of digital citizenship in the first place. In our new age of learning through technology I think it would be a great idea for Universities to implement a 1 credit course on digital citizenship and literacies to help educate students on how their online lives and real lives need to be looked at with the same set of guidelines on how to respect others and promote community interactions online.
Learning digital citizenship skills can help us become better citizens in our real world interactions as well. It is a fluid concept that can give us a holistic approach on how to act online, and take those skills into our real world interactions as well. If we promote being a good citizen in the real world society we can also promote it in our online societies, because everyday these two societies become more intertwined and important for our communication, learning, and interactions.
Deye, S. (2017, February). Promoting Digital Literacy. Retrieved from https://www.ncsl.org/research/education/promoting-digital-literacy-and-citizenship-in-school.aspx
McGuire, B. (2019, January 8). Digital Citizenship: What It Means, How to Teach It, and the Resources You Need. Retrieved from https://www.ace.edu/blog/post/2019/01/08/digital-citizenship-what-it-means-how-to-teach-it-and-the-resources-you-need
Ottesen, J. (2018, October 18). New 'digital citizenship' curriculum helps students become responsible tech users. Retrieved from https://edscoop.com/new-digital-citizenship-curriculum-helps-students-become-responsible-tech-users/
Ribble, Bailey, & Ross. (2004). Nine Elements. Retrieved from https://www.digitalcitizenship.net/nine-elements.html