The necessity to educate accountable and moral digital habits has by no means been extra urgent. For college kids, digital citizenship isn’t only a ability — it’s important to navigating every part from staying linked with their pals to studying in regards to the world round them, to making ready for school and profession. However with expertise advancing so shortly, how can we assist younger folks make wholesome decisions?
Richard Culatta, CEO of ISTE+ASCD, has referred to as for us to rethink what it means to be a digital citizen. In a latest dialog with EdSurge, he defined why digital citizenship is excess of simply on-line security. His method requires a broader focus that encourages college students to make use of expertise in inventive, significant methods — for the great of society. As synthetic intelligence and different improvements rework the digital area, there’s an pressing want to organize college students to thrive sooner or later.
EdSurge: How do you outline digital citizenship?
Culatta: Once we take into consideration digital citizenship, it’s about how we present up in our digital communities. It is a key distinction from older definitions that centered totally on on-line security and defending private data. These earlier ideas felt self-focused, emphasizing particular person safety above all else.
Being a digital citizen as we speak means understanding that we’re all in a really actual, albeit digital, group with different people. Our actions can and can considerably affect different group members and vice versa. This shift adjustments how we method instructing younger folks about digital citizenship.
Collaborating on this digital world isn’t elective; it’s the place a lot of life’s most necessary moments now happen. However understanding the right way to current ourselves and use our voice for good on this area is a ability we are able to select to develop. Digital citizenship is not nearly creating robust passwords; it’s about utilizing expertise to make our digital group a greater place.
Why ought to educators and households prioritize digital citizenship?
Understanding the right way to leverage the digital world for private success and societal contribution is without doubt one of the Most worthy expertise for younger folks as we speak. We regularly incorrectly assume that children will simply determine the right way to navigate the digital world on their very own, however that’s not the case. It’s a lot tougher for younger folks to look at and mannequin efficient digital expertise in comparison with different life expertise.
For instance, we are able to simply display displaying respect for shared areas within the bodily world, like selecting up litter in a park. Youngsters can visibly observe after we bend down to choose up a discarded can and toss it within the bin. Nonetheless, when adults interact in optimistic digital behaviors — corresponding to sharing uplifting content material, tactfully addressing misinformation or utilizing on-line instruments for group engagement — youngsters would possibly solely observe dad sitting at his laptop computer.
This is the reason it’s so necessary to overtly educate good digital citizenship expertise. In contrast to in different elements of our youngsters’s lives, with out this intentional instruction, we danger leaving a major hole in our youngsters’s preparation for the digital world they’ll inherit.
In what methods would possibly entry to generative AI affect digital citizenship?
I don’t suppose generative AI basically adjustments the core digital well-being expertise we have to educate; it merely provides urgency to instructing them. AI is a strong accelerator that has the potential to boost both wholesome or dangerous functions. The dedication will depend on how we select to make use of it.
Like several expertise device, constructing stability in our tech use, partaking meaningfully with others and utilizing expertise to foster curiosity are all foundational expertise. Nonetheless, we ought to be involved that we’re introducing AI at a time after we nonetheless haven’t prioritized instructing these foundational digital citizenship expertise. It’s a bit of like giving somebody the keys to a Ferrari earlier than they’ve even earned their driver’s allow.
AI ought to be a catalyst for a dialog about what expertise ought to stay uniquely human versus people who expertise may take over. We must always make that dedication by in search of to know how AI can assist us be higher people. People excel at discernment, judgment, humor, civility and creativity. Nonetheless, we battle with duties like brainstorming or synthesizing massive quantities of knowledge. These are areas the place AI excels, which may enable people to focus extra vitality on turning into higher at our expertise, like being moral decision-makers.
Understanding that AI isn’t magic is crucial for college kids to know the right way to finest apply it of their lives.
That’s why ISTE+ASCD is launching certainly one of its largest campaigns, GenerationAI, to assist educators rethink studying design in an AI world. We’re shifting the main focus from the right way to use AI instruments to the extra necessary query of the right way to redesign studying for a linked future.
How are faculties addressing cellular phone bans in relation to digital citizenship?
Faculties that haven’t prioritized instructing digital citizenship expertise typically resort to banning gadgets. Nonetheless, we have to educate younger folks the right way to use expertise for studying and problem-solving for them to be ready for a wholesome future. If we’re not instructing these important expertise in class, in partnership with dad and mom, the place will they be taught them?
Wholesome tech use at college requires having the correct situations in place. Many colleges depend on acceptable use insurance policies that college students signal with out ever discussing or guaranteeing they perceive what they’re signing. Even worse is when faculties present acceptable use insurance policies in advanced authorized language that college students don’t even perceive. As an alternative, we must always method tech use like classroom norms — discussing and establishing them with college students in easy language. ISTE and CoSN have created a helpful information on creating wholesome norms for tech use that provides examples for the right way to create efficient norms.
Faculties that take time to set acceptable tech use norms with college students see more healthy environments and children studying lifelong expertise. Banning expertise would possibly really feel like a fast repair, nevertheless it creates greater issues down the highway when college students by no means be taught crucial digital well-being expertise. Banning gadgets from faculty signifies that youngsters will be taught digital behaviors from sources apart from dad and mom and academics, corresponding to social media or friends who additionally haven’t developed wholesome tech habits — which may be very regarding.
It’s necessary to notice that if a college’s tech tradition has turn out to be dysfunctional, it’s fully acceptable to pause system use quickly whereas taking time to ascertain wholesome norms and instructing key digital citizenship ideas. Nonetheless, long-term, categorical bans on applied sciences which can be crucial for youths’ future success usually are not a very good choice.
What are some methods by which ISTE+ASCD is supporting educators in strengthening digital citizenship competencies with their college students?
We provide a number of sources on digital citizenship, together with a set of free digital citizenship classes for academics to make use of with college students from kindergarten to seniors in highschool. We additionally provide on-line programs to assist academics and faculty leaders higher perceive the right way to educate digital wellbeing. And, after all, it is a subject we tackle in any respect our occasions.
If a college’s expertise norms are only a listing of “don’ts” (the issues we don’t need youngsters to do with expertise), we’re lacking the chance to follow optimistic behaviors. It might be like instructing math by solely itemizing flawed solutions and by no means practising fixing equations. We have to clarify and mannequin the digital expertise we need youngsters to develop. The aim is to maneuver past simply prohibitions and concentrate on instructing optimistic, constructive methods to make use of expertise successfully.
We even have a free on-line group referred to as Join, the place educators can share what’s working and focus on constructing wholesome digital expertise.
How can faculties associate with dad and mom to bolster digital citizenship past the classroom?
Faculties can assist by sharing the methods they encourage optimistic tech use: fact-checking, fostering curiosity, managing assignments and supporting the college group. They will additionally present examples of wholesome tech norms for house use.
Steadiness is crucial, nevertheless it’s necessary to know that establishing a single “display screen time” restrict is way much less useful than discussing the worth of particular person actions that happen on a display screen. We shouldn’t group all display screen actions collectively any greater than we might group all outside actions as “exterior time” — some sorts of actions deserve extra time than others, relying on the worth they’re offering.
As an alternative of specializing in “display screen time,” we must always shift to interested by “display screen worth,” evaluating the standard of particular person digital actions fairly than time spent on a tool. This method helps youngsters perceive the distinction between useful and fewer useful display screen actions.
If we’re diligent in instructing digital citizenship expertise, we are going to set up the foundations for a a lot more healthy and inclusive future on-line world.
Carry digital citizenship to the classroom in significant methods. Try ISTE’s Digital Citizenship in Training, which incorporates DigCit Classes.
