Digital Citizenshipjust the basics

Anne CollierCo-Director

ConnectSafely.orgExecutive Director

Net Family News, Inc.

Six elementsof digital citizenship

• Access• Participation or “civic engagement”• Literacies: tech, media, social• Rights and responsibilities • Norms of behavior ("good citizenship”)• A sense of membership, belonging

The most basic definition

“The central task of citizenship

is learning how to be good to one another.”

– A.J. Patrick Liszkiewicz

Expanded definition (draft)Citizenship: the rights & responsibilities of full, positive

engagement in a participatory world

• Rights – access & participation, free speech, privacy, physical & psychological safety, safety of material and intellectual property

• Responsibilities – respect & civility -> self & others; protecting own/others’ rights & property; respectful interaction; demonstrating the blended literacy of a networked world: digital, media, social

5th grade teacher writes about her students’ ‘Digital Citizenship Minute’

Digital citizenship tends to unfold…

Get the ‘pool’ into school!

The pillars of citizenship

learning

Photo by Julian Turner

• Infrastructure

• Practice

• Guidance

• Agency

Digital learning’s progression

1. Classroom engagement

2. Civic engagement (participation)

3. Civic efficacy

Students’ definitions…Developing and determining the best… •Means of communication & self-expression•Strategies for maintaining the line between personal and professional expression•Media tools for reaching one’s communication/expression goals•Ethics for online practices and expression•Ways to function in collaboration & community

…of digital literacy

Our Space: Being a Responsible Citizen of the Digital World(great free curriculum from USC and Harvard)

• Safety and support

• Power – as agents for the social good

• Digital, media, and social literacy

• Practice in the collaborative problem-solving their futures will demand

• Opportunities to co-create the social norms of social media & a networked world

• Preparation for success, leadership

What’s in it for students?

Thank you!

Anne Collieranne@netfamilynews.org

Addendum

Some background from the

research…

What we now know...from the youth-risk research:Harassment & cyberbullying =

most common riskNot all youth are equally at risk A child’s psychosocial makeup & environment

are better predictors of online risk than the technology he or she uses

No single technological development can solve youth online risk

What else we know …from youth-risk research:

“Youth who engage in online aggressive behavior … are more than twice as likely to report online interpersonal victimization.” – Archives of Pediatrics, 2007

Perception => reality:The power of ‘social norming’

Source: Craig & Perkins, Hobart and William Smith Colleges 2008

Reinforcing social norms

Source: Assessing Bullying in New Jersey Secondary Schools: Applying the Social Norms Model to Adolescent Violence: Craig, Perkins 2008

“Promote digital citizenship and new media literacy in pre-K-12 education as a national priority.”

– Youth Safety on a Living Internet:Report of the Online Safety & Technology Working Group

Our report to Congress, June 2010...

“ As a society, we have spent too much time focused on what media are doing to young people and not enough time asking what young people are doing with media. Rather, we need to embrace an approach based on media ethics, one that empowers young people to take greater responsibility for their own actions and holds them accountable for the choices they make as media producers and members of online communities.”

– Prof. Henry Jenkins, USC

‘With great power comes great responsibility’

• It’s protective

• Fosters critical thinking

• Promotes agency, self-actualization

• Turns users into stakeholders, citizens

• Supports community well-being & goals

Why citizenship?