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?
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?