The necessity to train accountable and moral digital habits has by no means been extra urgent. For college students, digital citizenship isn’t only a talent — it’s important to navigating all the pieces from staying linked with their buddies to studying in regards to the world round them, to getting ready for faculty and profession. However with know-how advancing so rapidly, 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 current dialog with EdSurge, he defined why digital citizenship is way over simply on-line security. His method requires a broader focus that encourages college students to make use of know-how in artistic, significant methods — for the great of society. As synthetic intelligence and different improvements rework the digital area, there may be an pressing want to arrange 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. This can be a key distinction from older definitions that targeted totally on on-line security and defending private info. These earlier ideas felt self-focused, emphasizing particular person safety above all else.
Being a digital citizen right this moment means understanding that we’re all in a really actual, albeit digital, neighborhood with different people. Our actions can and can considerably influence different neighborhood members and vice versa. This shift modifications how we method instructing younger folks about digital citizenship.
Taking part on this digital world isn’t elective; it’s the place lots of life’s most essential moments now happen. However understanding the way to current ourselves and use our voice for good on this area is a talent we will select to develop. Digital citizenship is now not nearly creating sturdy passwords; it’s about utilizing know-how to make our digital neighborhood a greater place.
Why ought to educators and households prioritize digital citizenship?
Understanding the way to leverage the digital world for private success and societal contribution is likely one of the most precious expertise for younger folks right this moment. We frequently incorrectly assume that children will simply determine the way to navigate the digital world on their very own, however that’s not the case. It’s a lot more durable for younger folks to look at and mannequin efficient digital expertise in comparison with different life expertise.
For instance, we will simply exhibit exhibiting respect for shared areas within the bodily world, like selecting up litter in a park. Youngsters can visibly observe after we bend down to select up a discarded can and toss it within the bin. Nevertheless, when adults have interaction in constructive digital behaviors — reminiscent of sharing uplifting content material, tactfully addressing misinformation or utilizing on-line instruments for neighborhood engagement — kids would possibly solely observe dad sitting at his laptop computer.
That is why it’s so essential to overtly train good digital citizenship expertise. In contrast to in different components of our youngsters’s lives, with out this intentional instruction, we danger leaving a big 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 essentially modifications the core digital well-being expertise we have to train; it merely provides urgency to instructing them. AI is a strong accelerator that has the potential to reinforce both wholesome or dangerous functions. The willpower is determined by how we select to make use of it.
Like several know-how instrument, constructing steadiness in our tech use, participating meaningfully with others and utilizing know-how to foster curiosity are all foundational expertise. Nevertheless, we must be involved that we’re introducing AI at a time after we nonetheless haven’t prioritized instructing these foundational digital citizenship expertise. It’s slightly like giving somebody the keys to a Ferrari earlier than they’ve even earned their driver’s allow.
AI must be a catalyst for a dialog about what expertise ought to stay uniquely human versus people who know-how might take over. We must always make that willpower by looking for to grasp how AI can assist us be higher people. People excel at discernment, judgment, humor, civility and creativity. Nevertheless, we battle with duties like brainstorming or synthesizing massive quantities of data. These are areas the place AI excels, which might enable people to focus extra power on changing into higher at our expertise, like being moral decision-makers.
Understanding that AI isn’t magic is important for college kids to grasp the way to greatest apply it of their lives.
That’s why ISTE+ASCD is launching one in every of its largest campaigns, GenerationAI, to assist educators rethink studying design in an AI world. We’re shifting the main target from the way to use AI instruments to the extra essential query of the way to redesign studying for a linked future.
How are colleges addressing cellphone bans in relation to digital citizenship?
Faculties that haven’t prioritized instructing digital citizenship expertise usually resort to banning units. Nevertheless, we have to train younger folks the way to use know-how for studying and problem-solving for them to be ready for a wholesome future. If we’re not instructing these important expertise at school, in partnership with mother and father, the place will they study them?
Wholesome tech use in school requires having the fitting circumstances 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 colleges present acceptable use insurance policies in advanced authorized language that college students don’t even perceive. As an alternative, we should 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 way to create efficient norms.
Faculties that take time to set applicable tech use norms with college students see more healthy environments and children studying lifelong expertise. Banning know-how would possibly really feel like a fast repair, but it surely creates greater issues down the highway when college students by no means study important digital well-being expertise. Banning units from college implies that youngsters will study digital behaviors from sources aside from mother and father and lecturers, reminiscent of social media or friends who additionally haven’t developed wholesome tech habits — which may be very regarding.
It’s essential to notice that if a faculty’s tech tradition has turn into dysfunctional, it’s utterly applicable to pause system use quickly whereas taking time to determine wholesome norms and instructing key digital citizenship ideas. Nevertheless, long-term, categorical bans on applied sciences which are important for teenagers’ future success should not choice.
What are some methods during which ISTE+ASCD is supporting educators in strengthening digital citizenship competencies with their college students?
We provide a number of assets on digital citizenship, together with a set of free digital citizenship classes for lecturers to make use of with college students from kindergarten to seniors in highschool. We additionally provide on-line programs to assist lecturers and faculty leaders higher perceive the way to train digital wellbeing. And, in fact, this can be a subject we tackle in any respect our occasions.
If a faculty’s know-how norms are only a record of “don’ts” (the issues we don’t need youngsters to do with know-how), we’re lacking the chance to follow constructive behaviors. It could be like instructing math by solely itemizing incorrect solutions and by no means working towards fixing equations. We have to clarify and mannequin the digital expertise we need youngsters to develop. The purpose is to maneuver past simply prohibitions and concentrate on instructing constructive, constructive methods to make use of know-how successfully.
We even have a free on-line neighborhood referred to as Join, the place educators can share what’s working and focus on constructing wholesome digital expertise.
How can colleges accomplice with mother and father to strengthen digital citizenship past the classroom?
Faculties can assist by sharing the methods they encourage constructive tech use: fact-checking, fostering curiosity, managing assignments and supporting the college neighborhood. They will additionally present examples of wholesome tech norms for dwelling use.
Stability is important, but it surely’s essential to grasp that establishing a single “display screen time” restrict is much 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 “outdoors 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 should always shift to eager about “display screen worth,” evaluating the standard of particular person digital actions reasonably 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’ll 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. Take a look at ISTE’s Digital Citizenship in Schooling, which incorporates DigCit Classes.