Digital Citizenship/Literacy

The world is now a digital village. Everything we do can be brought together and put into perspective using a network of communication. The subject of digital citizenship and literacy is very important in our lives today. It is to this effect that we want to discuss the issue concerning digital citizenship, literacy and reasons why class rooms should be adopting these into their teaching curriculum.The definition of digital citizenship and digital literacy, closely knitted together and having lots of definitions between them (depending on the context in which being used), are like the two faces of the same coin. However, they have different meanings that will make you appreciate them better.In defining digital citizenship, we need to consider that we have two words here. First, is citizenship, which primarily means to be a member of a community, being fully aware of the interactions and knowledge of the land, its history and its people.  Therefore, digital citizenship is the norm, habit, action and interactions that have an influence technological communities.Someone having digital citizenship is a person who has the skill and requirements to maximize digital technologies, as well as communicate effectively with other members of the digital community.Digital literacy being an off-shoot of media literacy, is the ability to use digital platforms to source, evaluate, produce and communicate effectively. It is imperative that for the context of this study, we should limit our scope to how digital literacy and citizenship is used in the classroom. Some of the applicable ways of digital citizenship and literacy in the classroom are:

• Digital databases

• Social media

• Virtual collaboration

• Cloud computing

• Social media

From Digital Citizenship to Digital Leader for A Student

Digital citizenship is one level, which is to be a member of a community. However, there is another level, which is to be a digital leader. Being a digital citizen is encouraged in students, but it does not end there. There are other responsibilities students should be willing to handle once they become digital leaders.While digital citizenship means using the internet responsibly and ethically, digital leadership uses the same internet to better the lives of other people within and without the community. So with these two, it’s just a matter of perspective.  In a nutshell, a digital citizen uses the internet responsibly, while a digital leader uses the internet inspirationally.Encouraging students to make the transition is quite easy. All they have to do is find something they are really passionate about and then use it as a tool to start influencing people positively.

Every Class Room Needs Digital Activities

This is the information age. Every other thing we do depends on it. Listed below are five reasons why we need to add digital citizenship to our teaching.

• Closing the gap: students do a lot of stuff with their technological devices that are not educationally related. This causes a gaping hole that really needs to be filled. We should inculcate the use of technology in classroom to our curriculum.

• Leave your own digital footprint: organizations now use profiles of people to admit and hire. The question is, are the things you have in your profile able to sell you properly? Students should be encouraged to add relevant things to their bio.

• It’s part of our lives now: this cannot be over-emphasized. Every subject that is being taught must be such that materials should be sourced, and interactions done through technology.

• Multitasking as a culture for students: multitasking could have its own bad side, which could make students pay less attention by always checking their phones or opening different windows on a PC. As we encourage students to use technology, emphasis should be made on them having longer attention span.

• Information literacy and content curation: gathering relevant information is a skill that students should learn. Social media can be used to even share the information that has been gathered.

Check out the 15 Habits to Cultivate Digital Literacy Skills in Your Students:

1. Preach “originality in the rough.” The same–or highly similar–information can now be found on countless websites, forums, blogs, and the like. The true test is to find a diamond in the rough: an original fact or thought that contributes something unique to the discussion. This is what students should be trained to look for.2. Hold open discussions about plagiarism. Every teacher should hold a discussion of what plagiarism means in the Digital Age. What was once considered “copying” can now be regarded as re-purposing in many cases. Refer to Kenneth Goldsmith’s Uncreative Writing for inspiration on this topic.3. Help students develop a “nose” for quality. Ideally, someone with digital literacy should be able to rate the relevance and quality of a source almost instantaneously. Obvious markers include phrasing of titles, reputation of source, standard of web design, publication date, and keywords.4. Train students to react skeptically when they read the phrase, “Research says…” or “A recent study revealed…” People are obsessed with data, and quick to believe dramatic figures when they see them. Be sure that whoever claims to back your facts is a credible source, and that the facts themselves are not skewed to manipulate your perspective.5. Get used to multiple literacies, not just one. The Digital Age has brought us not a single new type of literacy but several literacies that overlap and define one another. New literacies include Layered Literacy, which describes the way that print and digital overlap, creating intertextuality; Trans-literacy, or the ability to read and write across a wide variety of media formats; Electracy, which refers to the pedagogical skills necessary for new digital skills; and digital citizenship, which covers the role and rights of a person within the digital world.6. Read past the first page of Google results; SEO controls a lot of what shows up on the first page. Most of us have the patience only to scan what shows up on the first page. Teach your students to delve deeper, search in different channels such as Scholar and News, and keep it going until information no longer seems relevant to the topic.7. Use tools like Feedly and Twitter to filter the deluge of information. Managing the volume of information on the Internet is a huge task, and completely overwhelming without a filter. Encourage students to use Twitter and Feedly for news updates and customize the content to fit their subjects of interest.8. Teach your students to use WordPress. Think of WordPress as a replacement for the cursive writing we once required in schools. It’s a way to formalize your writing and lend authority to your voice. And it demonstrates the basics of a rapidly growing medium.9. Teach your students to write HTML. Coding is hitting schools hard, but the important thing is to cover the basics. Once students know the fundamentals of the language, they can easily make more advanced programming part of their continuing self-education.10. Encourage interviews via e-mail and Skype. What’s better than asking Google a question? How about talking face-to-face with the person who wrote the article you’re reading? Well, face-to-grainy-face, perhaps, but still significantly more informative–and motivating–than citing a passage from a text.11. Require students to create their own digital products. This is the best way for students to learn digital citizenship, hands down. Learning-by-doing could not be more effective than it is in the digital sphere. Have your students create blogs, record videos, engineer new apps–the possibilities are endless, and the benefits just about as innumerable.12. Be sure they evaluate two, if not three, competing sources before drawing a conclusion.The best research approaches a topic from as many angles as possible. If you’re crafting an argument, search for facts that may prove your theory wrong. If you’re looking for supporting evidence, be sure it comes from a diverse selection of sources.13. Teach your students to understand scientific discourse. Unfortunately, most research papers are not written for the layman. But understand them the layman must. Your students need to be able to interpret scientific language in order to benefit from scientific research, as it will not always be summarized for them. Believe it or not, this is especially important in the Digital Age, as information consumers become more and more accustomed to receiving their news in 140-character Tweets and single-sentence Facebook updates. Part of digital literacy is knowing when the unabridged version is worth your time.14. Teach digital writing. Technology has fundamentally changed how writing is produced, delivered, and received. One of the goals of teaching digital writing is that students will increase their ability to produce a relevant, high-quality product, instead of just a standard academic paper.15. Use digital resources for empowerment. Having a voice and a presence online can be more empowering than we think. As students form online identities and personas, help them visualize the scale of the impact they could make on various communities and the confidence they will gain from doing so.

Conclusion:

Digital citizenship and literacy is very important in the educational sector. Students have a large role to play because the future really depends on them.

References:

https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/5-reasons-you-should-be-teaching-digital-citizenship/https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/moving-students-from-digital-citizenship-to-digital-leadership/https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/the-definition-of-digital-citzenship/https://educationtechnologysolutions.com.au/2018/02/digital-citizenship-vs-digital-literacy-difference/https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenshiphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_literacyhttp://www.teachhub.com/technology-classroom-what-digital-literacyhttps://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2014/08/12/20-things-educators-need-to-know-about-digital-literacy-skills/