digital citizenship, and more internet responsibility

Digital citizenship combines responsibility with technology. We are supposed to be teaching our students to be responsible learners and use these tools such as computers, cameras, ipods, etc. with a mature sense of accountability. Now it is a hard task to begin the reversal process, and I do think it is a reversal process for many people because our students have been using these technologies for such a long time already, but it is an important task nonetheless.

Students have had to do a lot of the 'playing' around on the Internet alone, and most times without supervision. This leads to them having to maybe fall on their faces and get into a bit of trouble before they realize how it all works. Part of me is saying "maybe that is not such a bad thing, because practical experience is sometimes the best action plan", but the other part of me is saying "this is no way to keep them safe!"

So what do we do? Responsibility, of any sort, is a difficult thing to teach students! It has been something that we have likely struggled with a lot over the years and still continue to struggle with. When it comes to Internet responsibility and technological responsibility, it becomes an even more difficult task.

Relating this to my previous post, I have been still in the mode of "how" and still come up short of answers. I have had the whole Easter break to think about it and it still is baffling. There are so many ideas, and so many things to consider. I would LOVE for our committee to become that like-minded group of individuals that need to discuss this - maybe a virtual meeting? ha ha. But back to business - we are meeting this week (a few of us teachers in my school) to discuss and come up with a few answers and possible solutions to my previous post. I am quite ready to resolve this - or at least get a good start on it. I am one of those people that can not leave this sitting to stew for too long - and part of it may be that I am the computer teacher and school computer administrator so students always ask me about "why" things. I will absolutely post what comes of it, how we did it, and if we have any documents made up from the meeting I will be sure to send them on to you.

Digital citizenship may actually be defined through this type of meetings and rantings. Maybe like some had said at our meeting, that we need to realize that digital citizenship is ever changing. But what I do know is that this is a bit frustrating, confusing, exciting and overwhelming!

Our staff is wonderful here and we are likely to come up with something great, as long as we can keep some personal opinions out of the mix, and think about the better of the students, school and education we are giving them.

I will keep you posted!!