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Community Digital Education: Yay or Nay?

While reading through the Digital Citizenship: Guide for Parents I was struck with a few thoughts:

  • I know a few people that need to read this.

Which led me to think:

  • I wonder if my school knows about this resource.

  • I wonder if my school has read it or actively promotes it.

  • Would parents actually read this?

  • Is there a shorter version?

  • How can we better promote it and make it applicable to all/most families?

Which led my brain to wander down a rabbit hole of thoughts/ideas and what I’d like to write about today.

Tech Use Today: Training Students & Families

The hype of the ability to have a connected technological device in your pocket brought on schools to create no-use policies, media agreements, and confiscation regulations. Being the first generation to have readily available technology at the fingertips of many youth was like navigating a landmine field that continuously changes. It seemed as though banning technology use was easier than attempting to control it – until we realized that was an unrealistic goal.

Controlling the ever-changing world of social media is impossible and embracing it is a reality many schools, divisions, and parents are accepting. How can we aid our youth in healthily operating technology on a day-to-day basis while keeping them safe and respecting boundaries? Further, what role does education play in this and what role do families play?

Challenges & Supports in Schools

I considered this week’s questions and found all of them to overlap in my responses (in my opinion). The list of challenges for managing tech use in school is ongoing for educators. Incorporating digital citizenship and literacy education, in my experience, has helped and shown students we are not against technology but only the negative use of it. I believe that all educators should be actively and consistently incorporating this education into their classes and that it will continue to gain popularity and take hold of critical thought abilities in the minds of our youth.

Additionally, my thoughts can’t stop from wondering how we can better educate our population to be better digital citizens. In my teaching experience, I have heard about and witnessed a number of parents and family members of students being negative digital citizens. It isn’t just our youth who need education – we too are all experiencing this world developing alongside our youth. We too are learning to manage our use and find balance. We too need digital citizenship education.

“Teaching digital citizenship helps to ensure that students think critically, behave safely, participate responsibly, and maintain their health and wellness in the digital world.”

— – Let’s Talk Science

This quote from Let’s Talk Science made me think about why it just says “students”. As Alec posted in our course, Jill quoted Robinson saying, “Education isn’t limited to the walls of the classroom” so why are we limiting this education to students?

Educating Our Communities

Going back to the Guide for Parents resource and my thoughts on making it more accessible.

Where do schools fit in with educating families on digital citizenship? I’m sure if a local resource center were to offer courses the parents who have kids we rarely are concerned about using media inappropriately would be the ones who attended, with a few exceptions, isn’t that how it usually is?

Could schools regularly share this resource on their media pages for parents to access? What about the Digital Citizenship Education in Saskatchewan Schools, do all educators know about it and have a copy? Could there be printed copies for families who perhaps don’t have digital access and would like one? Could we have our School Community Councils host a parent night to discuss this topic and 9 elements with families? What if we made the booklets or QR codes for it a focal point and presented them at each school function/event? If we make it consistent could it become a norm (20 years from now)? Perhaps a cliff-notes version could be made and shared more easily?

Maybe we’re missing an incredible opportunity by focusing on helping our students just be great digital citizens. If we are able to offer a broader spectrum of education to our communities then perhaps we can all be better citizens or at least work together to be.

The Future Implementation of Ribble’s Elements

Maybe this post didn’t dive as deeply as it should have but this is what my mind could not stop thinking about and I needed to off-load it.

Am I crazy to think that applying Ribble’s 9 elements on a massive scale could help create a baseline or starting line for general manners and guidelines for constructive and appropriate technology use? Perhaps if it were more common knowledge then it could be more widely enforced or recognized. Like anything (like the law) there will be rule breakers but speed limit signs definitely help! Amirite?

I’m going to stop ranting here and hope that someone says I’m not being naive or lacking critical thought in this concept but to me, community-based digital citizenship seems practical.

Maybe I should have done my final project on that.

Questions:

Do you feel this could be something your school or SCC could/wold do? Why or Why not?

Do you think this would help?

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