Blog: Digital Citizenship

Teachers in today's world have a long list of responsibilities outside of educating students on academic curriculum. One of the most important roles of a 21st century educator is to take responsibility of educating students about the importance of being a responsible digital user. In fact, the ISTE Standards for Educators (2022) recognizes how crucial this responsibility is by ISTE standard 2.3 Citizen which states, "Educators inspire students to positively contribute to and responsibility participate in the digital world" (para. 4). Many students participate in social media use outside of the classroom but many of these students do not receive guidance on how to practice socially responsible behavior while navigating communication through the use of digital websites. Therefore, many school districts are adopting new curriculums that teach appropriate behavior and expectations while both learning and communicating within a digital environment. In fact, Phillips and Lee (2019) references a question that may be on the mind of many educators which the authors discuss whose responsibility it is to teach digital citizenship.  Within the article, the authors Phillips and Lee discuss how Utah State Legislatures passed a bill within the House in 2015 known as "H.B 213, "Safe Technology Utilization and Digital Citizenship in Public Schools." According to Phillips and Lee (2019) the requirements of the bill state, "This bill requires that a school district, charter school, or college of education provide for education and awareness on safe technology utilization and digital citizenship" (p. 1). The passing of this Bill in Utah proves that outside stakeholders are making adjustments to school curriculum to ensure that all students have proper instruction and discussions on how to utilize technology as a student living within the digital age of technology both inside and outside the classroom. 

Martin and Wang (2019) defines digital citizenship by stating, "Digital citizenship, defined as exhibiting appropriate and responsible behavior with digital technology use, is an essential component of technology education" (p. 1). Some of the topics within learning about digital citizenship include cyberbullying prevention, digital privacy, digital etiquette and digital identity. If educators are going to expect students to learn, collaborate, and communicate on learning management systems (LMS) such as Google Classroom and Canvas it is critical that they are taught about proper ways to communicate with their teachers and their peers. As for social media use, many users may be unaware of the fact that their activity such as posting, liking, uploading pictures/videos or commenting on posts leaves behind a digital footprint that is viewable for a large audience to see. According to Martin and Wang (2019) "A digital footprint is a trail of data one creates while using the Internet" (p. 3). As a result, students need to be mindful of what they post on their profiles as many employers conduct a digital search of candidates prior to hiring them to represent their company and/or organization. Overall, the teaching of digital citizenship within the schools is most likely here to stay and expand as the needs of students increasingly shift to being digital learners and users. 

References 

International Standards for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2022). ISTE standards for 

educators. http://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators 


Martin, F., Gezer, T., Wang, C. (2019). Educators' Perceptions of Student Digital Citizenship 

Practices. Computers in the Schools, 36 (4), 238-254. 

https://doi.org/10.1080/07380569.2019.1674621 


Phillips, A. L., & Lee, V. R. (2019) Whose Responsibility Is It? A Statewide Survey of School 

Librarians on Responsibilities and Resources for Teaching Digital Citizenship. School Library 

Research, 22. 

Marti 

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