Digital citizenship is the ability to navigate our digital environments in a way that’s safe and responsible and to actively and respectfully engage in these spaces. 

mediasmarts.ca

Digital citizenship needs to be understood by educators for two main reasons. One being understanding our own digital citizenship and the other to teach students about the topic. It can be tricky. On one hand, what we put on the internet usually times there forever, on the other hand, we can’t just not ever use the internet for anything.

Image of a woman looking at pictures on a laptop while writing on her tablet, image from Antoni Shkraba

The difficult part about explaining digital citizenship is that there are horror stories about the mistakes that have been made. Nobody talks about people who have a good digital citizenship. The bad stories can be used when discussing digital citizenship, and maybe the explanation of why we hear the bad stories. that being said, there are things that students can see where people are putting positive things online or are keeping contact with family members or community. There are clips of children’s shows, educational videos, and so on.

As adults and educators, having a good digital citizenship is important in our own lives. We can use digital tools to make our jobs and lives easier, connect to or families and community, to research important topics through reputable sources and to understand what we use and it’s uses. When we do ths in our own lives it is easier to teach and then we’re modeling for students and those around us.

Shkraba, A. Photo of Woman Writing on Tablet while Using Laptop. Pexels. https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-woman-writing-on-tablet-computer-while-using-laptop-4348401/

What is Digital Citizenship? Media Smarts: Canada’s Center for Digital Media Literacy. https://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/general-information/digital-media-literacy-fundamentals/what-digital-citizenship.