Understanding digital citizenship, ribble 2015

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What is digital citizenship and why is it important for individuals to become contributing members of a digital society? Moreover, why should anyone—administrators, teachers, parents, students—even be concerned with such a thing as a “digital society?” The term citizen is most commonly defined as “a native or natural- ized person who owes allegiance to a larger state or collective and who shares in the rights and responsibilities afforded all members of that collective.” As the definition states, a citizen both works for and benefits from a larger society. The concept of digital citizenship, then, reinforces the positive aspects of technology so that everyone can work and play in this digital world. To date, few social guidelines have been developed for the use of digital technologies. We can decide, as a society, that unacceptable behavior should be the norm. Or we can decide that digital technology should be used for the benefit of all. This is why those who work for and benefit from a larger society need to be involved in deciding how best to support digital technology in our communities. This is why there needs to be digital citizenship. Understanding Digital Citizenship It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense. —ROBERT G. INGERSOLL I SECTION ©2015 ISTE. Do not copy.

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP IN SCHOOLS 9 T he idea of technology raising ethical considerations did not start with computers. With every new technology that has been discovered, the way in which it is used and to what end has defined that tool. Prior to computers, the most recent major tool to change society and education specifically was the printing press. What the printing press allowed in the way of sharing ideas with the “masses” forever changed how we look at learning and the educational field. Some people consider the printing press as the beginning of more structured educational systems and the division of adults and children (this is described in The Disappearance of Childhood (1994) by Neil Postman. The growth of technology in the 1950s and 1960s, when telephones and televisions came into many homes, continued this trend of sharing information across vast areas in a short amount of time. Marshall McLuhan, in his 1964 classic Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, proposed that, “a medium itself, not the content it carries, should be the focus of study.” He said that “a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only by the content delivered over the medium, but also by the characteristics of the medium itself. ” (McLuhan, 1964) 1 A Brief History of Digital Citizenship ©2015 ISTE. Do not copy.

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP IN SCHOOLS 10 SECTION I r!! Understanding Digital Citizenship His ideas seem even more appropriate to today’s technology than they did when he wrote them in 1964. McLuhan also identified technology as one’s self (as we see more and more today with people on their devices) and as leading to the inevitable loss of other skills (which he identified as amputations), such as being able to write a letter on paper. The growth of technology throughout the 1980s and 1990s, along with the expansion of the internet, brought new opportunities as well as challenges. During the 1990s, technology users recognized that there needed to be structure to what was considered appropriate and inappropriate use of technology. The interest in computer ethics grew rapidly during the 1990s. Moor (1985) defined computer ethics as “the analysis of the nature and social impact of computer technology and the corresponding formulation and justification of policies for the ethical use of such technology” (p. 7). Educators who supported the need for computer ethics believed there was a continuous cycle of inappropriate behavior that was happening with technology. These educators believed that if abuse of technology continued without consequences, technology abuse would lead to loss of technology freedom for all users. The 1990s began to prepare users for the changes that were on the horizon of digital technology use. Concern for appropriate technology use would lead to future interest in how students used technology. The early years of the 2000s brought an increase in mobile computing. Prior to the year 2000, mobile computing was in its infancy, but was often too expensive for the majority of users to own. By the year 2000, cellular phones and other mobile technologies became less expensive and more readily available for widespread commercial use. The problem with mobile computing technologies was that they were purchased without understanding the social implications of owning and using these devices. Once again, schools were unprepared for the numbers of students who were coming to their schools with cellular phones (and other mobile computing devices). Prior to events such as the Columbine, Colorado school shooting and the terrorist attacks of 2001, schools banned electronic devices in schools, but these events triggered parental demand for having immediate contact with their children. Users were not required to become literate about the technology and when and where it should be used. This practice continues to the current writing of this edition. The early 2000s did not just bring rise to the cellular phone but to other mobile technologies as well. Devices such as personal data assistants (PDAs), laptops, and digital audio players grew rapidly in popularity. Schools began exploring the potential uses for these mobile tech- nologies. The ability to share information “wirelessly” was of interest to school technology directors. But students found other potential uses for this wireless communication. Some of the information was simply student conversations; some was benign, but some interfered or created issues within the school. Once again, schools considered banning students from using the technology in schools, but parents and outside pressures (e.g., the American Civil Liberties Union) forced schools to reevaluate how they were handling the inappropriate use of technologies in schools (Parry, 2005). School administrators needed to find a way to educate teachers, students, and parents about the increasing issues of technology misuse. ©2015 ISTE. Do not copy.

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP IN SCHOOLS 11 A Brief History of Digital Citizenship r!! CHAPTER 1 During the 2000s, concerns about inappropriate technology use became apparent. Pressures created in previous years, as well as the new issues associated with mobile computing, made it clear that schools and districts needed to do be more proactive. Schools decided to implement acceptable use policies (AUPs) in an attempt to decrease inappropriate tech- nology use. The AUP stated that the student and parent read and understood the rules for technology use in the school. Often students and parents signed the AUP without a full understanding of what was considered appropriate and not when using technology. In some situations, students would violate the AUP and schools realized that they had little legal recourse for the students’ actions. As schools saw that these policies were not effective in changing student behavior, those in education began to revisit the concept of computer ethics from the 1990s. Organizations such as the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) created their own set of standards, the National Education Technology Standards (NETS) for teachers, students, and administrators. These standards included a section on technology ethics to provide a framework of what teachers, students and admin- istrators should know. Since that time ISTE has updated these standards. As an outgrowth of the original technology ethics standards, ISTE’s most recent student, teacher, coach, and administrator standards all have digital citizenship as one of their strands. Digital citizenship is not a new concept in the field of digital technologies. The term has been used to define different programs: Drake University created a program on digital citi- zenship dealing with service learning and the digital divide (Shulman, S., Beisser, S., Larson, T. & Shelley, M., 2002). However, this and similar programs have failed to provide students and educators with the comprehensive technical knowledge needed to act appropriately in a digital society. Cyberbullying was another phenomenon emerging from increased access to technology and mobile computing (Kearsley, 2005). Franek (2004) defined a cyberbully as “anyone who repeatedly misuses technology to harass, intimidate, or terrorize another person.” Kearsley (2005), Pappas (2005), and Simmons (2003) agreed that because many users can access technology, the impact on students was worse than being bullied by traditional methods. Another aspect of cyberbullying was the issue of responsibility. If the attacks did not happen while using school technology, the schools were often less able to help the student being bullied. This issue continues to be a point of discussion in schools, and will be more deeply addressed throughout the text. One example of how this topic has crossed over into main- stream media is the novel TTYL by Lauren Myracle (2004), which caused concerns for those in the literary world. Written in the style of an instant messaging conversation, the book begins the discussion of what could be seen as a reflection of parents’ inability to grasp what their children are doing on devices. As schools and districts have begun 1:1 device initiatives (introducing one computer/tablet per student) the issues with ethical technology use have increased. Without a plan to help educate the staff and students on what is appropriate when using technology tools in the classroom, the problems will continue and increase. For those who have set a direction, such as digital citizenship, issues have stopped being a limiting factor in the classroom. The use ©2015 ISTE. Do not copy.

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP IN SCHOOLS 12 SECTION I r!! Understanding Digital Citizenship of technology changes education, and educators need to be prepared for making adjust- ments. Teacher preparation programs and professional development around the globe have begun to look more closely at what digital citizenship is, and where it fits within education. Character Education and Digital Citizenship Society has changed. In the past it was the norm for families to join together around a dinner table and talk about the events of the day. People read newspapers and watched or listened to news broadcasts from professional journalists. These journalists gathered infor- mation from trusted sources, then shared the information with the masses. Today many of these trusted sources of information are gone. Now it is the responsibility of the individual to determine what information is correct. Now families who want to learn what members of the household are doing check status updates, posts, or send texts. As reflected upon by Dr. Jason Ohler, the days of the dining room discussion has gone away and now dining rooms have been changed to “gathering spaces” (Ohler, 2014). Technology has changed the dynamics of families, schools, and communities. Introducing technology to children, often at a very young age, does provide opportunities that their parents did not have. Often technology can allow for creativity on a scale that was unknown in the past. It allows users to produce information instead of being just consumers of it. With the benefits that technology provides, it also can have pitfalls; loss of personal interac- tion, bullying by others through digital tools; oversharing information to others not known to us. These are just a few examples, but there are other issues that can come along as well. How can we balance the positive aspects of technology, protect from the potential issues, and teach the values that are needed in a society inundated with these tools? With the growth in the use of technology in education, there is a need for programs that help students to focus on the positive uses of technology and be much more discerning in their decisions of what to post, comment, or discuss when using digital technologies. Most people will do what is right, if they know what the right thing is. To help define these ideas for everyone, a program is needed to help everyone identify the appropriate thing to do when online. These are the reasons that character education has become a much-discussed topic with the expansion of technology in schools. One such program, CHARACTER COUNTS!, comes from the Josephson Institute of Ethics (josephsoninstitute.org). Dr. Josephson came up with the six pillars of CHARACTER COUNTS!: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship are the basis for anyone wanting to work, play, and live together in any society. These pillars are intertwined with the ideals built into digital citizenship. Both are attempting to reach the same goal: to have people understand and work with one another in a world of mutual esteem. Some may be confused by the idea of “digital” topics and those in the “real” world. Today those two domains have intersected with one another; it is difficult to find where one ends and the other begins. Many educators believe that the word digital should and must ©2015 ISTE. Do not copy.

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