Digital Citizenship for Our Future!

           

                  Digital Citizenship is a concept which helps teachers and technology leaders understand what students should know to use technology appropriately which serves as a way to teach students how to react in a world of technology. ("Open Thinking, 2007). For digital citizenship, I chose to focus in on a third grade classroom environment I chose this age because they are older enough where they are being given the responsibility to use computers, and the internet to do research independently.

In a              In a world that is ever evolving in the area of technology, we as future teachers must keep ourselves educated in order to be able to provide our students with current and useful information and resources. It is very important that we do so, or our students will pass us right up! The knowledge that today's average third grade student has of technological resources is mind blowing! Therefore we must be the eyes and ears there to remind them of how to properly use technology and keep themselves safe and secure on the internet. Children, at this age, do not know any better than to get on the internet and type in exactly what it is asking for. This could be a name, phone number, address, or photo. Also, kids do not know that not everything on the internet is true and if we do not teach them these things, who will!

As y               As young as children may seem to us at a third grade level, unfortunately there are still many issues that can arise for them when using the internet. Today's third graders know much more than we did when we were young about technology and they know the resources but, they do not know how to use them until they are properly taught. Because of this, we as future teachers must make them aware of digital citizenship and how to keep themselves safe on the internet. At this age, it would not be uncommon for them to have cell phones and to be taking harmless pictures with their friends but what may be harmless to them can be very dangerous to put on the internet for multiple reasons. Therefore we must be there to teach them what is appropriate and what is not. Also, they may come across a website that asks them for their information such as phone number, address, name etc and they do not know potentially how dangerous this could be. If they are not taught to not make this information public they are more than likely to do so. On the Internet, unfortunately in some cases, pop-ups are not blocked and if this occurs, our students need to know that the information being given is 99.9% of the time false. It is easy for an adult to in some cases fall for a free ipad or Hawaii vacation let alone a child who does not know any better.

Anot             Another aspect of technology that is harm full for children that they may not be aware of is that every picture or word they put on the Internet, even if it has been deleted, it will never be gone. This is very dangerous for young children who do not think before they act. This could be detrimental to their future endeavors if their digital footprint is negative. It is our job as future parents and teachers to educate children about digital citizenship and how to keep themselves safe on the Internet. Below is a Prezi that I created on the idea of digital citizenship. Within the prezi I have some information on how digital citizenship can be incorporated in a classroom and some different information including the nine themes. Also, I have links to four use full sites that can be used in the classroom to introduce and teach digital citizenship. These resources were all found on current teacher websites and I checked them all to make sure they are appropriate and useful. Hope you enjoy! Thank again for visiting my Blog!!

 

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