What is Digital Citizenship?
Digital citizenship is a term we keep hearing more and more as technology and social media keep advancing, but what does it actually mean? According to Common Sense Media, digital citizenship means “to think critically, behave safely, and participate responsibly in our digital world” (Common Sense Media, 2021). Another definition that explains digital citizenship is from Teach Thought, “the quality of a response to membership in a digital community” (Heich, 2018). If I were to define digital citizenship in my own words that people who have never heard of it before could understand, I would describe it as participating responsibly and safely on any online platform where you share content and words. To me, this means just making sure what I post is appropriate, I am following the guidelines for any social media application and not participating in cyberbullying. All of these are vital to keeping online communities a safe and fun place to be.
Digital citizenship can be distinguished from digital literacy because citizenship is participating and posting online content on a social media application or a website, but literacy is being able to comprehend and evaluate online content. The similarities between digital citizenship and digital literacy are that both acquire knowledge of how to navigate online spaces and understand how to use and responsibly participate in those online environments. Being able to have the ability to work online websites or social media applications and produce posts are the essential parts of literacy but then knowing the guidelines of what to post and is the citizenship role. The differences between digital citizenship and digital literacy are that citizenship requires participation while literacy does not. Literacy is more on the technical side of social media and how it operates, but you do not have to participate and post, it is about comprehending.
For future educators like myself and even current educators, the next question is, how do we use digital citizenship in the classroom? In what ways can we promote good digital citizenship? According to Julia Ottesen from EdScoop, a digital citizenship curriculum can help students make smart choices not only online but in real life, too (Ottesen, 2018). The curriculum covers multiple topics that can promote digital citizenship for students of all grade levels. I also think some of this can be adapted for adult learners, especially since we do a lot of online learning due to the pandemic we are going through. Educators can definitely support good digital citizenship by including social media use n the classroom and having students practice good citizenship on apps used in the classroom with their classmates.
In general, individuals of any age can and should make sure they are enacting good digital citizenship when participating online. According to Sameer Hinduja from the Cyberbullying Research Center, digital citizenship has a big part in preventing cyberbullying. The growth of personal devices amongst youth has increased cyberbullying over social media applications, but when good citizenship is promoted with curriculum in the classroom, we can prevent it (Hinduja, 2020). This not only goes for young people but also adults. We also have the responsibility for demonstrating good examples of digital citizenship. Following online guidelines, being responsible and respectful, and being conscious of privacy are all apart of digital citizenship and should be followed by everyone to prevent cyberbullying.
