Digital Citizenship

Kids today have more access to more things than ever before. It's no wonder they're finding more and more ways to get themselves in trouble. There is no doubt that everyone has heard one of the tragic online bullying stories that turned deadly. In my classroom, I try my best to talk about positive digital citizenship as often as possible. The image below is displayed proudly in my room as well as multiple rooms in the building.  My goal as an educator is to teach the whole student- not just the student that is in our class and not just about my content area. Hal Urban puts it very eloquently by saying "[Students] are here for two reasons. To learn [the content area] and to learn to be a good citizen." If we do not teach students how to be good people, then some of them will never learn. Some have parents that will teach them how to be productive members of society, others rely on the schools to learn. When it comes to the question if administrators or educators in general should address student behavior online, I think the obvious answer is "yes!" In my opinion, we shouldn't wait until something happens to start talking to students about proper online behaviors. They need to know the expectations right away, and so do their parents.

In order to combat the cyberbullying, people need to me more educated about it. Parents need to be educated about laws and suggestions for how they can protect their kids, teachers and administrators need to know how to support kids in need, and students need to be educatedon how to be a good digital citizen. I don't care when the bullying is happening. I care if my students are being hurt in any way, and I want to do everything I can to take all their pain away. I don't think I have (or should have) the power to discipline a student for something that happened online. I do, however, know that my students look up to me and respect me. So, if I were to sit a student down and talk with them about something they said or did online, I know they would be embarrassed and ashamed enough to apologize, and hopefully stop. Depending on the relationship I have with the student/ family, I may call home and just say something along the lines of "I don't know if this is true, but I wanted to make you aware of it in case it is...." I would record the conversation as a protective measure for myself.


My recommendation to all educators:
1. Talk about digital citizenship regularly
2. Inform parents of how to properly maintain their child's accounts online
3. Allow students to openly talk to you about concerns they may have in their life