Digital Citizenship

You have read about Digital Citizenship.  Do you as the teacher librarian, school library media specialist, whatever your designation, see yourself having a role in educating students in this area?  Can you see yourself as a champion for this type of education?  How do you feel about student education in the area of the 3Cs?

To start I'd like to discuss cyber safety and the role of the librarian. The internet can be an unsafe place for those who don't know its dangers. Children are especially vulnerable to this danger because they don't know what it is that can go wrong or how they are in danger. Of those children, those who are most endanger are the ones who are an at risk population in reality. From the learnings this week I've discovered that a lot of the unwanted solicitation of children is through chat rooms and instant message. Some of the perpetrators are minors themselves.  

The Enhancing Child Safety and Online Technologies video went over some important information regarding the current state of internet safety. As a librarian our jobs are to be part of a team that teaches children how to safely navigate the internet. Although we're part of a team,  "Parents are the best intervention point for bullying and sexual solicitation" (Palfrey). This means reaching out to parents as well as educators. What we must refuse to do, is nothing at all. If we don't teach them how to prepare for a digital world we're doing them a disservice. We must "...educate our kids so that they can interact with the dangers of the world."(Palfrey)

This brings us to the nine factors of Digital Citizenship. The nine areas hope to ensure that students are able to function in a digital world and there are many ways that librarians can help with this. Hopefully our schools will be brimming with technology that students can explore and implement in their studies. We hope to be in a unique and special position of meeting students when they're on the search for information. We can assist them in their quest and teach them how to be good digital citizens at the same time. I think a good way way to do this would be to approach it in three ways: direct instruction, passive information, and outreach. 

Direct classroom instruction in the library through a planned curriculum can help give students a basis of knowledge on what it is to use technology in an appropriate way. This means setting aside part of your day with students to instruct them on citizenship topics. This doesn't have to be a lengthy presentation but rather 5 minutes set aside on the topic of piracy or copyright. Passive information should be used to reinforce direct instruction. This could be in the form of handouts or book marks. This is to keep the information fresh even when they are not at the library. The third would be outreach. This means reaching out to other teachers to allow them to teach a mini unit in their classroom. Perhaps teaming up with the technology teacher to create content. It also means reaching out to parents to make them understand the basis of the curriculum and why we're teaching it. This would be my approach to teaching this in the classroom.

Contact, content, conduct, the three C's of digital citizenship. I think an overarching curriculum can address all of these issues while teaching more digital skills. The three C's can help decrease the occurrence of bullying and cyber harassment.  Although the data is still pending on whether this type of bullying is increasing, it's important for students to understand there is a type of decorum and behavior they should display online. 

Overall I think these are important issues for librarians to discuss but with a measured approach they can be addressed easily. We are strapped for time in the library but by teaming up with classroom teachers we might be able to reach more students. 



Palfrey, John, perf. ISTTF: Enhancing Child Safety and Online Technologies. Perf. Dannah Boyd. The President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2009. Film. 17 Oct 2013. <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/5032>.

Ribble, Mike. (2008-2009) “Passport to Digital Citizenship”.   Leading and Learning with Technology. 14-17.