Rural Tech Educator

Article Analysis Four for EDUA 6376 This article is about how educational leaders should be the ones to lead students in becoming good digital citizens. The study was conducted outside the United States, which made it an interesting read. It was also qualitative, and used interviews to gather the information. The authors chose to do this study because of the rapid changes in technology, and they felt it was time that educational leaders start providing digital leadership to students.  The authors broke down their data into technology ethics, technology security, technology abuse, misuse of technology, and the role of the educational leader in gaining technology literacy. Those themes were then broken down further into sub-themes. The study found that educational leaders need to be the ones to develop curriculum and be the leaders in teachers students how to be better digital citizens.  The authors emphasized that teachers and administrators should be the ones to lead the way o...

  Utah State Law: How school librarians become responsible for teaching digital citizenship        Article Synthesis 2                                                                                                           Digital Citizenship Utah              Utah passed a state law in 2015 requiring public schools to mandate digital citizenship instruction. That law led to school librarians in the state becoming responsible for teaching digital citizenship. While the bill required that a school community council of parents, students and teachers in each school district be charged with ensuring the digital citizenship curriculum was offered, the bill did not identi...

  Digital citizenship refers to the ability to use technology correctly and appropriately rather that merely using it. In the study   Comparison   of students’ and teachers’ opinions toward digital citizenship education,  the researchers compared the digital citizenship levels of teacher candidates studying in their last year and primary school classroom teachers. The study breaks down digital citizenship into nine sub dimensions: “Digital Access, Digital Trade, Digital Law, Digital Rights and Responsibilities, Digital Health, and Digital Security.” Researchers ask the two sets of teachers questions about all nine sub dimensions. The study was conducted with a total of 65 individuals, comprising of 38 primary classroom teachers and 27 candidate teachers during the 2020-2021 fall semester. The participants were chosen according to targeted random sampling method. The researchers conducted interviews with open-ended questions related to the nine sub dimensions of digit...

  Education is always evolving. In the past 20 years, we have seen technology become a big part of how we teach and how we learn. Along the way, we, as educators, have discovered that students are using technology more and more, and at younger ages. Whereas students use to have time in computer labs learning and working, many schools are now equipping their students with iPads inside the classroom and Google Chromebooks for the school year. Just because schools give students these devices, that doesn’t mean they know how to use them safely. While schools may put internet filters on the devices, many students, especially at the middle school and high school levels, can find ways around the filters. This may lead them into sites that can be harmful, misleading, or, even worse, targeting youth for illegal activities. The Nielson Company (2009) reports that by age ten over half of youth own or borrow a cell phone, while six out of ten own a cell phone at age eleven, and three-fourths o...

  Every time my children go with their grandparents, or to school, or even church, I am constantly reminding them to be on their best behavior. Isn’t that what we have been taught since we were little, to be good citizens? In the 21st century digital age, citizenship has expanded to not only being good in person, but also teaching children and students to be good citizens when they are behind the keyboard. At the same time, we as parents worry about what our children are reading on the screen. Where is there information coming from? As technology continues to increase in our lives, we, as teachers, must learn to incorporate both good digital citizenship habits and good digital literacy habits into our students. What is Digital Citizenship? Citizenship is traditionally conceptualized as the relationship between people and the nation state. It is based around notions of the “dutiful citizen,” who is informed about issues via mass media and obligated to participate in electoral proces...