DIGITAL LITERACY AND DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP BELONG IN ALL CLASSROOMS

 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 processes (Pangrazio and Sefton-Green, 2021, as cited in the Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research).

In the digital age, citizenship has changed thanks to social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. In the digital context, citizenship is almost a “given,” but it does involve a series of tasks or acts – deciphering news feeds or constructing digital identities (Milenkova and Lendzhova, 2021). In their landmark book Being Digital Citizens, Isin and Ruppert (2015) argue that it is through digital acts that digital citizens come into being (Milenkova and Lendzhova, 2021).

In the education system, we often don’t think of students becoming good digital citizens until they are in middle school or high school. However, the teaching of digital citizenship becomes increasingly more developmentally appropriate for even the youngest learners (Lauricella, Herdzina and Robb, 2020).

Yet, educators ignore teaching younger learners the importance of how to be good digital citizens. The idea in most schools is to teach students the negatives of technology and the web, instead of how to positively use them.

We forbid our children, or teenagers, to be on certain websites or apps, but we don’t tell them why, or show them better options. The child then becomes confused and sees the internet as a bad thing. For teenagers, it may increase them to rebel, and go against rules.

Technology provided without direction or instruction has the potential to cause issues with others. In the past, there has been an inability to hold individuals accountable for their actions related to inappropriate use of technology, or to set any standards for appropriate use. Now, with this basic set of skills, steps need to be taken to implement these standards in daily practice in schools (Milenkova and Lendzhova, 2021).

What is Digital Literacy?

The formation of digital skills and digital literacy is a process in which the receiver becomes able to find, understand, evaluate, and apply information in various forms to solve personal, professional, community, regional, social, or even global problems (Milenkova and Lendzhova, 2021).

Digital literacy and Media literacy go hand and hand. As a journalist, I am constantly trying in instill into my students the importance of checking, and double-checking, where they get their information online.

We live in a world where anyone, anywhere, can post anything on the Internet.

In fact, defining what is meant by digital literacy has become more complicated over time. An early definition by Paul Gilster (in Pool, 1997, p. 9) describes digital literacy as “knowledge assembly” and involves “how to assimilate the information, evaluate it, and reintegrate it.” However, as the digital spaces, texts and tools are continually changing and becoming more complex, so too is what it takes to be considered “literate” (Pangrazio and Sefton-Green, 2021}.

In this world where anything can be news, we, as educators, must instill critical and universal thinking skills into students of all ages when it comes to what they are reading online.

When we think of literacy, we often think of education. We continually push students to learn to read, and show them how reading can be fun. However, when we talk to students about what they read online, educators often use a “doom and gloom” approach to scare children, or students away.

We can no longer present online reading as a negative. Digital literacy and media literacy are skills that all young people must develop to be intentional consumers and users of digital technology (Lauricella, Herdzina and Robb, 2020).

Educators must start implementing the importance of digital literacy at a young age, and not wait until students are already using it in middle school and high school. Given this dramatic change in the technology used, its explicit incorporation into formal learning environments, and the continuous use of technology throughout development, it is imperative that we examine how younger students are being taught digital citizenship competencies including thinking critically, behaving safely, and participating responsibly in the digital world. (Lauricella, Herdzina and Robb, 2020).

Putting Digital Literacy and Digital Citizenship Together

Digital literacy and Digital citizenship go hand and hand. You simply can’t have one without the other.

In our digital age, we need to teach students what they read and what they say online can impact their future selves.

Children are viewed as both being impacted by society as well as an agent of impact on society, thereby school systems are grappling with the challenge of how to support children to become positive citizens in an increasingly digital participatory society (Lauricella, Herdzina and Robb, 2020).

Organizations, such as the International Society for Technology in Education and Common Sense Media, have put out free curriculum for educators online to help with digital citizenship and digital literacy (Lauricella, Herdzina and Robb, 2020).

Digital literacy efforts empower youth to analyze, interpret, and create images and information that are disseminated in digital environments. They provide skills so that youth can decipher complex messages in an informed and knowledgeable way and, thereby, counteract the temptation to react without forethought to the influence of powerful words, images, and sounds (Berson and Berson, 2003).

I often use PBS Newshour’s Daily News Lessons in my classes to expose my students to what is going on the world. We watch the segment and then discuss. My students, this past semester, were particularly interested in the TikTok hearings in Congress and why the legislature was considering banning the social media platform. From these discussions, we explored more into what it means to “leave their digital footprint.”

We covered both how to be a good online citizen and how to interpret and understand reliable news articles on the web. We even looked at various social media platforms and their impact on today’s teenagers when it comes to their mental health. My students ate up this information because I wasn’t downplaying the use of the internet. Instead, I was trying to show my students that the internet doesn’t have to be scary.

“Media education is the entitlement of every citizen, in every country of the world, to freedom of expression and the fight to information and is instrumental in building and sustaining a democracy,” (Berson and Berson, 2003, as cited in Kubey, 1).

Not to sound like a cliché, but children are the future. Our students, and our children, are growing up with technology. It is now integrated into their lives. As much as we as parents, and teachers, would like we can’t keep technology from them. Instead, we, as adults, need to learn how to educate our students into how to be better citizens online.

This education needs to start as soon as possible, not when they become teens. In order to implement this, school districts need to provide training and professional development that helps teachers become more comfortable with teaching online skills.

Teachers also need to familiarize themselves with the digital technology that their students are using (Berson and Berson, 2003).

They can also integrate online lessons and programs into their lesson plans, such as teaching skills in critical analysis of media, investigation, and evaluation of information, peaceful conflict resolution and problem solving (Berson and Berson, 2003).

Conclusion

If our students and children are to become better citizens, and better informed, we need to teach them the skills to learn how to do this online. I am always saying, “Technology is not going away.” Instead of scaring them away from it, let’s show them how to use it better. New strands of critical digital literacy, such as data literacy, need to be developed in education if individuals are to be aware of the challenges to their digital rights, as well as inculcating the motivation and skills to claim them. As digital media further converge, traditional notions of agency are under threat. This calls for both regulation and education, meaning neither digital citizenship, digital rights nor digital literacy by themselves can prepare individuals adequately (Pangrazio and Sefton-Green, 2020). The digital world is changing at a rapid pace. We must help our students join the race, or we all will be left behind.

References

Berson, I. R., & Berson, M. J. (2003). Digital literacy for effective citizenship. (Advancing Technology). Social Education, 67(3), 164+. https://link-gale-com.wmlsrsu.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A100735002/AONE?u=txshracd2558&sid=googleScholar&xid=cf40d99b

Milenkova, V., & Lendzhova, V. (2021). Digital Citizenship and Digital Literacy in the Conditions of Social Crisis. Computers, 10(4), 40. MDPI AG. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/computers10040040

Pangrazio, L., & Sefton-Green, J. (2020). Digital Rights, Digital Citizenship and Digital Literacy: What’s the Difference? Journal of New Approaches In Educational Research, 10(1), 15-27. file:///C:/Users/melis/Downloads/Dialnet-DigitalRightsDigitalCitizenshipAndDigitalLiteracyW-7717195.pdf

Lauricella, A., Herdzina, J., & Robb, M. (2020). Early childhood educators’ teaching of digital citizenship competencies. Computers & Education, 158(103989), ISSN 0360-1315, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2020.103989