Educational Leaders in the role of developing students' digital citizenship

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 on digital citizenship. They also stated that educational leaders should be the role models that students follow online. This is something that should be implemented in all school districts, and should be followed by all teachers. Just as teachers are expected to be professional in the classroom, they should mirror that responsibility in their online profiles. As a teacher, I agree that our online profiles should show professionalism and responsibility. Otherwise, we are they hypocrites in teaching our students. 

In the study, the authors also stated that digital citizenship should be positive. While the study did mention teaching about safety and cyberbullying, the authors also pointed out that the curriculum used should emphasis the positives of being online and not be solely negative. Our children are growing up in a digital world. We need to show them the positives, along with the safety aspects. We do this in real life. For example, we teach children how to ride their bicycles, which gives them the positives of getting exercise and socializing with friends. At the same time, we teach them safety by making them wear helmets, shoulder and knee pads, and to look out for vehicles on the road while they are riding. We set boundaries in the outside world with rules and curfews, while keeping the fun. The same should be done online. 

This study gave good insight to educational leaders being the role models and the main ones to teach students how to be better digital citizens. While teachers groan on having to sometimes be the parent, in rural communities, like mine, it is the teachers that often have to be the ones to open the minds of our students and show them what is out there, good and bad. 

Article Analysis Four

Reference

Baydar, F. (2022). The Role of Educational Leaders in the Development of Students’ Technology Use and Digital Citizenship. Malaysian Online Journal of Educational Technology, 10(1), 32–46. https://doi.org/10.52380/mojet.2022.10.1.367