For this blog post, I am going to delve into Digital Citizenship and Digital Footprint. I will explain what these two things mean and stress the importance of teaching this to our students. Are you ready??

It is important as an educator that we are taking care of our students. What I mean is taking care of the whole child, the mental, physical, spiritual, emotional, behavioural, cognitive, etc. In a world that is so diverse in its technologies, we have to be cautious of our students in the digital world. In my previous post about digital literacy I mention that the digital world is important in the development of our students and to prepare them for the future but I also mention that:

This doesn’t change the fact, that there are dangers in the technology world as well. Teaching children to use technology in a safe way is very important.

ME 🙂

When I said this, I was thinking of Digital Citizenship and Digital Footprint. The digital world is so big, especially in terms of social media. Many people use social media to connect with others and promote their business, or work. There are 9 major lessons that children need to learn about Digital Citizenship.

  1. Digital Commerce: Be respectful and always have permission before you hit “buy”
  2. Digital Downtime: Remember to digitally disconnect and spend time with others.
  3. Digital Etiquette: Apply real-world behavioural standards to the digital world.
  4. Digital Health: Know when to stay connected and when to turn off devices.
  5. Digital Integrity: Examine the source of online information to determine credibility.
  6. Digital literacy: Avoid suspicious emails, websites, and online advertisements.
  7. Digital Privacy: Review privacy settings. Know what to share and to whom.
  8. Digital Responsibility: Report problems, abusive behaviour, and inappropriate images or content.
  9. Digital Security: Make passwords easy to remember but hard to guess. Do not share passwords with anyone

– Stuckwisch 2022

Digital Footprint drawing by me.

When we are looking at Digital Footprint we can define it as the footprint that is left behind after we have been online (Family Lives). According to Family Lives Organization, there are 2 types of footprints passive and active. Passive is when the user is unaware that their information has been recorded. Active is when the user deliberately shares information (i.e. social media). You know how when you go on sites and it says “Do you accept all cookies?” and you have to ACCEPT in order to have access to the website. This actually means when the site receives your “ACCEPT” answer, they can use your information as they see fit, without legal worry (Family Lives). Everything we do online, such as googling a question, looking up amazon, and going on social media is all being recorded and has created your Digital Footprint. When reflecting on the information above, it is clear that it is very easy for anyone to access/hack information, which is why we need to teach the importance of Digital Literacy and Digital Citizenship.

We as educators hold responsibility for our students. Our ethical standards all speak towards care for students but if I had to choose 1 it would have to be standard 1:

Educators value the success of all students. Educators care for students and act in their best interests.

B.C.T. Professional Standards.

We can use many different kinds of technologies in the classroom and we need to protect our student’s data privacy. Aside from teaching them the 9 lessons listed above, we can further insure our student’s safety/privacy by:

  1. Utilize school district-managed and approved resources.
  2. Adjust web conference settings to remove the option of recording synchronous sessions and develop guidelines with students around conduct online.
  3. ensure any online spaces have been vetted through and district process before using with students and ensure appropriate permissions are in place.
  4. Do not require students to ‘sign up’ for accounts (other than where these are provisioned by the school/district). Where needed, a teacher might sign up an account after reviewing the privacy policy of the site and, if student accounts are needed, use pseudonyms numbers. First names are obviously less private but common practice.
  5. avoid posting identifiable images of students in public or unnecessarily. Consider using stickers or filters to protect the privacy and avoid posting student names alongside images.
  6. Turn OFF location services on your phone when you are taking photos and learn how to turn off location services for different apps.
  7. Teach your students how to open an incognito window.
  8. Visit Media Smarts for a wide variety of Canadian student, parent and teacher resources and lessons related to privacy and security. The Data Defenders lesson teaches children and pre-teens about personal information and its value.
  9. Common Sense Education is another, albeit US-based, reputable resource for information about digital and media literacy.

– Privacy: Protecting Your Students.

I hope you had the same impact reading this as I did writing it. I feel like social media and the digital world, in general, have become such a second nature thing, such a major part of our world and it is often forgotten that just like anything else there are safety guidelines and things we need to do to protect ourselves. Since we are to continue our education and know what we are teaching(Standard 6), we need to know the steps to keep ourselves safe so we can share them with our students.

References:

*All images are mine*

BC’s Teacher Counsel . (n.d.). Professional standards – gov. BC Government . Retrieved November 12, 2022, from https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/kindergarten-to-grade-12/teach/teacher-regulation/standards-for-educators/edu_standards.pdf 

Family Lives Organization . (n.d.). Digital footprints. Digital Footprints. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.familylives.org.uk/advice/your-family/online-safety/digital-footprints 

Privacy: Protecting your students. Teacher Education. (n.d.). Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://scarfedigitalsandbox.teach.educ.ubc.ca/privacy-protecting-your-students/ 

Stuckwisch, B. (2022, March 24). 9 lessons to teach children about digital citizenship. Safe Sitter®. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://safesitter.org/digital-citizenship/