Teaching digital citizenship skills to students is one of the most important reasons why technology must be a central part of public education today.
It's Our Job to Prepare Students to Be Informed Citizens
In democratic societies, public education plays the indispensable role of preparing future citizens to make informed decisions about the world around them.
In today’s world, people increasingly live large portions of their lives online, where they interact with others on social media and consume and evaluate endless streams of information. The undeniable reality that modern life is becoming more digitized is even more true for young people. According to Pew Research, teenagers live in a world in which which 95% of their peers report have access to smartphones, and 45% say they live their lives “constantly online.” Despite this shift toward digital spaces as locations of public engagement and information sharing, public schools simply aren’t doing enough to proactively develop students’ skills for how to engage with and manage these complex spaces. If we are to adequately prepare the current generation to make intelligent and responsible decisions, we must take into account the implications of the fact that their decisions will be inextricably linked to the digital world.
Thus, teaching digital citizenship, as well as the skills needed to make intelligent and responsible decisions in and about digital spaces must play an important part in how we educate future citizens of our society.
Digital Spaces Present Unique Challenges
As if life weren’t already challenging enough for young people trying to figure out their identities and place in the world, technology has imposed a new layer of complexity in their lives (and ours). To name a few:
- Cyberbullying, trolling, and other negative behavior in digital spaces
- Privacy concerns & issues surrounding oversharing online
- Interactions and image cultivation on social media
- The prevalence of misinformation
- Controversy over screen time and intergenerational conflict over the societal impact of technology use
There is no question that our students will be confronted with these issues and so much more as they interact in an increasingly digital world. It is our responsibility as educators to ensure that they are equipped with the right skills to navigate that world, to make responsible decisions about the information they encounter there, as well as treat others in digital spaces with dignity and respect.
Teaching Digital Citizenship
Many educators are skeptical about the use of technology in education: I used to be too! Educators are rightly concerned about the issues they see happening all around them, and might feel as though teaching with technology validates and even encourages its use, and should therefore be approached with caution.
Sticking our collective heads in the sand, however, won’t make our societal problems go away. And avoiding teaching with technology isn’t going to stop young people from using technology.
Just as teaching social-emotional skills doesn’t eliminate social-emotional issues, teaching digital citizenship skills isn’t going to do away with the complicated web of issues technology has introduced, far from it. Still, it is our responsibility as educators to teach students of all ages the following skills:
- Learn about the basics of Internet safety
- Develop skills to discern the reliability of information
- Develop awareness of the digital footprints they leave, as well as how oversharing might impact them in the future
- Learn about addictive elements of social media and as well as understand the impact of social media use on the brain
- How to interact with others respectfully on social media, and how to respond when someone is cyberbullying, phishing for information, or worse
Resources
Fortunately, highly reputable non-profit organizations like Common Sense and PBS LearningMedia have put together excellent resources for teaching digital citizenship skills across all grade levels.
Both also also offer teacher free teacher trainings and workshops for educators looking to learn more about how to teach the necessary skills for students to make informed decisions in the digital world.
Conclusion
Whether we like it or not, technology is here to stay, and whether or not we teach with technology, our students are going to use it. Given the reality of an increasingly digital world, educators must prioritize digital citizenship as vital to the healthy future of our democracy.
To read more about why public education needs to make a universal shift toward teaching with technology, check out:
Why Education Technology? The Ultimate Guide
For strategies for increasing autonomy, creativity, engagement, and academic rigor with technology, click here:
