#4 Digital citizenship: addressing appropriate technology behavior.

Ribble, B. Ross. (2004). Digital citizenship: addressing appropriate technology behavior. Learning & Leading with Technology 32 (1), 21-27.

1. Etiquette

a. Teaching students what is social appropriateness. What should and should not be done, as a culture.

b. Example: Teaching students that it is inappropriate to be texting during class or inappropriate to answer a cell phone when talking face to face with another person.

2. Communication

a. Technology has given us a chance to talk to other in various new ways: cell phones, Skype, email, and texting.

b. Example: With these easier modes of communication it is important to stress to students about using proper grammar and spelling. Slang and abbreviations can create bad habits for more proper modes of communication.

3. Education

a. Teaching as well as learning about technology

b. Teaching with technology is becoming more and more prevalent. From lecturing with power points or teaching entire courses over the Internet.

4. Access

a. Ability to log on and use these new forms of technology.

b. Unfortunately not all students have computers at home to be able to complete electronic assignments. It’s important to verify that students have access to the forms of technology or find other locations the students can use to finish course work. (I.e. many local libraries offer computer access for free).

5. Commerce

a. The ability to purchase merchandise in these fast growing forms of technology.

b. Students have the ability to go online and purchase various things. It’s important as a teacher to help them better understand “impulse buying” or “identity theft” that could be apart of online purchases

6. Responsibility

a. Taking into account what their actions and deeds on the Internet could reflect on other people or themselves.

b. Students at a young age are now capable of downloading material from the Internet. They have to take on the responsibility and knowledge that illegal downloading is breaking the law and stealing. Stealing material can be harmful to them selves and the author they stole the material from.

7. Rights

a. The freedoms any user on the internet are entitled to

b. Teaching your students the digital rights they are entitled to are important. Create an understanding of what they are allowed to do by rights and that they have copyright protection as well. If the student’s are aware of what they are allowed to do, there are fewer chances of them making mistakes and accidently getting in trouble to copyright infringement.

8. Safety

a. As wonderful as technology is, students need to be aware of physical complications of being on the computer for too long

b. These physical dangers can include carpel tunnel, eyestrain, as well as bad posture that can create an array of issues.

9. Security

a. Protecting one’s self-online by following electronic precautions to guarantee safety.

b. Students need to learn about virus protection, and firewalls. Be able to identify websites that are not trustworthy and what can happen with easy downloading to computers, or saved material.