In my opinion, it is scary to think what kids do not know about the world around them. From my experience, students operate on the micro-level when engaging in things like social media. They fail to acknowledge the wide spread availability of information about themselves made public due to their limited perspective. I also do not think students are completely to blame because they learn from observing their parents and role models. In fact a girl that I use to teach who is now currently a teacher told me she was having a conversation with her students while they were in the computer lab about protecting their personal information on social media accounts. Within minutes a student pulled up a picture from the teacher's Facebook account and questioned sarcastically, "Like you do?"
Therefore, I think there are some crucial characteristics necessary to becoming an exemplary citizen within a digital learning community.
1. Be humble, be private!
There is nothing wrong with abstaining from Tweeting or updating your FB status as to where you are at any given moment or what you are doing. By letting every one know every thing about you, what is left to discover about you as a person? You are setting yourself up for people to be overly knowledgeable about your life, including people who we label "friends" on FB and we all know they are not. The article entitled "Be a Good Digital Citizen" from CommonSenseMedia.org reminds teenagers that not everything is as private as they perceive it to be. Mainly the flaw is that kids do not know how to set privacy controls. This is something that needs to be addressed and modeled be community members in order to protect our identities and sometimes the innocence of our youth. The ISTE Standards for Teachers clearly suggests the necessity of our ability to be humble and private with our personal accounts in order to serve as models.
2. Be skeptical
I do not want to seem like a cynic, but I do feel when in doubt it is better to error on the side of caution. Many of the stories my students tell me in class come from something the read on Twitter. When I asked them about the story, they fall short in their explanations and tell me they only read the Tweet and not the entire article linked to the Tweet. Number 4,D of the ISTE Standards for Teachers encourages educators to "develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness..."(http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-T_PDF.pdf). Though digital communities have enable an interconnected world, there is so much still to be learned and discussed. By not acknowledging the limited news students as well as adults are receiving, ignorance of worldly issues is being perpetuated. It is essential to take the time to explore through credible sources to ensure the whole story is told.
3. Do not be afraid
This may seem contradictory to what I previously posted but I know there is much to gain by embracing the community that is available through developing online forums. As I mention in my previous post, I completed my Masters and Specialist degrees through online university programs. I was challenged to communicate and create products with fellow students from across the country. I was encouraged to try new things (like Blogging) which enabled my comfort of pursuing online teaching. It can be overwhelming at times, but the beauty of technology is that is it made for everyone! Whether an advanced programmer or a newbie to website development (Weebly is great), there is something to embrace!
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