iSAFE and A 5 Step Plan to Promote Digital Citizenship

iSAFE and A 5 Step Plan to Promote Digital Citizenship

I am new to the term “digital citizenship” so I was intrigued as to what this means and how it relates to education technology. At a glance, the word citizenship implies being a member of society and embedded in that membership in society is an expected set of norms and behaviors. When we pair the implications of citizenship with the word “digital” we begin to ascertain that there is a set of standards and behaviors that must be applied in the virtual realm as well.

Digital citizenship, ethic, and netiquette are important behaviors that educators must adopt in their own day to day interactions with technology so that they can better teach and encourage others to use it. One technology designed to help maintain the integrity of digital citizenship, ethic, and netiquette is iSAFE.org. ISAFE.org is a501 (c) (3) non-profit organization that is committed to helping learners become safe, responsible users of technology.  The organization emphasizes “proactive, preventive, and precautionary” education as a means to help leaners refrain from engaging in inappropriate behaviors and help them to identify potential hazards or inappropriate behaviors by others. These hazards or behaviors include but are not limited to viral threats, fraud, identity theft, cyber-bullying, and other dangers that put users at personal risk. All curriculum is age appropriate to meet the needs of the learner. Click here for a quick glance at a representative lesson plan.

iSAFE provides research based curriculum to children ranging from early childhood to high school and maintains the rights to a unique behavioral database that can gage the internet safety awareness of users before and after participating in the educational programs.    

  

I selected this technology because as an adult learner, I was not aware of what digital citizenship entailed. I think this is a great tool to help empower technology users by educating them on the risks of using technology, what to look out for, and how to protect themselves. In turn, learners have an opportunity to engage in a sense of social responsibility and they gain greater insight into how to keep their digital community healthy and thriving.   

As an educator, I can benefit from subscribing to iSAFE because I will continue to stay abreast of internet safety procedures. This will help me to make sure that adult learners in my class are not partaking in unrelated and inappropriate behaviors such as pornography or bullying. The second way in which I can incorporate this in my class is that I can teach other adult learners about digital citizenship, their responsibility therein, and help to prepare them to teach others about internet safety as well. This is an example of the continuum of education in that what we teach can continue to be passed on to others through those we come into contact with.

The next resource I came to find as a tool to enhance adult learning is a 5 step plan that assists educators and administrators in establishing a digital citizenship program in their school. The plan helps educators to determine whether their technology is being used properly; being misused or abused by encouraging an audit of digital citizenship, an analysis of the results using a provided scoring guide; prompting education technology team to engage in deep discussion regarding audit results to identify issues, extending the discussion to other stakeholders to gain greater perspective, and implores the team to design a plan to meet the needs of learners based  on the discussions and findings (Ribble & Bailey, 2004).

This is a powerful tool that I can use to facilitate a review of the digital citizenship plan implemented at any school I teach. Not only will this 5 step plan help me to think more critically about the use of technology but it also helps to inform my instruction as I teach my learners how to protect themselves in the digital world and at the same time teach them how to audit the digital citizenship plans in their own lives. Many adult learners are also parents and this tool may provide them with great insight on how to manage the technology usage in their households. In turn, they will also be able to teach their children to properly conduct themselves when interacting with technology. Again, we see the continuum of teaching and learning when incorporating these educational technology tools in our education of adult learners.    

Thank you for tuning in this week,

Tech Girl

References:

http://iSAFE.org/wp/

Ribble, M. & Bailey, G. (2004). Monitoring Technology Misuse & Abuse. The Journal Online.
Retrieved fromhttp://digitalcitizenship.net/uploads/T.H.E.JournalArticle.pdf

Ribble, M. (n.d.). Nine elements: Nine themes of digital citizenship. Retrieved May 30, 2012, fromhttp://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html