Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Digital Citizenship Rethink

After taking part in a conversation at NovaNow led by John Spencer, I tweeted the following:


John kindly added the image to my text. I've been thinking more about this misplaced focus in digital citizenship on compliance over contribution.

Isolation and fear vs community and understanding.
Legalism and obligation vs love and purpose.
Safety vs vulnerability and transparency.
Prohibitions vs possibilities.
Horses vs humans (reminiscent of Dan Pink).

The focus of most digital citizenship resources and thinking (cyber bullying, privacy, rules, etc...) misses the point of true citizenship.  The focus of traditional education (stay busy, get the right answer, comply, etc...) misses the point of true learning. 

A few students and I took the liberty to rethink this image and reframe it with more positive directives instead of negative regulations.


*Yes, cyber-bullying is bad. No, you shouldn't put certain personal information online. I agree with all these things that typically come in the digital citizenship bag. But if it stops there, we aren't actually teaching citizenship.

2 comments:

  1. This is an amazing insight! This will impact the way I teach Digital Citizenship.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks! You should also check out From Nice to Ethical from John Spencer. http://www.educationrethink.com/2012/05/digital-citizenship-from-nice-to.html

    ReplyDelete

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