Digital Citizenship

What is Digital Citizenship? Digital citizenship is how our students interact with the online world. Digital citizenship defines what is considered responsible behavior with the use of technology. Digital citizenship is also the impact we have in the online community. It is who we choose to interact with and how we choose to interact. Our 21st Century students are citizens of Web 2.0 and many of them are contributing personal information to the online community through interactions with social media. They are no longer passive consumers of Web information, but active creators of Web content. Through a growing and evolving suite of social media sites, our students communicate and contribute by living simultaneous online and offline lives.

Citizenship as taught by many guides our actions in the physical world. Learning about digital citizenship will guide our actions in the digital world. Web 2.0, the Internet, World Wide Web; however described, the online environment is an abstract and intangible world that is hard to understand for many students. Yet, many of our students use it for connecting and communicating daily. Social media provides different platforms and media for our students to communicate and share personal information.

Digital Footprints

The digital footprint refers to the recorded history of online activity for any given individual. For many students, their digital footprints begin at a very young age. Parents and family members post pictures, write blogs, and upload video of children to share with others. Without the consent of the child, a digital footprint begins to take shape.

As students begin to engage in online activity themselves, they further increase their digital footprint through the websites they visit, the personal information they post, and the Web 2.0 sites that they communicate through. Many students will engage in personal conversations and share private information about their lives through texting, posting pictures, and videos. Their online world becoming the conduit through which students share their lives; sometimes without any regard as to who will access their Web 2.0 identity.

Many students lack an understanding of the permanence of digital footprints. Once posted to Web 2.0, this information is nearly impossible to retrieve and becomes a permanent part of their online identity. Post-secondary institutions, employers, and law enforcement agencies are just a few of the organizations that peer into the digital footprints and online identities of people in order to gain clear insight offline and online personalities.