Digital Citizenship

Digital citizenship means the responsibility that we all have when using digital media. According to the article on the Edorigami wiki, there are six tenets of digital citizenship:

1. Respect yourself, 2. Protect yourself, 3.Respect others, 4. Protect others, 5.Respect intellectual property, 6.Protect intellectual property. These six tenets are similar to the rules in my classroom. In fact, I believe that they are things we all should follow in a digital and real world. By respecting yourself, you will protect your digital profile and you will abstain from posting inappropriate information which stays on your digital footprint. Respecting and protecting others means that you refrain from posting information that is hurtful and that may do harm to someone even if it seems innocent. By respecting and protecting digital property, you give credit to someone's published ideas and research, which we expect in any other media. Through websites and curriculum like i-safe, students can learn how to use the Internet appropriately. Students don't need to be blocked from the Internet, but need to be taught how to use it in a safe way. Internet safety instruction needs to begin early, and students also need to learn to cite the information that they use from the Internet at an early age. As educators we must teach our students to follow these rules of citizenship.