Digital Citizenship

As I was searching for content for some new posts, I came across a blog,  written by Dr. Kristen Mattson, a high school Library Media Center Director in Illinois. She has done a lot of work around the topic of digital citizenship for students.

Digital citizenship is the refers to the act of “utilizing information technology in order to engage in society, politics, and government.”

Wikipedia

I’m really excited about her list of Picture Books for Digital Citizenship Discussions. I’m hoping to create a display at the library about digital citizenship at a young age – what kids should know and recommendations on how technology can be used effectively with kids. I’d love to include discussion questions for parents to use as a guide when talking with their kids.

You can go pretty much anywhere and see young children using smartphones and tablets to entertain themselves while their parents run errands, go out to eat, etc. While I don’t fault parents for trying to keep kids entertained in some of the more boring locations, parents must actively choose how and when technology should be used. Interacting with kids while using technology is much better at a younger age as kids will gain more from technology with that parent interaction.

Technology isn’t going away, which means kids need to learn how to use it – and that means more than typing with your thumbs on a phone screen or posting to Snapchat. Kids need to understand how to search for content online and more importantly, how to evaluate it. So much of what’s online is opinion and it’s getting more and more difficult to fact check content.

Speaking of opinion, teaching kids about privacy and protection online, is vitally important. In today’s society kids are not only being bullied in person, but the anonymity of the Internet allows kids to be emboldened to bully even more. 

And I think kids need to learn some self-control – when is it appropriate to have your face buried in your digital screen and when should you be giving someone a handshake, looking them in the eye, and having a conversation.

Digital citizenship is about so much more than knowing technology vocabulary – it’s about using technology to engage in the world around you. Today’s kids haven’t lived in a world without it, so they must learn how to use it responsibly and effectively.