Web Awareness II

Just over 10 years ago, I sat idle in a computers class where I

was forced to learn how to type. Over time I became restless and
decided to exploit the schools Internet security by loading games on
the computers and organizing LAN connections with my classmates.
These were the good daysuntil they figured it out and installed a
firewall and basic security measures. Nonetheless, my thirteen-year
old self managed to eventually bypass these checks and balances. I
knew nothing of digital citizenship, nor what it meant to be a good
person amongst a community. The shift away from blocking student
activity, and encouraging students to make good online decisions is
one of benefit for the 21st century learner.
Granted, there should still exist a security system that blocks
students from visiting certain sites (i.e. pornography, violence, social
media, etc.), this alone does not educate students. Focusing on digital
citizenship will best prepare the students of today for the future.
Alberta Educations Digital Citizenship Policy Development Guide
states:
Citizenship is defined as the state of being a citizen of a
particular social, political or national community. Citizenship
carries both rights and responsibilities.
Therefore, the focus is on developing the students ability to
demonstrate qualities of a good person among a community. Civil

ethics; such as, respect for others, act in the public interest, act with
skill and dedication, and with integrity are necessary to be a good
citizen in general, regardless of digital or not. It is easy to see the
benefit for students as being a good digital citizenship also entails
being a good citizen in real life, and vice versa.
How can we teach elementary students about how digital
citizenship? An article written by Mrs. Hertz, an Art and Technology
teacher, sheds some useful insights to help tackle this question.
Students need a new set of skills and manners, which include how to
leave a good comment on a blog post. I have always wanted to use
StoryBird, a storyboard program online, for a creative writing
assignment in grade 3. After they have completed the assignment,
they can post it to their blogs where classmates can comment on each
others work here, the teacher focus on the community aspect and
stress to the students to demonstrate good digital citizenship
qualities. Above all, students need to be educated on the similarities
of being a good citizen in the physical community, and transferring
those skills to the online world.
Another issue that students need to become more aware to is
the credibility and reliability of online information. Media wizards are
everywhere trying to inform, persuade, and influence our daily
thinking. This can be a good, or bad thing depending on the reliability
and credibility of information. The good news is that Wikipedia in

recent years has garnered support and is equivalent to an

encyclopedia. However, it is not the be all and end all of resources,
and much of the other media out there is not always good. For some
reason Fox news and this Leprechaun news story come to mind as
examples of poor media information. I really enjoyed the exploration
activity into hoax and fake websites to demonstrate how easy it is to
post information on the Internet. Here are two sites teachers can use
to find a variety of these types of websites: FakeSites, and 11
Hilarious Hoax Sites to Test Website Evaluation. I think these types of
activites would best suit middle school students because they are
beginning to use the Internet for their own research. Therefore,
before any teacher is requiring their students to commit to extended
research they will need to educated students on the necessary skills to
check for credibility, reliability, fairness, timeliness, and support of a
website.