Digital Citizenship Technologies in Education

Digital citizenship only exists because of technology, and like technology it spans every space humans and our technology can reach. Artificial intelligence is even entering the digital citizenship arena. Recently Microsoft ran an artificial intelligence test of sorts in the form of Tay, an AI chatbot who was supposed to chat and entertain people on Twitter. Tay is an AI program designed to communicate with and learn from those around her for fun and entertainment. 

However, this backfired when Tay began learning and listening to those around her on Twitter, and she became increasingly racist and rude (Hunt, 2016). Sadly, Tay had to be turned off because of the things she was learning and Tweeting. What Tay AI and those she learned from needed are some digital citizenship lessons. Digital citizenship is just like a country or nation citizenship in that it conveys rights and privileges to the digital citizens and is intended to help keep things civilized. However, not everyone follows the general rule of the internet ‘don’t be a jerk’ (ok a different word is typically used, but let’s stay civilized here).

Digital citizenship is often broken down into nine themes or elements as created by Michael S. Ribble. The question in adult education becomes how do we best teach and demonstrate these themes to our learners to help them become effective digital citizens? The easiest way is using the technology itself but what form? There are websites, multimedia, software, tutorials, and apps but which might be best and why?

The Humble Search Engine

We use the search engine to find the pages, information, software, applications, and cat videos that we demand and desire and yet it is rarely considered when talking about learning technologies. To me that would be like not counting the library catalog when trying to find a book about a specific topic at the library. It would be like cooking with no hands! The search engine is the lifeblood of the internet and its technologies. With the Internet and proper search techniques, there is virtually nothing we cannot learn. This makes the search engine the number one tool when trying to teach or learn about digital citizenship, ethics, and netiquette.

I believe that with good digital literacy skills learners of all ages can learn to effectively and efficiently find virtually any information they seek. This includes finding out more about good digital literacy skills, netiquette, ethics, and the technologies to help. Using search engines, we can learn to THINK while using the Internet.

Websites

Websites are the ultimate destination of most search engine results. They go hand in hand but not more so than any other technology if used correctly. Web sites can tell us more about apps, software, topics, products, and much more. There are many sites devoted to helping people become better digital citizens such as Netiquette, Digital Citizenship, and Education World. There is a website for every interest out there and for things that should not be interested too, which is why it is so vital to use technology, the Internet, and educational sites to help all learners, regardless of age, learn the ways of the Internet. One of the most useful sites on the Internet for information about how to use search engines better is YouTube. There you can find videos that can quickly help improve your digital citizenship skills. Here is an example from YouTube illustrating good search engine practices to help you find the websites you are looking for!

References

Ribble, M. (n.d.). Nine elements: Nine themes of digital citizenship. Retrieved May 30, 2012, fromhttp://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html.