Why Digital Citizenship is Important

The internet is constantly growing and there are many ways people can be involved with it. Becoming a teacher means that you are going to have students who are involved with the internet and are learning how to use it. The problem with this is that some students may not understand what responsibilities come along with the use of social media and the internet which is why it is important that we teach them what digital citizenship is.

Digital citizenship is one of the first steps that we can take to become more literate with media in the 21st century.  It offers a lot of opportunities and can help us make the internet safer for students. After reading about digital citizenship, I realize how much it means to me personally as well as professionally. Something that really stood out to me was how important digital security is. Knowing that whatever I do on the internet can affect my personal life really opened my eyes. It made me realize that my students may not have an understanding of this which is why I feel that it is so important to make sure that they know to be ethical when using the internet. 

I have not personally been a victim of cyberbullying but I do know people that have been. I think a big reason that we have these problems is that kids are not being taught that not only are they being disrespectful and hurtful to others, but they are creating an image of themselves that can stay with them forever through their digital footprint. By teaching our students what digital citizenship is, we will be teaching them a safe way for them to use the internet and that cyberbullying is the same thing as bullying but just over a screen. 

In my classroom, I would try to make a lesson to bring up the importance of ethics and what they mean in social media. I would also make sure that I show my students how important it is to watch what they search on the internet and how to be safe when doing so. I believe that a lot of adults feel that if they don't explain the dangers that are on the internet that somehow they will be avoided. But what they don't understand is that the internet is not going anywhere and kids are going to get curious. If we take the time to help students understand digital citizenship, we help to inform kids about the dangers and they will be safer in the future

This being said, I highly recommend that we as educators research digital citizenship in more depth and that we try to incorporate it into our classrooms.