By Nicole Krueger

To effectively teach with technology, educators must be able to set boundaries for appropriate use and help students take responsibility for their actions in the digital realm.

But in a world where technology changes faster than teachers can keep up, and students face different expectations for technology use at home than at school, many educators are struggling to develop a cohesive digital citizenship curriculum.

“It's like having a teacher education program without teaching teachers how to manage a classroom,” said technology infusion and professional development coordinator LeeAnn Lindsey. “You can't do all the pedagogical things in a classroom that you want to be able to do if you don't know how to manage a classroom.

“Well, similarly with technology, we can teach teachers how to make learning engaging and effective using devices, but we really can only do that if the teachers and students have a foundation for using that technology responsibly so that we're keeping kids safe and we're keeping teachers safe.”

Below, Lindsey explains the three biggest challenges of teaching digital citizenship.




Nicole Krueger is ISTE's inbound content strategist and lead blogger for the ISTE Connects blog. A former journalist, she has more than a decade of experience as a news reporter and professional blogger.

By Dr. Mike Ribble

Practicing empathy, offering assistance, and staying safe are good behaviors online and off.

Walk down the street, look around in a restaurant, or watch people waiting in line and you’ll notice how fully technology has become integrated into our daily lives. Views of technology and its place in society can be seen in movies, television, and cultural references.

It has become such a part of what we do and who we are that it become to be defined as a sort of “digital” citizenship. So what describes a digital citizen?

In my book Digital Citizenship in Schools, I define a digital citizen as someone who shares ideas, makes purchases, plans activities, asks for answers, interacts both at work and in play and much more on digital devices (computers, laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc.). In short: living within a digital world.

The technology has provided great opportunities for everyone using technology. These tools have increased our productivity and knowledge base in many ways (checking the weather, looking up facts), but these advantages come with a price. Now, by increasing these opportunities to connect, collaborate and engage with our personal and professional networks requires using and understanding these tools differently. Engaging in these behaviors forces us to act in new and sometimes conflicting ways—to be more social but also more individually focused on our technology. These opportunities to find and share information have increased our dependence on technology.

Being overly connected is resulting in FMO (Fear of Missing Out) or worrying what others are doing, saying, posting, liking, or friending at any time. This has become such an issue that some will keep their devices near them even when they go to bed (and will wake up and post/Tweet/chat in the middle of the night). How can users balance this idea of ultimate knowledge with being with others IRL (In Real Life)?

As with everything there is balance. There needs to be an interaction of our two sides, our digital life and our real life. As our lives become overwhelmingly influenced by our digital interaction, we need a new set of rules to guide our behaviors.

It’s easy to lose touch with humanity when engaging with an online community, but being a digital citizenship means having empathy in all that we do. Having empathy is important in any context. However, in our real lives there are many more cues to guide our behaviors and to signal if there is an issue (facial cues, head nodding, a smile). Reading the written word can make it difficult to judge emotions in a digital environment. Online, systems have attempted to help—think emojis—but the lack of direct contact can make this process more difficult. This means communicating in a digital world requires more thought and time to consider the impact of our words, pictures, and videos.

As with everything there is balance. There needs to be an interaction of our two sides, our digital life and our real life. As our lives become overwhelmingly influenced by our digital interaction, we need a new set of rules to guide our behaviors.

It’s easy to lose touch with humanity when engaging with an online community, but being a digital citizenship means having empathy in all that we do. Having empathy is important in any context. However, in our real lives there are many more cues to guide our behaviors and to signal if there is an issue (facial cues, head nodding, a smile). Reading the written word can make it difficult to judge emotions in a digital environment. Online, systems have attempted to help—think emojis—but the lack of direct contact can make this process more difficult. This means communicating in a digital world requires more thought and time to consider the impact of our words, pictures, and videos.

Read more of the article here.

Dr. Mike Ribble is director of technology for a district in Kansas. He is co-chair of ISTE’s Digital Citizenship Professional Learning Network (PLN).

Articles was originally published on E School News.

1. What am I already doing well and how can technology support that?
2. Will technology get in the way of my classroom’s best practices?
3. Where is the possibility for tech to transform my teaching?

By breaking these questions down, we can see the steps that we need to take, to truly see the benefits of using technology in the classroom.

What am I already doing well and how can technology support that? Teachers are already accountable for what happens in their classroom. They are also responsible for providing feedback to the principals, parents, school boards, and the students themselves. With so many people involved in the process, technology can help to send the right stakeholders the right information, faster and conveniently.

A big hesitation heard when discussing educational technology is that they will be a distraction for students. They’ll be more interested in playing games on the new devices rather than do the work they are assigned.

By completing a class survey online or by using their phones during the lecture, it was found that not only are students integrating the technology, but they are able to keep the technology use focused, and on topic. Students have to listen to the lecture in order to answer the survey, keeping their attention on the teacher. Cloud-based brainstorming activities also involve the technology in a way that keeps students focused, but engaged.

History is littered with failed attempts to “revolutionize” learning through innovative technology. Fortunately, these struggles have taught us one very important lesson: in order for technology to improve learning, it must “fit” into students’ lives…not the other way around. As a result, E-Learning was born. -Clarke, 2002   

Will technology get in the way of my classroom’s best practices? The purpose of educational technology is not to replace every previous practice used in classrooms. We still know children learn best when they have written something physically. But technology gives more avenues for learning than previously thought possible.

There is no magic wand; nothing is faultless…You’re right to be skeptical, and to ask tough questions. We’re here to rethink teaching and learning from the ground up. Where are we now; and where are we going? And crucially, what’s possible? -Terry Heick

We now have the ability to have children ask the teacher for homework help from home; or even better, discuss the problems with their fellow students on a class forum.