This week, in EDU210, we explored two pertinent topics -- digital citizenship and cyberbullying. These two concepts are interwoven as one topic informs the other. Students are becoming increasingly technology orientated and this upward trend will only increase exponetially over time. As such, educators have a resposibility to teach our students, the futures of our country, what it means to and how to become an ethical digital citizen as this platform is here to stay. I find that students are naive to most of the issues and dangers that surround the 9 elements of digital citizenship: access, commerce, communications, literacy, etiquette, law, security, health and wellness, and rights and responsibilities. An all encompassing term that applies to all of the above elements is integrity -- students should understand that they have an obligation as a citizen of the digital world to do the right thing even when they think no one is looking. The internet seems to instill a sense of anonymity and thus 'gives licence' for mean spirited and damaging posts. These posts will have a negative effect not only on their own digital footprint, but other's digital footprint as well. 

This leads me to the current 'hot topic' of cyberbullying. Often students are unaware of the damging effects of their digital bullying. For example, the scope of this type of bullying is much more vast than the face to face bullying -- people can be involved in the bullying that even the perpetrator don't know about. Another damaging effect on the target is that it is unavoidable. They are unable to get away from the bullying even when they are not in the school setting. This can be very emotionally draining and could have very negative effects on the targets mental health and wellbeing. This brings me full circle to the above topic of ethical digital citizenship -- stated plainly, a cyberbully is not ethical digital citizen.

 Character education combined with digital citizenship lessons would be a fantastic way to start addressing these issues in the classroom and, more broadly, in a school. I have chosen to create a Pinterest account to gather some great resourses that surround the aformentioned topics. To the left is one of my favorite tools that I found on Pinterest. This resourse addresses digital citizenship in a way that would resonate with elementary aged learners because it is a very engaging, funny but informative video that will appeal to the visual and digital aesthetic of the modern student. Click on the image to the left to be directed to the pin or click here. Below are two screne shots of my Pinterest account. If you click on the one on the left, you will be redirected to my home page (or you can click here) and one that will direct you to my digital citizenship board (or you can click here). Feel free to follow me as I would love it if we could start sharing ideas together!