Digital Citizenship - conditions may apply

"If the internet has taught us anything, it is that people will sign up to just about anything as long as it is free. And if the price we pay for things we like is loss of privacy, it's a price many many of us are happy to pay." Matt Egan - Macworld, August 2014.

Knowing this I'm concerned about the consequences of the actions online by my students and my own children. They don't really seem to care - they're adolescents - and perhaps shouldn't have to, but due to the circumstances they grow up with, they will have to. They need to know and learn what the consequence of their online behavior can be in order to take action if they want to. That's a decision of their own, but we cannot let them grow up not knowing. And who is or should be the designated person to do that? I thought so ... Teachers and since school is a learning institute, why not learn the new basics and put this in the curriculum? In my opinion digital citizenship should be a mandatory course or subject taught in school.

I've shared with you about the new subject and creating global learners at my school in another blog post. This is sort of part two, but I'm not satisfied with this yet. The world around keeps changing very fast and I (and the students?) need to keep up and share my knowledge with them. My students will learn mainly about the positive things social media can bring, but also about the downside and dangers such as sexting, grooming, identity theft, online harassment, addiction. They need to be aware of things, because I'm also asking to create and use their accounts on multiple social networks such as Twitter, Instagram, Google and Prezi. Whilst asking them to use these online tools for learning, they need to know about the downside of those online tools and their digital footprint ... or better; digital tattoo. Footprints can be removed, but to remove tattoos is very hard. Content that has shared online, will always be there and for certain instates and companies to find.

Conditions may apply, because when using your television, reading a book or calling someone on the telephone using a landline is quite harmless. But now since we're using smartphones and social media, all our online actions are recorded and traced ... and they could bite us in the ass a few years from now. Students need to know and be aware. 'Think again and be prepared' as Jello Biafra use to say.

Movie to watch: 'Terms and Conditions may apply' (2013)
Google Digital Citizenship Course: http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/youtube/curric/