"In the future, your 'digital footprint' will carry far more weight than anything you might include on a resume." (Chris Betcher)
Digital Citizenship is how some one presents themselves online. When I hear the phrase I think of someone's personality that is portrayed online; basically how someone uses technology; right from wrong and uses resources wisely. Amy Borovoy believes, "It's the guidelines for responsible, appropriate behavior when one is using technology." (Borovoy)
There are several different categories of behaviors that can fall into Digital Citizenship such as protecting personal information, how to send professional emails, harassing, copyrighting, common sense, and overall manners.
Middle level students use digital resources frequently. "Fully 95% of all teens ages 12-17 are now online and 80% of those online teens are users of social media sites." (Lenhart) Students are already using these resources for social network and other entertainments, school is supposed to teach students about the real world as well as book smarts. They should know how to use their digital resources right to be able to protect themselves form hacking, malware, and spyware that could harm their personal lives or expensive hardware.
"In the past, gossip was limited to your immediate field of friends and acquaintances, but with the advent and uptake of digital technologies the potential audience for gossip and innuendo is global." (Crockett) This is always how middle school disputes always start one person talking about another; or even group.Cyber bullying is a main problem in middle school, some children feel like they need to make fun or pick on someone up to feel dominant or "cool." With Social Networks open to middle level students (age 13+) middle school student can create Facebook , twitter, and instigram accounts if they did not already have one by falsifying their age. Some student being bullied at school now have to deal with the same stress and trauma at home because of other students bullying them over social networks. We should teach these children not to use these resources in negative ways for these reasons.
Phishing Via Suspicious emails
Suspicious emails are a threat to middle school children. Being young and nieave they will believe many things that an adult would know is not true. Around middle school is where I made my first email address and i assume that elementary level students do not really have email addresses still. With this said middle level students are drawn in by spam emails with dream fulfilling promises such as, You won the newest iPad!, Congratulations you won $10,000. "Phishing email messages, websites, and phone calls are designed to steal money. Cybercriminals can do this by installing malicious software on your computer or stealing personal information off of your computer." (Microsoft)
Middle school students can find our about digital citizenship elements form many websites
- Copyright information for kids Here students can learn about the importance or citing other people's work as if it were their own.
- Brain pop offers many different subjects and categories to explore all about Digital Citizenship
- Digizen offers games for students to help prevent cyberbullying and other problems involved with Digital Citizenship.