The Digital Citizenship Handbook for School Leaders

Fostering Positive Interactions Online

Mike Ribble, Marty Park

• Publisher: International Society for Technology in Education
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781564847805
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Technology

Learn how to develop a meaningful approach to embedding digital citizenship into an established program, helping your students succeed in a digital world. In today's schools and districts, just saying "no" to bad technology practices is not enough. This leadership posture can take the form of extreme blocking and filtering of websites, providing little access to devices and declining to integrate digital tools and resources into learning out of fear of what else a student might do. Such a mindset can also lead to adults choosing not to engage -- or being unable to engage -- in conversations when students share stories about what a peer did online or through the latest app.Digital citizenship curriculum needs to be taught at two levels at once -- horizontal (the world immediately around students) and vertical (connecting to the rest of the world). This book provides education leaders a strategic road map that demonstrates how to incorporate these concepts into the curriculum so that digital citizenship isn't just "one more thing, " but is threaded into the DNA of how educators teach and work.The book:

• Provides a five-year-plan for developing a digital citizenship program in your school.
• Covers such topics as digital ethics and leveled approaches to digital citizenship.
• Walks through the digital citizenship responsibilities and opportunities inherent in various roles, including library media specialists, classroom educators and special ed teachers.
• Offers strategies for spreading digital citizenship internationally and explores the future of digital citizenship.

The book offers school and district leaders a path toward a shared and collective understanding so that digital citizenship is embedded in the way students and educators interact with technology and each other. It is a guide for school communities to discover which practices, in the end, will lead to better people. Audience: K-12 educators, education leaders

PART I

The Big Picture

About This Book and How to Use It

This book is written for leaders who want to help their students, staff, and community develop digital superpowers to supercharge learning experiences. It is written as a call to action for leaders to use all available energy to find the best path so that, in order for digital superpowers to truly shine, all gain experience in using them—while also learning the responsibilities and pitfalls (whether accidental or intentional) that can go along with them.

As you may have noticed by now, this “handbook” may in fact take two hands to carry around. (Perhaps we should have called it a “handsbook.”) It is jam-packed with full, systemic, sustainable, and scalable implementation models. However, this book was not designed or written to be read from cover to cover, start to finish. This is a modular handbook. We have designed the content to be read and referenced “just in time” when needed by the right leader. The chapters and sections should be personalized to get the right content to the right person, at just the right time. FIGURE 0.1 demonstrates how each leader could choose to focus on the chapters in a modular fashion.

We hope you do not feel that you got tricked into thinking your digital citizenship roadmap could be firmly tucked away between the thumb and forefinger of your singular right or left hand—like a fourth-grade composition notebook. Know that many years of experience and action research has gone into helping guide you to what we believe is a customized digital citizenship roadmap for your school. By investing time and energy into the depth of content in this handbook, our hope is that it will help you pick and choose what will work best for your students, while also helping you eliminate wasted efforts on strategies that will not work for you. This handbook should get you on the quickest route to your digital citizenship destination, where your “destination” is a proven comprehensive learning and growth journey, not a defined point with a set arrival time and calculated miles to travel.

FIGURE 0.1 Handbook chapters and audiences.

#DigCit Community

This handbook introduces numerous resources. Many are from school district collaborators, many are from the global DigCit tribe, and many are custom resources designed for this book. To make it easier for you to get to the online resources, many of the hyperlinks are shortened with a customized URL, digcit.life. Be on the lookout for these customized hyperlinks created just for you. These resources will encourage you to further develop your life-long DigCit experience and connect you with new DigCit community members. Our hope is that, while reading, you interact and participate with the content and with the community, and we also hope that you take the opportunity to help lead others toward an awesome DigCit.Life journey.

INTRODUCTION:
DIGITAL ETHICS AND CITIZENSHIP—THE SAME, JUST DIFFERENT

A leader’s job is not to do the work for others, it’s to help others figure out how to do it themselves, to get things done, and to succeed beyond what they thought possible.

—SIMON SINEK, AUTHOR OF START WITH WHY:
HOW GREAT LEADERS INSPIRE EVERYONE TO TAKE ACTION

Establishing the “Why”

Schools and districts have come to the realization that just saying “No” to bad technology practices rarely solves the issue of poor online use and is definitely not helping to prepare students. The “No” leadership posture can be identified easily by extreme blocking and filtering of websites, little access to devices, and reluctance to integrate digital tools and resources into learning out of fears of what else a student might do. Also saying “No” is a culture of adults who choose not to engage (or are unable to engage) in conversations when students share a story about what a peer did online or through the latest app. The ideals of digital citizenship have not changed but the issues have become more expansive, more serious, and far-reaching. Students are creating a “digital footprint” of the data that accumulates around their online lives. Some refer to this data as a “digital tattoo,” a term that speaks more to the permanent nature of this information, as well as to the conscious decision to share it, a decision they may not be proud of in the future. How do leaders change this so that students and others can point to what they have done in the digital space, showcase what they have published, and invite others to see?

The concern for educators and parents alike is the seeming disconnect between what students are doing with the technology and what they are doing in their schools and homes. The idea of anonymity and separation from others is causing students to act in a way that they would not want their parents to see. Technology has become so personal that much of student activity can be done from a smartphone or tablet (and not from a desktop or laptop). How are educators and parents going to teach their students that they might be making mistakes today that will follow them for the rest of their lives? Even after 15 years of technology knowledge and understanding, there is not a clear path to help technology users follow. Now is the time to remedy that situation.

No matter what segment of society you belong to, technology is defining you and evaluating what you do and where you go. The decisions you make today will define you in the future. As a powerful example, institutions of higher education are scanning and taking inventory of the digital footprints or tattoos of many potential student candidates in order to make decisions about the people they have never met. Businesses are looking at the digital remnants left behind by applicants to determine if they will be a good employee, even before the interview. Too often, even the briefest of comments shared through social media show that these applicants may end up sharing information or representing themselves in a less than positive way—why should a company take that chance? Even potential teachers are being encouraged to take down (or at least scrutinize) their social networking sites before they start their student teaching experience. Some may consider this to be an infringement of an individual’s rights, but many schools and colleges of education see it as a means to protect their students’ reputations (and future employment opportunities). On the opposite end of the digital social spectrum, some businesses may not want to hire someone without an online digital presence or established “personal brand” in the digital sphere.

Today, it is not if you will be part of the digitally connected mainstream, it is when. The real question is who will assist in providing direction to display your best self for all to see. Many educators are asking the question, “How do we deal with these issues, and how do we help our students?”

The focus of this handbook and the support that can rise from it is on how schools and districts can develop a meaningful approach to embedding a curriculum that infuses technology into an established curriculum. The concept would be similar to the teaching of civic understanding that many schools use today to explain how and where students fit into their society; it will begin with those around them and build outward. However, digital citizenship poses a more difficult problem because—unlike civics, which offers the organization of cities, states, and countries—in the digital realm, every child can begin with access to the entire world. A curriculum of digital citizenship needs to be taught at two levels at once—the horizontal (the world immediately around them) and the vertical (their connection to the rest of the world). These will not be easy concepts to master, especially in a synchronous practice, but they need to be taught to prepare students to work and compete in a digital world. These concepts will also need to be taught to young students so they can begin the process before they learn inappropriate habits.

Let us begin with the end in mind. Too often when discussing or planning for digital citizenship, we are not sure what we want to end up with or what adjustments might be needed in the classroom. In the end, the goal is that our children or students should be “good” digital citizens. Defining good and having that as an endpoint can be difficult, especially if we have not defined what is meant by being good in the digital space. The question must be answered: what should be expected from a digital citizenship (digital safety, digital health, etc.) program? What can be agreed upon? One, technology has changed us; for good, bad, or indifferent, all users have been changed. The rapidly changing nature of technology is now an expectation; it is the new norm. Too often it is assumed that everyone has equitable access to tools and connectivity—which is false (and must be realized before embarking on a technology program). Second, to be good at something takes time. If you want to be a good writer or painter, you must write or paint. The full understanding of technology, beyond intuitive aspects, takes time and effort. In other words, there are often far-reaching implications (both intended and unintended) that are uncovered by the adoption of new digital experiences. Third, new technology gives children and young adults an advantage. The tools today have been created to be intuitive or at least understandable if you are willing to “play,” making them easier for kids to figure out, as they are willing to try and perhaps fail. The issue becomes, what are the consequences of these failures? Also, adults generally do not have the time or willingness to explore and may consider technology “one more thing” that they have to learn, especially when there are compounding gaps between perceived and realized advantages. There is also the inherent fear of what might go wrong.

This is our hope when focusing on digital citizenship: to provide a path to shared and collective understanding. Will everyone be a computer coder? No, and it is not necessary. Will every citizen, every technology user, be an expert in all areas? No, and we do not need that either. However, expanding the human side of technology is vital.

The goal of this handbook is to provide leaders in schools and districts a strategic roadmap that points to new possibilities of where they might arrive in the end. Our hope is to provide readers an experience and understanding of the topics so that digital citizenship is not just “one more thing” but is threaded into the nature of how to accomplish the goals today. Every district and school is as different as every student is different. Therefore, this handbook is not prescriptive in nature but a guide for school and district leaders, members of the staff, parents, and even members of the community to what practices, in the end, will lead to better people.

Who Are Today’s School Leaders? Yes, This Handbook Is for You

Picture the first person who pops into your mind when we say “school leader.” Most people immediately picture the school principal or possibly an assistant principal. That is certainly a good start. However, what about that teacher who is completely in charge of the largest classroom in your building? You know, that one teacher who sees every student, every week. If you pictured your library media specialist or teacher librarian, then we are starting to heat up. Great principals are very clear about the value of developing a leadership team in great schools (Johnson, Chrispeels, Basom, & Pumpian, 2008). A team full of smart and hardworking teachers who can work with others. A team with students who have a voice. A team with parents and other staff members who are engaged with students every day. You are a school leader. You have a voice. Your school needs you to lead others in the understanding and positive use of connected digital experiences. Your school needs you to take a personal pledge to get engaged with digital citizenship skills and the associated issues because your students leave the four walls of your school every evening, every weekend, and every summer. Digital citizenship skills need to go with them and be on call when (not if) needed.

If you are a current or aspiring school principal reading this book, that is awesome! First and foremost, thank you! There are many great school reform books you could be reading, and you are choosing to invest in your school’s digital culture. Let us be clear and get straight to the point: you will want to quickly start designing sustainable structures and strategies for when you are no longer at the helm of the ship. Most principals are in the same school for only four years (Taie & Goldring, 2017). You will either transition to another school as a principal or step into a districtwide leadership role as a superintendent, possibly as the director of curriculum and instruction. Establishing a meaningful digital citizenship program is one of the best future-proofing gifts you could give your students and your school.

Education Issues and Digital Citizenship

Parents and schools need to provide a consistent message to our children and use common, shared language. Granted that there may be different rules between home and school digital use, but the concept needs to be the same that all users must be aware and responsible for their technology use. Students, teachers, school and distric...