What is Digital Citizenship?
As we are slowly on a transition to have the online world become a daily fixture in our lives, we need to understand a few things in the internet and one of those is digital citizenship. What is digital citizenship and why is it important? Digital citizenship is someone who is able to use information technology to engage with others within the internet and use the internet properly. While others such as Chris Zook from AES Education describe digital citizenship as “The responsible use of technology by anyone who uses computers, the Internet, and digital devices to engage with society on any level” (Zook, 2019). As well with the Digital Technologies Hub refers it to a “Person who has the knowledge and skills to effectively use digital technologies to communicate with others, participate in society and create and consume digital content”. This skill is necessary for many to develop as it can help individuals understand how to behave and interact with the online world. It also helps us be more aware of our actions as sometimes we may not realized that our actions could possibly harm someone or a community.
The difference between the two is that digital citizenship is when people participate and create or share content on a social media platforms and other sites meanwhile digital literacy is the ability for someone to comprehend and evaluate online content. It’s quite common to think these two are the same thing as both have the knowledge of how to navigate around the internet and knowing how to be responsibly when it comes to participating in those online environments. Despite literacy and digital citizenship being different from each other, it is necessary to have both as it allows you to know both the technical side of social media and how it operates, so when it comes to participating online, you will be able to comprehend your own and other people’s actions.
Since the internet have starting to become a daily fixture in our lives, now is definitely a good time to teach the people on what makes a good and bad digital citizen. According to a UAB Institute for Human Rights Blog what a good digital citizenship do is engages to connect with one another, empathize with each other, and create lasting relationships. While bad digital citizenship, on the other hand, entails cyberbullying, irresponsible social media usage, and a general lack of knowledge about how to safely use the Internet (UAB, 2019). The issue between the two is that for some people being a good digital citizen is more difficult than being a bad citizen. Due to the fact that in the online world everyone is not facing each other face-to-face and that anyone could easily hide their real identity motivates people to make wrong decision because they feel like they have all the power to do what they want without getting into trouble, which is bad for the young generation to be around with those type of behaviors online.
There are many options for us to use on teaching people how to be good digital citizens. One example is in the classrooms, where teachers can show the students what to do and what not do while being online. We can also have modules online that teaches people how to use digital technology properly and responsibly. Also digital citizenship isn’t just about keeping up with the trends in technology. It’s about challenging students to evaluate the information they’re consuming and to navigate the web responsibly. In doing so, students are reinforcing skills like critical thinking and problem solving, taking the reins on their learning abilities any educator would agree will serve them well into their futures (McGuire, 2019). Overall now is a good time for us to learn digital literacy skills and how to be a good digital citizen as our online presence is becoming more and more active as years to come.