Digital Citizenship Guidelines for Teachers

What are the Digital Citizenship Guidelines for Teachers
It is a collection of Digital Citizenship guidelines, resources and strategies aimed at teachers. It aims to bring together useful and informative advice and guidance to support teachers to be safe and successful users of ICTs and online environments. This is an Open Educational Resource, anyone is welcone to contribute. Please ensure all content is original and creative commons licensed so as to comply with the values of the WikiEducator community. If in doubt, hyperlink out. See the bottom of the page for more information.

What is Digital Citizenship?
NetSafe provides the following definition for Digital Citizenship:

Drawing from the Key Competencies and Values in the NZ Curriculum and a growing body of research knowledge, NetSafe, in consultation with New Zealand teachers has produced this definition of a New Zealand Digital Citizen.

A digital citizen: • is a confident and capable user of ICT • uses technologies to participate in educational, cultural, and economic activities • uses and develops critical thinking skills in cyberspace • is literate in the language, symbols, and texts of digital technologies • is aware of ICT challenges and can manage them effectively • uses ICT to relate to others in positive, meaningful ways • demonstrates honesty and integrity and ethical behaviour in their use of ICT • respects the concepts of privacy and freedom of speech in a digital world • contributes and actively promotes the values of digital citizenship

Digital literacy or the ability to understand and fully participate in the digital world is fundamental to digital citizenship. It is the combination of technical and social skills that enable a person to be successful and safe in the information age. Like literacy and numeracy initiatives which provide people with the skills to participate in the work force, digital literacy has become an essential skill to be a confident, connected, and actively involved life long learner. (Source: http://www.netsafe.org.nz/Doc_Library/Digital_Citizenship_in_New_Zealand_Schools_Overview.pdf )

Why Digital Citizenship is important for teachers (as well as students)
Just as it is important for our students to become safe and successful digital citizens, so too must teachers learn to use online environments effectively and appropriately. ICTs and online environments provide powerful teaching and learning opportunities that if used effectively can support both student engagement and achievement. However alongside these many positive opportunities are also increased risks in terms of managing time, expectations and online relationships with our learners.

One of the keys to the development of successful digital citizens in our classrooms, is the positive role modelling that they receive from their peers, their teachers and their families. The NetSafe LGP framework recognises the key role that teachers (and parents) play in this development, and suggest that these “Guides” form an integral part of the digital citizenship journey for young people.

It suggests that;

Young people want opportunities to discuss online challenges with respected and authoritative adults. This does not require teachers to be technology experts, but it is important that their knowledge is broad, authentic and current. Developing teacher capability so they can act as effective cyber safety guides is vital You can read more about the LGP framework here or by reading the framework document at Netsafe.