Mark Ribble contends that there are nine elements of digital citizenship. He invites schools to prioritize the nine components, and consider how they relate to the context and environment of the school. Looking at the nine elements, I tried to prioritize them:
- Digital Etiquette – acceptable standards of behaviour online
- Digital Access – students have access to technology as they need it throughout the day
- Digital Literacy – learning about technology and using technology meaningfully and successfully
- Digital communication – sending and receiving information electronically
- Digital Rights and Responsibilities – freedoms and responsibilities extended to everyone in the digital world
- Digital Health and Wellness – staying healthy physically and mentally within the digital world
- Digital Security – electronic precautions for safety
- Digital Law – electronic responsibility for actions and deeds
- Digital Commerce – buying and selling goods online
However, I’m not comfortable with this sequence because some of the elements go hand in hand. So I decided to organize the elements into tiers:
| Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 |
|
Digital Access Digital Etiquette Digital Literacy Digital Communication |
Digital Rights and Responsibilities Digital Health and Wellness Digital Security |
Digital Law Digital Commerce |
I’m still not pleased with this organization. You should consider ergonomics (health and wellness) whenever using digital devices, for example, and make sure that media used in projects is creative commons licensed or from the public domain. So maybe the model is less about tiers and more about layers.
Maybe the way to approach digital citizenship is to introduce students to all the components, then to add another layer to deepen understanding of each element as is relevant to other units and lessons in the curriculum. The intent is not to cover digital citizenship and be done, but rather to incorporate digital citizenship into teaching and learning in the classroom, as is developmentally appropriate for students.
How do you approach digital citizenship in your classroom or school? Do you use the 9 elements framework or another framework?
For more information on the 9 elements, see http://www.digitalcitizenship.net.