Wrapping Things Up on Digital Citizenship

I've just wrapped up a course for my Master's Program (through Lamar University-in Education, Digital Leading and Learning) on Digital Citizenship. It has been a very interesting and important topic to spend time on. We have spent time considering Mike Ribble's nine elements of digital citizenship and I appreciate the way he breaks down this very daunting topic into tangible issues that our students and our schools are facing daily. It has provided a framework for my thinking and how it is possible to implement digital citizenship for K-12 students. 

The one thing I found very interesting and the most useful about digital citizenship was surprisingly copyright, fair use, and Creative Commons licensing.

How Should Schools Combat Cyberbullying?

According to a study of cyberbullying in 2014 from nobullying.com, 52% of reporters say they have been cyberbullied, of those- 33% report the bully threatened. A little over half of those reported that they see bullying on social media, and a whopping 95% ignore the behavior (Cyberbullying Statistics). 

We have a problem that most of us really aren't aware of. Cyberbullying is a silent problem that many of our students are aware of, and some could even be dealing with on a daily basis. According to Hinduja and Patchin (2015) in their book, Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying, cyberbullying is a “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices” (p. 11). Simply put, it is a form of bullying in the digital world. Oftentimes the bullying is done by young people that would not typically engage in bullying in the real world and is sometimes anonymous to distance the bully from the victim (Brewer & Kerslake, 2015, p. 2). Forms of cyberbullying come in the following: flaming, harassment, denigration, impersonation, outing, trickery, exclusion, and cyberstalking (Siegle, 2010, p. 2). Those that are affected by cyberbullying could be any student and often the perpetrator are those that have low self-esteem and empathy (Brewer & Kerslake, p. 4).

Students do not often see cyberbully for what it is, but rather, they call it “drama,” which is a “protective mechanism to save face” (iKeepSafe, 2012).

How Do We Start Teaching Students About Copyright?

Copyright can be very scary for many teachers, because of many unknowns about the topic. As educators, we may not always create our own content from scratch. If you think about it, our knowledge is a collective body of information that has been brought in by thousands of years of work put onto paper, into movies, and now into the digital world. It is almost impossible to create something entirely from scratch.

Because we are using information from others in the classroom daily, it’s important to teach and model for students appropriate use of all content in our classes. The purpose of copyright is not for owners of work to make a ton of money. According to the Copyright Act, the purpose of copyright is to “promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings" (Crash Course, 2015). While that sounds like educators do not have permission to use work, we do, but we must be responsible and lead by example.

Social Media Made me "Famous"

About four years ago a few of my coworkers and I began doing flipped lessons for biology. We created this video:

In the last few years, when I have my students watch it from my YouTube channel, they crack me up by saying "Mrs. Hahn, you're famous! Look how many hits you have on this video!" --currently, this video has over 80,000 hits.

In their eyes, they think I've "made" it (so funny!). When I look at those hits, I'm thinking "woah, what's going on here?!" Out of the bazillion YouTube videos that exist and are uploaded daily, they think I've "made it" in the digital world. :)

Pokémon Go and Digital Privacy

Have you been on Facebook lately? My newsfeed is buzzing with so many images of this:

That is Pokémon Go. A free augmented reality (AR) game made by Niantic. This game allows you to join a team and start hunting Pokémon in your own neighborhood! I've already seen kids running around in the 100 degree sun of Texas trying to "catch 'em all!" At the school I teach at, Pokémon has been making a comeback in it's popularity (it was a huge thing when I was like 12!). But now, EVERYONE is playing! That image above--not mine, but my husbands. :)

I thought about downloading it. But there was a small piece of me that wanted to sit back and watch and see what would happen. In less than a week it's become the most popular download in the App store, but it's also raise questions about privacy. I saw on the news a few days ago that NBC News discussed it's concerns with what information the app was collecting and sharing (it's a free app that so many kids are downloading--hello, alert!). Niantic quickly updated their policy so that information would not be shared.