Over the years Darlington has gone the extra mile to educate students to be appropriate online. Being a college-preparatory institution, it’s not only been important to educate students academically but also preparing them for the real world when they graduate. In the past, I have spent so much time teaching students to “not do this or that online” and while I feel this is still so important in the younger students, it has become taboo for the students at the high school level.
Switching gears and finding new approaches to teaching “good digital citizenship” has been a challenge but this year I believe I’ve made a breakthrough in cyber responsibility education.
First Point – Teaching consequences. It’s become difficult in the past to teach teenage students what not to do online. Finding ways to get the point across was a challenge but resources online proved to help get the point across. Netsmartz.com provided videos, one in particular called “2 Kinds of Stupid” that showed the consequences of doing inappropriate things online. The students were engaged and could relate to the student that made bad choices.
Second Point – Teaching empathy. The next step is to teach students the importance of empathy. Discussing things that they can relate to is most important. By giving them a “real life” situation and allowing them to discuss this is most important to get this point across with full engagement. For example, I used the scenario of two best friends. One of the friends purchased a new swimsuit and took a picture of herself in the suit and posted it online. The suit was not a good fit or style for her body type so the best friend posted under the picture, “Did you check the size?” This resulted in numerous posts of cyberbullying. The best friend felt awful and didn’t mean for it to come across as it did. Giving the example of “tone” helped them to understand that if she would have said that to her in person, it would not have come across the way it did. By teaching empathy and sparking emotions in students is the perfect way to stamp out online bullying.
Third Point – Teaching identity strength. We know that cyberbullying, whether intentional or not, is happening every day. Since we consistently tell our students “don’t cyberbully,” it could possibly be one of the reasons that it constantly occurs. It’s become shut off switch just as “don’t drink and drive” or “don’t do drugs” for students. With that said, we know that we must empower students against online bullying if it occurs. For this point, I pose the question to students: “Will you accept the identity that others give you?” This sparks interest in students that they have not thought about before. Having them discuss their vision for life and not allowing anyone to interrupt that vision by giving them an identity they don’t want is key. For this point, it’s important to talk about someone they can relate to that had a vision and was successful. For this I chose Steve Jobs. I talked about his vision for technology, which they all relate to, and how he never let anyone interrupt his vision.
Third Point – Teaching identity strength. We know that cyberbullying, whether intentional or not, is happening every day. Since we consistently tell our students “don’t cyberbully,” it could possibly be one of the reasons that it constantly occurs. It’s become shut off switch just as “don’t drink and drive” or “don’t do drugs” for students. With that said, we know that we must empower students against online bullying if it occurs. For this point, I pose the question to students: “Will you accept the identity that others give you?” This sparks interest in students that they have not thought about before. Having them discuss their vision for life and not allowing anyone to interrupt that vision by giving them an identity they don’t want is key. For this point, it’s important to talk about someone they can relate to that had a vision and was successful. For this I chose Steve Jobs. I talked about his vision for technology, which they all relate to, and how he never let anyone interrupt his vision.
Reversing the tables and allowing students to be involved in the conversation is the most important part of digital citizenship education. You can do this by posing questions, using online interactive polling such as Socrative, and just relating to their feelings instead of pointing the finger and telling them not to act improperly. Students want to be in control of their own actions and feelings; give them this control and you will have successful digital citizenship education.