Photo from Pexels by Jakub Zerdzicki
Digital citizenship is important for educators and for learners, foremost because what is important to learners is important for educators. To elucidate what this means, let’s consider what it means to be an educator. Then, we can move into discussing why digital citizenship is important to learners.
According to the Merriam-Webster, self-proclaimed “America’s foremost publisher of language-related reference works”, the definition of an educator is:
- One skilled in teaching
- A student of the theory and practice of education
This doesn’t clear up much, so into google search I typed: what do teachers do?
Encyclopedia Britannica had this to say on the subject of the Functions and roles of teachers:
Broadly speaking, the function of teachers is to help students learn by imparting knowledge to them and by setting up a situation in which students can and will learn effectively.
Robert J. Havighurts
Now, Robert J. Havighurts was the professor of Education and of Human Development at the University of Chicago from 1941 to 1965. He was a physicist, a chemist, and an educator, with expertise specifically on human development and aging. Meanwhile, the Encyclopedia Britannica is considered one of the most popular and reliable sources available, because of who writes it, who edits it, the process they use for revising it, and the history they keep about revisions to articles (Britannica).
However, encyclopedias are tertiary resources written for general audiences, so they are not academic, i.e. written for other academics, not are they as reliable as primary and secondary sources. Also, even though they are written by scholars and therefore considered to be scholarly, the entries in encyclopedias are not peer-reviewed by other scholars, but instead review by a board of editors.
South New Hampshire University
With AI available to us, and its potential benefits and downsides still to be explored, let’s consider what ChatGPT has to say about teaching. Though ChatGPT “sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers” the “dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests”. Moreover, ChatGPT draws its information from a significant body of texts and sources, so it may work similarly to an encyclopedia, making it a good starting point or an adequate provider of generalizations. Without further ado, here is what ChatGPT had to say about what makes someone a teacher:
A teacher is someone who helps others learn, grow, and develop skills, knowledge, and understanding. What defines a teacher isn’t just formal qualifications, but also their dedication to the learning process and their commitment to their students’ well-being. Teachers are motivated by a passion for knowledge and a desire to guide others in acquiring and applying that knowledge.
ChatGPT
All in all, it seems that what is important for learners is important to educators because knowing what is important to learners is part of building a relationship with them, assessing their needs and abilities, and ultimately, creating that environment where learning can happen. Basically, educators need to know their students and their students needs, and in this techno-industrial age, students are already digital citizens. Just like how every student is already a citizen of their country. However, being a citizen, and being an educated citizen are different matters, and the latter is the educator’s concern. Recall the mandate of BC’s curriculum to foster student success through learning geared to making students educated citizens.
We have a renewed and clear mandate: to enable every learner to maximize their potential, which fuels our passion and vision that B.C. has educated citizens who thrive in a rapidly changing world.
BC Ministry of Education’s “Presentation on understanding the Policy for Student Success
Nowadays, then, teaching students what their duties and rights as citizens are must also include their duties and rights in digital landscapes as digital citizens. According to Yacine Atif, professor of Informatics at the University of Skövde, in Sweden, “there is a lack of research defining digital citizenship despite the wide proliferation of Internet, and citizens’ engagement in online communities” (152). If we consider how quickly the digital landscape changes, and how broad the spectrum of interaction can be, it makes sense that defining what digital citizenship is would be difficult to pinpoint. Moreover, defining what it means to be a good citizen in the socio-political landscape is just as complicated. Still, there are notions of what it means to be an educated digital citizen that can be defined by appropriate behaviour. Consider Atif’s view of an educated citizen as someone “poised to develop a range of competences and shape new behaviours, which harness the benefits and opportunities of virtual spaces, while ensuring protection against potential harms” (152). This spells out another reason why digital citizenship matters for students and teachers.
Photo from Pexels by Anna Nekrashevich
The digital landscape presents harms and benefits to citizens, and without an education of these, students, in adulthood and as youths, have the potential to come to harm, or to success. As is made clear in the BCTF’s Professional Standards in standard one, “Educators value the success of all students. Educators care for students and act in their best interests.” Therefore, educators must act in the interest of fostering student success, and educating students in the protection and prevention from harm in the digital world. Conversely, educators must also teach students to navigate the digital world for their best interest, teaching them how to succeed in that same technological landscape.
At length, students needs to be able to navigate the use of tools like AI in ways that are advantageous, and not harmful for them, and this requires knowledge of aspects of digital citizenship like digital literacy and digital footprints. Please see my related posts on Digital Literacy and Digital Footprints for more on these topics.
Works Cited
Atif, Yacine, and Chien Chou. “Digital Citizenship: Innovations in Education, Practice, and Pedagogy.” Journal of Educational Technology & Society, vol. 21, no. 1, 2018, pp. 152–54. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26273876. Accessed 6 Sept. 2024.
B.C. Ministry of Education. B.C. Graduation Program: Implementation Guide. www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/administration/kindergarten-to-grade-12/understanding_the_bc_policy_for_student_success.pdf.
British Columbia Ministry of Education. PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FOR BC EDUCATORS. 19 June 2019, www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/kindergarten-to-grade-12/teach/teacher-regulation/standards-for-educators/edu_standards_poster-11×17.pdf.
“British Columbia’s Policy for Student Success”. Government of British Columbia. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/administration/program-management/vision-for-student-success. Accessed Nov. 8 2023.
Havighurst, Robert J. “Teaching | Definition, History, and Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 July 1999, www.britannica.com/topic/teaching/Functions-and-roles-of-teachers.
“Robert J. Havighurst.” Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/contributor/Robert-J-Havighurst/1264.
“The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica.” Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419.
What Kind of Source Is an Encyclopedia? Is It Considered “Scholarly”? – SNHU Library Frequently Asked Questions. libanswers.snhu.edu/faq/133918#:~:text=Encyclopedias%20are%20considered%20a%20scholarly,by%20scholars%20on%20the%20subject.