Digital Citizenship, Literacy & Responsible Learning Practices

Reflection: Promoting and Modeling Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

In my online counseling work I plan to consistently teach and model responsible, respectful, safe, ethical, and legal use of technology to my students. As part of my course syllabus, lecture and course assignments, I plan to incorporate the Common Sense Education Curriculum for Digital Citizenship so that my students have an understanding of their responsibilities and practice engaging in online activity. I will monitor discussions and support students in netiquette guidelines for online discourse. I plan to use my skills in video content creation to help leverage the digital citizenship curriculum while including closed captioning for accessibility. As I learn more about the different collaborative web 2.0 tools and applications to support online learning, I am excited to incorporate them into my course for students to gain experience and skills using new tools. I especially love how a variety of web 2.0 tools can help facilitate and enhance learning for diverse student needs. Not all students feel comfortable or are able to use certain web 2.0 tools because they may not be accessible. Because of this, I would troubleshoot the tools ahead of time to make sure that they are accessible and so I will be able to show students how to use them. I would also provide students a choice of different web 2.0 tools to complete their coursework so students feel a sense of agency in their own learning. I would also spend time in our weekly synchronous video conferences to show my students examples of how the web 2.0 tools are used and answer questions about the tools and assignments. For students with specific special needs, I would prioritize individual support such as weekly check ins and I would work with the disability resource center at my school on how to best serve those students. To develop multicultural understanding in my courses I will encourage students to represent their culture, family background and experiences in their assignments, synchronous conferences and in their introduction assignment at the beginning of a course. I can also take care to assign student group work and collaborative assignments so diversity is represented and so the students can learn from working with one another. This week the LEC participants used Flipgrid, a video discussion application that is fantastic for asynchronous discussions as it allows for an added dimension of social presence to online discourse and students get a sense of their peers personalities. I advocate for the use of tools and structures that help students connect to each other and encourage further participation and engagement online.

Below is an outline of the iNACOL Standards for Quality Online Teaching that have been strengthened so far in this course (Module 4).

Content

• Academic Content Standards and Assessments (4)

• Legal and Acceptable Use Policies (10)

Our discussion this week covered the digital activity of Tweens and Teens as reported on the Common Sense 2015 Census Infographic as well as teen media consumption vs. creation, and the ISTE Standards for Students - 2016. I created a digital citizenship infographic (above) from the digital citizenship curriculum from Common Sense Education. The Common Sense Education curriculum covers information literacy, the use of copyrighted materials, cyberbullying and digital drama. The activities in this module have reinforced the importance of these topics for promoting responsible, safe and respectful online activity.

Instructional Design

• Instructional Strategies and Activities (3 & 5)

The discussion assignment in this module was facilitated on Flipgrid which allowed me to hear everyone’s perspectives and thoughts in a short period of time and respond to peers whose contributions sparked my response. I loved being able to see the other participants' faces and hear their voices. I got to see a bit of their personality and feel closer to them as a cohort even from a distance.

Post Reflection: In addition to the responsibility and knowledge I gained for teaching and promoting digital citizenship in this module, I was also encouraged by the social presence I felt and experienced in our Flipgrid discussion. As a researcher of social presence in online courses, I personally glean a strong connection between feeling part of a supportive learning community and holding sound moral judgment and a sense of responsibility with online activity. When I am connected and invested in my learning community, I want to act and behave in a way that contributes positively to the learning. As a dedicated online instructor I will always strive to design my online courses to support community building and responsible and ethical online activity.