Week 7 Assignment 1 Digital Citizenship, Ethics, and Netiquette

Digital citizenship has become more than what I lightly referred to as an avatar on a game.  It has its own mannerisms, etiquette, and morality I believe should be enforced if the world is to interact in a global state.  Understandably I primarily found websites geared towards children and helping them have a safe internet experience.  They incorporate parental partnering to help the whole family get involved as well.  iSafe (http://www.isafe.org/) is a non-profit organization created in 1998 with the help of the US Congress to help with responsible digital technology, namely to youth.  It is geared towards the educators, law enforcement, and other positions of authority with resources to help create a safe cyber experience.  Similar to this is Wiredsafety.com (https://www.wiredsafety.org/about/). It was first established in 1995 and is run by a wide range of volunteers.  It boasts of five focuses centered on providing help, advice, education, and resources for the growing number of cyber citizens.  What I focus on is the fourth bullet point that states it supports “Information and awareness on all aspects of online safety, privacy, responsible use and security” (Wiredsafety.org, 2012).   WiredSafety has a practical side to it for adults.  The adult tab posted an article about email etiquette and the falsehoods of chain letters. The industry tab posts an article about the responsibilities corporate America is taking with regard to taking cyber etiquette seriously. Although there seems to be less direct adult information I believe many of issues relating to students (i.e. cyberbullying, sexting, child protection) help adults be aware of issues for their children as well as what could happen to them as well.  Meanwhile, iSafe offers similar assistance via online training and subscription packages.  Through package deals, educators can be equipped to guide students to conduct themselves safely and responsibly as cyber-citizens.  

Although there is not much practicality with these technologies to be of much use in my current role as a trainer, they could become a good foundation prior to any class with online interaction as I move into an adult educator role in a community college.   If funding would allow, I could become certified to educate students on the iSafe application and conduct trainings on the cyber-responsibilities.  With this program’s peer to peer mentoring I could allow my students to hold each other accountable to proper etiquette as they engage in tweets, blogs, and other social media for learning expansion.

It would be similar when incorporating the WiredSafety product into the same environment. However with WiredSafety being more of a resource geared towards students, I believe incorporating this site as part of the curriculum to be the best approach. An assignment would be centered on discussing what WiredSafety has to do with two topics of their choice from the Main Subjects section.  Here the method could be to educate the students on this resource, but to also allow them to discover the repercussions of illegal or improper activity as a cyber-citizen. Improper activity not only relates to plagiarism, but also to bullying and sexting.  Although one can argue as Downes concedes regarding the grey area of plagiarism…“But even where the concepts are not explicitly attributed to me (and very frequently, they are not), I do not consider this to be theft.”  He does concede there is a line that is crossed in even the lighter topic of literary theft “What I have also seen, though, disturbs me a lot more. Many of the concepts and ideas that I and others have distributed through the open web have been appropriated by others as their own personal property” (2011, p. 12). Therefore how much more offensive are the issues of cyber stocking and harassment.  The once innocent world of individual gaming has matured to become its own nation.  And with such growth there must be parameters and legislation enacted to guide its citizens. 

References:

Downes, S. (2011). Free learning: Essays on open educational resources and copyright. Retrieved from http://www.downes.ca/files/books/FreeLearning.pdf

WiredSafety.com (2012). Overview of WiredSafety. Retrieved from https://www.wiredsafety.org/about/