Chelsey’s reflections on Chapters 1-5 of The Essential Elements of Digital Literacies.
DigiCit Lit
So, I have an assignment to explore some digital citizenship literature. In ED 601: Intro to Soc. Sci. Research, this would probably be called a literature review. But since the ED 601 lit review is super stressing me out, I like the term exploration a lot better.
So grab your hats, let’s go exploring.
First, I begin with digitalcitizenship.net. A straightforward site. It structures digital citizenship with nine elements. I really like that they begin with the element they refer to as “Digital Access,” emphasizing that not everyone has the same access to technology. This was something that I found critical to recognize as I completed my year of student teaching. Many of my students did not have internet access at home. This heavily influenced my view and implementation of homework.
The nine elements were explained succinctly, and the site has a list of resources and publications, which is useful.
However, although the copyright says 2017, the aesthetics of site seems a bit dated and it definitely lacks some of the little black dress elegance that many modern sites have. Yes, Beauty and the Beast has taught us once again that looks aren’t everything (and that you’ll eventually get over being held hostage), but I do think aesthetics count for something.
The second piece of literature I found interesting and related to my upcoming career as a teacher is an article called “P-20 Model of Digital Citizenship” by Curran and Ribble (2017). This focuses on the educating and molding of digital citizens from preschool to adulthood. It seemed odd to learn about digital citizenship through what I thought was a cut and dry scholarly article, but their definition of digital citizenship definitely caught my attention:
At last, let’s end with Common Sense Education. I had never heard of this site before doing this assignment, and to be honest, the name reminded me of a right-wing website that my uncle is always sharing articles from. However, just a brief glance told me that it was nothing like it.
I think digital citizenship is…
Citizenship is being a part of some sort of social community. Membership in that community comes with certain roles, expectations and responsibilities.
Digital refers to anything that has to do with the web (that is my super simplified definition).
So….digital citizenship is having a role in an online community. A digital citizen has certain roles and responsibilities ( don’t be a troll, hey). My role as a mediocre aspiring writing is to inform the world of my writing attempts (I submitted to the Montreal International Poetry Prize, long shot but I gotta keep the submissions rolling), my perspectives on humanity, and how awesome spicy doritos are.
Being a digital citizen also means having a voice in an online community. I talk about giving my perspectives on humanity but that honestly scares me because I will have to defend my position at some point. I am very used to hiding. Sure I’m online everyday, checking Facebook, checking that sheep pincushion that Amazon tells me I must have (I really must have it, look at this thing). But I have mostly limited my presence to Facebook where I rarely activate my own voice, and Snapchat (yeah, I forgot to mention that in my previous post).
But, I’ve already jumped in feet first, and I’m ready.
Collection I
Thinking about blog-creating
The past week was the first time I have ever created a domain for myself, the first time I have ever worked with wordpress, and the first time I have written a blog. It has been a experience and even though this site was created for a class, I am looking forward to using this as a platform to talk about my writing.
I think that, as a part of a class on digital citizenship, this assignment was created to allow us to become a part of the vast “interwebs” (as my high school students would put it) and therefore experience digital citizenship firsthand.
The most challenging part of the assignment to create a blog has been learning all the technical aspects of creating the blog. I just learned how to change the header image. I still need to learn what a widget is. It’s probably not a fuzzy little alien, even though that’s what the name sounds like.
I also find it intimidating knowing that what I post is public and accessible. It puts a great responsibility on my shoulders. However, I shall post boldly and responsibly.