Digital Citizenship

Digital citizenship is when we are respectful, responsible, and safe with our online and use. Being digitally literate is an important skill in the 21st century.

View the source for an introduction to digital citizenship.

Now let’s look at key elements of digital citizenship and best practices as defined by the Learning Portal (2017).

Review by watching the videos below.

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You’ve just learned a lot about literacy. Match the following examples with the type of literacy represented.

Sung Jun checks his phone continuously and is on social media all the time. His family is upset with him because he keeps spreading fake news and sometimes bullies them if they have a different opinion than his own on important social and political matters. What they don’t know is that Sung Jun is secretly being bullied at school by his classmates, so he takes his frustration out on his family. One day the family computer crashed because of a virus. Sung Jun’s father knew it was because his son was downloading movies and video games on websites that were not reliable. What type of literacy does Sung Jun need?

Cecilia loves to shop. Every time she gets a notification of a sale from a store like Sephora, she logs onto her computer and purchases products she does not need. Her husband is extremely irritated with her because last month she spent $300 on beauty products. What her husband does not know is that Cecilia has been feeling a little down lately. She has also been feeling insecure and she doesn’t really know why. Her husband always tells her she is beautiful inside and out. Last week, her husband had enough because Cecilia spent $600 on a curling machine—the Dyson Airwrap. Cecilia had the urge to buy it after watching a review by a blogger. The influencer said it changed her life and saved her so much time. At first she ignored the urge but then she saw the Dyson Airwrap ad come up on her Facebook. What Cecilia doesn’t know is that the blogger was actually paid to promote the product. It was an advertisement for Dyson. What type of literacy should Cecilia look into?

Andrew and his partner are moving to Canada from America. Andrew needs to find a new place to live that is within their budget, in a safe neighbourhood, relatively close to their jobs, within a good school district. He began searching on Google but was overwhelmed with the amount of information he had to read. He asked his partner, Rahul, to help with the search. Eventually, they both realized they were going about this the wrong way. They needed to vary their search and look at other resources instead of Google. So they started to read blogs and join Facebook groups. They decided to narrow their search to two places in Canada, Scarborough and Pickering. Once they started reading reviews on blogs, they become extremely confused because there were multiple perspectives about Scarborough and Pickering. They needed to think about their search once again because they weren’t getting the information they needed. What would help Andrew and Rahul?

Because we constantly consume information, we must always challenge “the message.” The best way to do this is to think carefully and critically using our various literacies. In other words, ask yourself “the So What question,” or “Why is this important to me?” and “Can I trust the message and author’s integrity?” Finally, remember to practise responsible, meaningful, and healthy online participation.