Post #13 – Review the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship, in Chapter 3, Section 3 of Technology Applications for the Digital Classroom. Evaluate the effectiveness of K-12 education in preparing students to be good digital citizens. What obstacles do classroom teachers and students face in fully realizing the basic tenets of the nine elements of digital citizenship?

Digital access- schools often have filters put into place to allow for responsible internet searching. Most other technology seems to have other filters in place as well for students under 18 years old. One obstacle that educators face is student access to technology. I feel that not enough students have access to the technology that they need.

Digital commerce- often commerce that involves technology involves use of debit/credit cards. Often, students don't have their own. As a result, students don't learn valuable lessons about digital commerce. There are business classes in high school taught to upperclassmen, however they lack real world experience. I hope that students learn the importance of this responsibility through the education process and not through personal experience.

Digital Communication- this is where I feel that students lack and experience the most obstacles. Digital communication is the aspect of good digital citizenship that they have the most access to and is almost never brought up in formal education. As a result, this is often abused and brings about a lot of problems. This also brings problems into the classroom, where students bring up such violations of digital communication when in a school setting.

Digital literacy- though there has been great progress in digital literacy, I feel that there is plenty more to grow. Students take to certain forms of technology well, such as the internet and cell phones, however they are not as literate in other forms of technology. Teaching students various technology programs has shown me that students are not very willing to learn new technology, instead they want it to come easier and faster for them. In issues such as whiteboards, students will learn how to use them up to a point, until they can't figure out how to anymore and it's instruction isn't spelled out completely.

Digital etiquette- I feel that this is closely associated with digital communication. By virtue of not being a face-to-face contact, younger people are quicker to partake in poor etiquette online. I feel that this is because there is no immediate consequence. This aspect of good digital citizenship is not taught very much in schools unfortunately, however it is one of the largest problems when dealing with student discipline.

Digital law- I feel this is the greatest issue in schools when dealing with plagiarism. So often do students copy and paste completely without any citations. We also violate digital law in my classroom by removing watermarks. Though, thanks to Rosemary's comments on a previous blog post, I will think twice about allowing this in my classroom, it does allow for some great discussion about digital law.

Digital rights- I think this is a subject that students would like to learn more about. I don't think that they, or most of their teachers know what their digital rights are. This can be the start of some great discussions in the classroom about technology.

Digital health and wellness- I think this aspect of digital good citizenship would fit perfectly into a health curriculum. There are many health risks associated with prolonged exposure to technology including increase in chances of cancer, visual problems, migraines, and various psychological problems. I think that students will be able to relate to this material.

Digital security- I bring up this topic a lot. I often have students Google their names in order to see what pops up. This awakens some students to why privacy is important. This is a very important topic that I have been able to fit into my curriculum. There are plenty of students who don't take this aspect to seriously. I think that some real-world examples will go a far way in this aspect of good digital citizenship.