“Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds,
so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.”
- Plato
Digital Citizenship is most closely
defined at “those who use the Internet regularly and effectively” (K. Mossberger). It is well known
that teenagers and young adults have an extreme presence in the online
communities but what about elementary scholars especially grade 2? I think that
for younger kids the internet is mostly a place of learning not so much for socializing,
like most teens and young adults. A second grade classroom today has more technology
than ever before. Lessons and activities teacher do are almost all online. Second
graders are able to go online and view you tube videos, blog posts, and
research pages; all that are previously viewed by the teacher and put on a
shared Google document that the whole class can see.
Since 2nd graders are
more tuned into lessons online it is important to teach digital citizenship to
them. In one online magazine the importance of parents teaching their child
digital citizenship is shown. The magazine (away magazine) discusses that it is
important for young online users to understand what is going on online. Parents
should talk to their kids about buying and selling online and what is
appropriate. It also explains the importance of teaching your child first how
to use a computer and what responsibilities come with being online. For example
parents need to discuss that it can be addicting and that they might stumble
onto a website not right for them and what to do if this happens at home such
as tell mom or dad and go back to their previous webpage.
In the classroom teachers need to
discuss digital citizenship to kids so that they can do research for the class
and get involved in the big community. On ask a teacher a whole example
lesson plan is shown for how to teach digital citizenship to a second grade classroom,
it discusses how to live in the digital world. The main points show teaching
what a digital citizen is, what the responsibilities online are, how being an
online citizen connects to being a citizen of the town, and what is the importance
of being a good citizen. For second grade it is important to teach them what is
wrong and why so discussing plagiarism is a highlight as well as cyber
bullying, they need to understand that these are dangerous and not respectful
to others. This guide to a lesson on citizenship also includes links to
websites that have activities and games connected to the essential points. One website
you can be connected to is brainpop, the website have all kinds of point of
topics you can click on and it takes you to a new page that has the definition and
explanation of, for example plagiarism, and on the other side there is a video
about plagiarism. Another website (livebinder) connects teachers with a
list of website that have games and information all safe for students to go
onto and research digital citizenship.
It is important to teach young
students the importance of digital citizenship because they need to know the
basic rules for being online before they can become part of the educational and
social communities. If they do not learn about digital citizenship and the responsibilities
and risks that arouse form it then they will miss use it and the internet will
become a center for the wrong things. On coalcrackerclassroom they say that
as a teacher “you are responsible for the education and learning” as well as
the social skills needed for today’s society. Teaching a second grader digital
citizenship helps them to learn more about being online and how to protect
themselves as well.
Will every positive there is a
negative, so while educating digital citizenship there is also a risk that the
students will still miss use it. When setting young kids off online there is a
risk of what they will find and how they will choose to use it. As a second
grader they are starting to understand right and wrong and might push the boundaries
when a teacher puts them online. Also a young student must have a supportive
family at home, if the student goes to school and learns one thing about being
online then goes home to a house with unsupervised computer access they might
use what they learned to go beyond what they should be doing online and find
trouble. Although there are some risks to setting a second grader into the
online world, I think there is a lot of educational and good website out there
for them to learn from and use throughout their lives.
Citations
