Global Digital Citizenship Post #2

Growing up, I've always been aware of etiquette and how to act, how to treat people, in real life. Never before did I think that one's presence could be different from real life to cyberspace and the concept is, admittedly, a bit mind-blowing. There's something about being online that makes it easy to suddenly be something - someone - else and never having anyone find out. That being said, online beings can be widely different and because of it, the etiquette and interactions online can suddenly change. In person interactions can be difficult, with tone of voice and facial expressions creating a line between sarcasm, jest, or seriousness but online, those qualities are lacking. In turn, this could make online social interactions even harder.

Now, upon hearing the term "digital etiquette" the first thing that came to mind was formality. Etiquette? Digital etiquette? Should I be sipping tea and wear a monocle when browsing Pinterest? So, maybe that formal. Instead of being formal, I figured that digital etiquette merely refers to the behavior one should show even online. In other words, digital etiquette could be considered a set of rules that makes the Internet a better place for others and for yourself. I feel as though this post will go hand-in-hand with the previous blog post; while I wrote a lot of helping students to avoid the dangers of being online, it's important to also mention how not to act online. I'm an incredibly firm believer in "honesty is the best policy" (I'm a terrible liar with a guilty conscious) and that still holds true when it comes to how people act online. I don't mean posting flattering selfies that look nothing like you, of course, but instead, being honest of who you are. Don't try to convince someone that you go to Harvard and that you already have a position locked at NASA. Just be honest because it could - and probably will - bite you in the rear.

On a similar note as digital etiquette, I think of responsibility and when I think about responsibility I cry
I think of holding myself accountable for my actions. I feel like a lot of people struggle with this in real life and don't hesitate to point fingers or to attempt to put the blame on someone else. That being said, I think that it's important to just be honest and hold yourself accountable should anything go wrong. Not that it should, because if someone was being honest, it really shouldn't go awry...food for thought.

Global Digital Citizen Post #1

As someone who is relatively active in the e-world, it's hard to not notice the safety and ethical issues that seem to come with using the Internet. There's a multitude of issues out there, from cyberbullying to Internet piracy, and with the digital world constantly expanding, there are more watchful eyes monitoring cyberspace activity. Growing up, I always thought of the World Wide Web as a tool for connecting, for networking, and in a lot of cases, to just learn more. Some people, on the other hand, use it as a weapon and because of those users, the Internet is considered dangerous by many. I suppose that's understandable, as anyone can find anything on the web if they know what they're looking for, and that's the scary part about it, I think. The exposure.

Knowing this, it's important to keep in mind that there's definitely an unsafe side to digital information and technology and that it's important to teach children how to utilize these tools safely, especially as future educators. Generally speaking, I'd say that the phrase, "Treat others the way you'd like to be treated," could absolutely be carried over from real life to e-life. You wouldn't want something to torment you, so don't do it online. Taking what isn't yours without permission is just as bad online as it is in real life. The biggest thing, in my opinion, is stranger danger; we hear a lot about talking to strangers in real life but the problem is even larger online. With the ability to create new identities, hide old ones or even be a completely different person, the mask of online anonymity allows anyone - strangers - to be anyone else. Several years ago, I watched a film on this topic and while it's not a documentary, I still think that it demonstrates a rather realistic scenario in regards to online predators. For anyone interested, here's the trailer.

There are several films along the same lines as Trust, though some of them expand into other territories, like online bullying. In 2010, a documentary called Catfish was released to document Nev Schulman's journey to meet who he thought was the ideal girl - one that he had met online. Since then, Schulman's documentary influenced the creation of a spin-off television show of the same name to document the journeys of people and those people meeting their online friends in real life. Spoiler alert: it nearly always goes wrong.

As a classroom teacher, it's not only important to model how to use digital media and how to avoid unsafe situations but also to teach children to not be on the other side of it, to not initiate inappropriate online behavior. I've always said that I wanted to teach younger students because they're rather influential when they're so young and because of that, I like the idea of inspiring kids. That being said, it's important to utilize digital media and technology safely and while bad online experiences won't happen in my classroom, it's still important to teach students what is bad and why, as it should be with anything, really. It's hard to avoid the issues and regulations that come with online activity, but that doesn't mean that we still shouldn't model appropriate behavior. If anything, it's initiative to stress the importance of distinguishing what is right and what is wrong, especially online.