Journal 4

Villano, M (2008).Text unto others... as you would have them text unto you. The Journal. Sept, 1-7.

Good digital citizenship is necessary as technology becomes more and more prevalent in our lives. Schools are now realizing the importance of this issue and the need to add it in to the student's curriculum. The rules of what makes a good citizen are the same rules that apply to being a good digital citizen; we need to obey the law, respect one another and act responsibly. All of this takes time and lots of learning on the part of the educators, students and parents. There are many issues to be discussed under this topic, such as etiquette, appropriate use of social networking, cyberbullying, building safe communities, managing personal information, illegal downloading and piracy, health and access to all students. I like how the UK views learning about good digital citizenship; it's about growth and shaping your world in a positive way com.

Questions:

How do you protect your identity? There are several ways but I believe the number one way is by educating yourself and being informed. It's important to research what is out there especially in an arena that is constantly changing. Another way is to not fill out any personal information unless the site is secure. If you are on a public forum such as a yahoo group you also do not want to post personal information. It's good to have a variety of passwords and to change them frequently. One can also set up some form of emailing blocking so that so your email can't get through to a sender unless they have accepted you.

What are good digital communication options? When you want to create a social network for the classroom a good way to go is with a network that allows the teacher to manage a private site for the class such as Ning or Penguin. Another one I learned about this past week are Wikis and my favorite so far for small group collaboration is google documents.