Global digital citizenship practices put focus on real-world problem solving. They're about getting students communicating globally in a way that enriches their community and the world. There's lots to think about when it comes to ensuring guidelines for safety and proper etiquette for our digital students in their tech-oriented lives. So, what's the best way to guide students towards excellent global digital citizenship practices?
Remember that it’s not always about technology, either. It's also about the processes we use in generating meaningful solutions, which is why we include the processes of the Essential Fluencies.
- Solution Fluency
- Information Fluency
- Creativity Fluency
- Media Fluency
- Collaboration Fluency
- Digital Citizenship
- personal responsibility
- global citizenship
- digital citizenship
- altruistic service
- environmental stewardship
The Path to Global Digital Citizenship Practices
One must imagine what true global digital citizenship practices look like through the eyes of the global digital citizen themselves. This is someone who is engaged fully in society and practices the Essential Fluencies to contribute positive effects at personal, local, and global levels.
To define the components of an awesome roadmap, we want to incorporate some of the most effective elements of modern teaching. These are:
- Project-based learning
- Flipped lessons
- Ongoing, ungraded, relevant formative assessment
- Teacher as "guide on the side"
- Student-directed learning
- Collaboration
- Differentiation
- Critical thinking
Tools to Help You Begin
The true components will be up to you and your community’s needs and readiness. However, the best place to start is with your curriculum. Amy Erin Borovoy has a great list of 12 videos which can serve as flipped content for digital citizenship. Assigning a video per week could serve as the material to discuss during regular class sessions, or short activities could stem from each video.
When the time is right, use a project-based learning unit to create an overarching project that solves a real-world problem. Use our Wabisabi App for this. It’s laid out in a way that allows you to think clearly toward your learning goals, adapting as you go and collaborating with others.
Some Suggestions
What are some real-world problems that can be solved through great global digital citizenship practices? What about having your class connect, communicate, and spread the word to students from other countries about cyber safety? What can we do to ensure that every child in our community is protected from unsafe Internet traps? Here are some other tips from Andrew Miller on Edutopia.
Beginning with a Single Step
The first step in a better roadmap is to know your topic. You’ll need a clear definition of digital citizenship and the broader Global Digital Citizenship. You’d also need to know what teaching techniques/models will best serve lifelong learning, be it the ones mentioned above or ones that you come up with on your own. The only guiding principle is that global digital citizenship is learned by doing.
Fortunately for you, "doing" is what your students and you do best.