Ryan Kaslavage

Digital Citzenship Activity

Dr. Kenton

7/5/22

1. Of the nine digital citizenship topics presented which do your students struggle with?
Which are they strong in?

 Digital Access is when and how students can access technology. This is a
strength that the majority of my students have as we are a one-to-one school.
The issues that arise is having internet at home, however our district has a way
to apply for free internet access for the student.

 Digital Commerce is meant as a way to buy and sell items online. While I know
my students understand how to purchase items online, I am unaware of them
selling items online. Being that my students are teenagers I believe this may be
more of a weakness for most of them, then a strength. Mainly because they
would just be learning about this side of the digital world and just learning
about the true value of money.

 Digital Communication and Collaboration is the way students will discuss

thoughts and ideas with their peers. This is one of my students’ strengths as
they know a multitude of ways to communicate with the digital world and
within themselves. In high school all but some teenagers have phones, so their
biggest way of communication is texting and social media. We also have
educational options for assignments like Google Workspace. In this matter the
biggest concern is are they communicating appropriately and using the tools for
their intended purposes.

 Digital Etiquette is taking others into consideration when using digital devices.
This is a major weakness within my students. While digital etiquette is practiced
and discussed among the whole school students still struggle with this topic.
Most students either do not care or do not see how they are affecting others in
the digital world. A lot of times some students will play games on their devices
or text each other when they are meant to be using their devices for learning.

 Digital Fluency is all about making the right choices online and knowing the
truth that is presented on it. While again this is practice it is still a weakness in
my students do to them just being exposed to this new information and
 technology they may have not seen as younger students. While some are really
good at this, others believe everything they read or hear online.

 Digital Health and Welfare is knowing the appropriate amount of time used with
technology and how it is used during that time. In my classroom I believe there
to be a healthy mix of how often technology is used in my classroom. However,
when students are given free time, most of it is spent on their phones instead of
being a kid and talking and playing with their classmates. Most of this time they
are on social media watching videos or playing video games.

 Digital Law is the rules and policies of the online world. My district has a very
thorough policy on digital law and how it should be used. I would say this is one
of the strengths for most of my students. They know the rules of being in the
online world and follow the majority of digital law.

 Digital Rights and Responsibility is helping others and alerting someone when
there is a problem in the digital world. This is a big strength of my students as
while they do try to fix the problems on their own when they can, they alert me
or another teacher of an issue. They also will help each other in learning new
technology when it is presented to them and another student is struggling.

 Digital Security and Privacy is taking caution against viruses and other problems
that can harm us or technology. This is also a strength for my students provided
by the district. The majority of sites are blocked on school devices that can
cause harm to student devices along with anti-viruses installed on the laptops.
My students are also aware of websites that can cause issues and have been
informed of what phishing emails may look like.

2. Based upon your role as an educator, in what ways might you engage different
stakeholders in digital citizenship (S3). 

Stakeholders themselves have to be aware of digital citizenship themselves and how it

will help our students as a whole. The best way to do this is by reviewing what is in place
for the students to protect them and make sure that the students are getting the most
in their education. I would address how the nine citizenship tools are used within this
school system and how they protect the students and foster better learning. I would
also show the stakeholders different activities that are being used to foster digital
citizenship and the protections that come with it.
 The assumption is that all stakeholders want safety for their students and that is exactly
what digital citizenship helps with. If we were to look at this outside the high school
level and look at every grade level I would reference the stakeholders to the progression
chart for digital citizenship. By the time a student is ready for high school or beyond,
students need to be taught and shown how to be safe, savvy, and social in digital
citizenship and that starts at the youngest level of learning. As students move onto the
next level, they would also review the previous year’s digital citizenship progression and
new progressions would be incorporated. Within all this I would also make sure the
stakeholders have access to all the available resources and policies that the district has
on digital citizenship for their students, along with the definitions and how it is enacted.

Review one of the lessons presented through the common sense curriculum, adult

training or any lesson on digital citizenship and reflect on the following questions: 

1. Share a synopsis of the lesson you chose to review (you may need to create an
account to see a lesson plan).

The lesson I chose is for 9th grade, My Digital Life Is Like… What is the role of digital
media in our lives? It is a 45-minute lesson with the following learning objectives:
Explore the role that digital media plays in their lives, Use the Digital Habits Checkup to
reflect on the positive and negative impacts of digital media, and Create a personal
challenge to improve their digital well-being. It is broken down into four sections:
Consider, Explore, Create, and Act. All these sections are completed on a three-part
worksheet provided by the teacher. There are also take-home resources provided for
students at the end.

In the consider section students are to read “A Challenge” by Shayne Williams from the
book True Connections. It is a brief story about a young child taking a break from his
phone and realizing the things he is missing out on when he is playing on his phone.
From here students share their thoughts on the story and asked to discuss media
balance.

In the explore section students are asked to reflect on how much they use digital media
and what is positive and negative about their use. They use the Digital Habits Check up
as a thinking routine to identify their media usage habits and then share these with their
peers.

In the create section students create similes from their digital life habits. The goal is for
them to compare all their digital usage habits to what can be done in their lives and how
it all plays a role.

The last section is act, here students are asked to reflect on their habits of digital media
habits and challenged to change one of their habits. If they feel they cannot complete
the challenge, they are asked to explain why they can’t.

2. Note which of the 9 elements you believe this lesson meets.

 Of the nine elements I believe this lesson meets the following: Element 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and
8. Within this lesson students are to explore how they use their media devices, thus
showing them how they act in the digital world. The lesson meets digital communication
and collaboration because one of the main uses a student should see is the ways they
are communicating with others online, this also falls for digital etiquette in how they
may be acting when communicating with their peers online.

This lesson also shows students what their digital fluency looks like, do they make the
right decisions online. It has them also evaluate how they are using their media usage
and if they know right from wrong on the web. I believe the biggest element this lesson
will touch on is the health and welfare and showing students how much they are in the
digital world. Being that students must look at all the ways they use their devices, what
they use them for, and think about how it is affecting their outside life.

This lesson also touches on digital law along with rights and responsibilities. I believe
this lesson only scrapes the surface of these two elements due to students would really
have to investigate their digital usage other then just reviewing what they have done
with technology. Students would have to look what they are publishing and look into
have they really helped others or just helped themselves.

3. What do you see as the lesson's strengths and weaknesses;

I think the biggest strength of this lesson is showing students their own habits with their
media usage and how it can be affecting their life. Since students put so much of their
time in their phones, they tend to miss out on a lot that is going on around them,
including their own education. The lesson starts off with a short story about what the
young kid misses by being on their phone all the time. Being that this lesson is meant to
teach digital citizenship, it does a very nice job of showing students how much they use
their devices.

A weakness of this lesson may be the students who can’t identify their usage or may see
little usages even if they are on their devices constantly. Students may also not see any
issues with their media usage even if there is a problem with how often they are using it.
The lesson does provide prompting and examples to help jump start students, however
students still struggle with describing what they do and why, even at the high school
level.

Overall, if the students follow through this lesson, it does a great job of showing them
the importance of media life balance and what truly may be important to them.

4. How might the lesson work in your instructional setting (or hypothetical class)

Considering I teach high school math and students do not usually see the relevance of
the subject in their real life this lesson may help them to better their media habits in the
use of mathematics. From here I can assist them in learning how to complete
mathematical concepts with the technology provided to them. This lesson may also
provide students with the understanding that if they are misusing their media they will
miss important details of the lesson that they need to pass the class. This lesson is more
 to show them what is happening around them, then actually being used within a lesson
itself. My students tend to struggle with math because math can be a challenge to many
of them, so students will turn to their technology. If I use this lesson, they may start to
either turn their technology off during the lesson or use it their advantage to help them.

5. What changes would you make to address the issues you present.

The issues in this lesson I see are students not being able to recognize their habits. For
this I can put students into small groups for this portion of the lesson and allow students
to discuss their habits together instead of after they already think of their habits. This
may help brainstorm students who cannot see their own habits. Also to help students
realize their habits and what they are missing around them, I would have an optional
practice of them not using their phone during the school day or at least keep a log on
when they use their phone and why.

6. What technology might you integrate into this lesson to make it stronger and more
impactful to your learners?

I think the technology that I might integrate into this lesson is a video of a kid on his
phone missing interesting things happening to them that they don’t notice due to their
phone. I believe the short story shows some ideas to what happens when you are on
your phone all the time but it may not get the point across to the visual learners or
some in general that do not interpret the essay they way it is intended. I may also find a
digital guess who game to incorporate digital etiquette even more and to teach them
the possible dangers of being online all the time. This game would only be played among
the students in the classroom and monitored by me.

Here is the link to the lesson plan I reviewed: Click Here

 Resources

DC Progression Chart. Digital Citizenship. (n.d.). Retrieved July 2, 2022, from

https://www.digitalcitizenship.net/dc-progression-chart.html

My Digital Life is like ... Common Sense Education. (2021, September 9). Retrieved July 2, 2022, from
https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship/lesson/my-digital-life-is-like

Nine elements. Digital Citizenship. (n.d.). Retrieved July 2, 2022, from

https://www.digitalcitizenship.net/nine-elements.html

YouTube. (2019, October 3). Digital Citizenship: A Community affair. YouTube. Retrieved July 2, 2022,
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF71q5x5Dn8