(4) CREATE AND MAINTAIN SUPPORTIVE AND SAFE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
AITSL Standard 4.5 - Use ICT Safely, Responsibly and Ethically
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Digital Citizenship
Digital Citizenship (DC) is a concept that encompasses how we conduct ourselves online. Therefore, it involves many facets of online interaction including:
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Using the internet to gather information
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Interacting with other users through different mediums
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Creating and sharing content
A post by MacMeekin (2013) on DC shows the different ways in which we can act as good digital citizens.
From this post, it is evident that DC requires teachers and students to conduct themselves ethically online. Therefore, as educators, it is important to teach students about how to be good digital citizens and to be aware of the consequences of their online actions.
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Digital footprint
Our digital footprint is the idea that your online image is shaped by the actions of yourself as well as other people. This idea is highlighted in the quote by Eric Sheninger (2017) – a senior at the International Centre for Leadership in Education:
“Your digital footprint paints a portrait of who you are as an educator, leader, school, or district. Make sure it conveys your true values and work.”
Therefore, it is important for students to learn about cyberbullying as well as the lasting consequences of their interactions on social media. In my first practice, I took my Year 8 students to the library where they listened to a guest speaker talk about cyberbullying. Students learned about the consequences of sharing inappropriate photos and how bystanders are not completely innocent. This reinforced the idea of being responsible when sharing things online.
Source: MacMeekin, M (2013). "Digital Citizenship: An Ethical Island" Retrieved from https://anethicalisland.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/digital-citizenship/
How to properly cite resources
In order for students to become good digital citizens, they need to understand the importance of ethical use. Therefore, I made sure that students understood the proper way to reference different sources. My Year 8 students were also required to include a reference list at the end of their presentations. To help my students, I provided suggestions for finding copyright-free images including sites such as Pixabay and Gratisography. I also showed students how to find copyright-free images using google image search:
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Screenshot of Google images "Respiratory system" with modified search settings - taken by Peter Lam (2019)
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Using ICT safely
When working digitally, it is important that students are using ICT safely. This includes accessing the appropriate sources and working in a safe online environment. On my first practice, my Year 8 class was required to research information and submit their findings in a program called OneNote. This is a powerful program that allows students to share their work in a closely monitored environment. This was ideal for group work as they were only able to access their own group’s notebook. It was also set up so that only teachers with permission could access each group’s notebook. This allowed the task to have the right amount of safety and accountability.
Another way in which I improved the safety of ICT was during my second practice where I enabled a setting called “Filter Profanity” on the Padlet application (see standard 1.2). Students were also asked to include their name in the post to ensure that the students felt safe and accountable. This worked well since all posts were sensible and appropriate.
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Screenshot of personal OneNote - taken by Peter Lam (2019)
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Screenshot of "Modify" taken by Peter Lam (2019) using Padlet