EDLD 5316- Final Course Reflection
Digital citizenship encompasses the rights and responsibilities of technology users.
This course has been incredibly enlightening for me personally. This past year, I realized that our school district was in desperate need for some sort of digital citizenship plan for implementation, but I was never able to really get anything going. After this course, I feel that I have the resources that I need to not only get others on board, but to also develop a solid program for the teachers and students at Whitehouse ISD.
Prior to this course, I felt that I had a basic understanding that digital citizenship was important to ensure that technology users are safe online, but now I see that it involves so much more. Ribble's Nine Elements have been incredibly helpful in this process for me.
I am most proud of my weekly posts to my ePortfolio and the website that I have built to be used for training my teachers. I plan to use this site in conjunction with my digital badges in order to allow teachers to get more involved in their own professional development.
My biggest challenge in this course was without a doubt changing my previous practices with regards to using images and videos. I am still learning, but I am taking the time to correctly provide attribution on the resources that I use from the internet in order to not infringe upon the rights of others. I know that it takes a bit more time, but I definitely feel that it is worth it.
My favorite part of this course was the wide variety of resources offered. I felt that each week, I was able to learn based on what I needed personally with regards to my prior knowledge and looking through the lens of my current role. I was able to take the information each week and apply it in such a way that I could use it in my district. I also loved that we were forced to add to our ePortfolios each week as part of the coursework. This honestly helped me to remember to add items to my website and also make my work more purposeful. I especially enjoyed the fact that the quizzes were available to check our own understanding, but that they were low-pressure in the sense that we were able to have multiple chances.
Biggest Course Takeaways
Digital Citizenship must be constantly embedded and modeled, not taught in isolation.
Our behaviors online follow us, but we can take steps to create positive digital footprints.
Copyright infringement and plagiarism are not the same thing. One is a legal issue while the other is an ethical problem.
Cyberbullying is a dangerous, worldwide epidemic that we must all take steps to work through together. If we don't open a dialogue with students about this topic, we are going to lose things that cannot be replaced.
Educators have a responsibility to address digital citizenship. If schools want to be successful, it will require a whole-group effort from all stakeholders to ensure that the program is embraced and successful.
