In my work as adult ed instructor, I dedicate on class to teaching about email etiquette, recognizing phishing emails and keeping data private when using public equipment. Beyond that one class, I try to incorporate reminders and hints throughout the course. I stress that emails written to me, whether corresponding about missing a class or asking for help, and emails in response to turning in class assignments need to be written in a professional manner. In my work as a district technician, I try to help students that I interact with understand the importance of their digital footprint and technology use. We have systems that help us monitor student laptops for the presence of apps and extensions that are prohibited (primarily VPN software that allows them to bypass network filters) and whenever we are notified that a student has violated those restrictions I always have a frank conversation with them about the dangers of using that type of software, not just from a disciplinary standpoint, but from a personal data security standpoint.
There is some effort to teach digital citizenship to students in the district. I am not really very familiar with what extent it is taught. There is a mandatory assembly/class that incoming middle school students attend and all 7th grade parents are required to attend and “laptop safety night” where they see presentations from our tech department as well as local law enforcement officials who discuss many of the dangers. The parents are required to attend this meeting or watch a recording of it before their child can take their laptop home. After those meetings, I think the middle school teachers do a good job of trying to teach the kids to have respect for the device and to understand that their online activity can have consequences. At the high school level, I think these discussions are much less frequent.
Digital citizenship and digital etiquette are both extremely important today as so much of our daily lives take place online. Teaching these skills to students should be everyone’s job in education much the way it is everyone’s job to teach and model social skills, study habits, ethics and responsibility.
kevinsmastersprogram.code.blog 