CHARACTER TRAITS ASSOCIATED WITH AN EXEMPLARY DIGITAL CITIZEN
- Digital Literacy
- According to ISTE, Digital Literacy is being able to use technologies effectively and being able to discover, analyze, create and communicate information using digital tools and resources.
- Students should know how to evaluate the reliability and validity of online sources
- Students should be able to communicate effectively with peers, and instructors
- Students should be able to analyze information they've found
- Students should be able to create and demonstrate their creativity through an array of digital tools and resources
- Beverly Amer of Northern Arizona explains it best!
- Not only will digital literacy traits help foster a positive learning experience for an online student, it will also help the student to be college and career ready in our ever advancing technology based society
- Responsibility
- Responsibility is an age-old character trait; "the state or act of being accountable for something within one's power, control, or management" (Dictionary.com, 2018)
- In a digital environment students should always discover, access, investigate, post, create and synthesize responsibly.
- The internet can be dangerous at times and it is important for a student to possess responsibility to keep themselves safe as well as to not open any pathways to something that may harm them or others.
- While responsibility is often a trait learned at a young age and at home, it should also be taught in a school setting as well as a digital setting. Students should be aware of their consequences in a digital environment.
- What am I posting?
- Who can see it?
- Where will it go? How far will it reach?
- Can I get in trouble for this?
- Can I be traced and tracked by this information?
- Should I post my personal identifying information?
- Do I personally know this person I am communicating with?
- Is this a safe forum?
- Integrity
- Integrity is "the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness" (Dictionary.com, 2018).
- Integrity in sum is doing what's right. As a good digital citizen, integrity most comes into play in the realm of originality and giving credit when it's due.
- Having integrity ensures students do not use copyrighted material, plagiarize others' work and provides the appropriate credit to the appropriate individual.
- In my opinion, integrity is even more important when using digital tools. It is so easy to just copy and paste, but a student with integrity will have the proper moral compass to not just copy and paste.
The three character traits I have chosen are worthy of recognizing and emulating because our digital world is rapidly growing and at times surpasses what some of us are capable of handling at once. Any person, a student or not, that possesses these traits would be able to be successful in the ever expanding digital world as well as the real world. When people do what's right, they have integrity, they have responsibility and possess digital literacy skills, they will be successful in whatever endeavor they embark on. They will be able to navigate the digital world as well as prove to be an upstanding citizen in both the real and digital worlds.
