The Digital Citizenship Handbook for School Leaders: Fostering Positive Interactions Online

By Mike Ribble and Marty Park

Learn how to develop a meaningful approach to embedding digital citizenship into an established program, helping your students succeed in a digital world.

In today’s schools and districts, just saying “no” to bad technology practices is not enough. This leadership posture can take the form of extreme blocking and filtering of websites, providing little access to devices and declining to integrate digital tools and resources into learning out of fear of what else a student might do. Such a mindset can also lead to adults choosing not to engage -- or being unable to engage -- in conversations when students share stories about what a peer did online or through the latest app.

Digital citizenship curriculum needs to be taught at two levels at once -- horizontal (the world immediately around students) and vertical (connecting to the rest of the world). This book provides education leaders a strategic road map that demonstrates how to incorporate these concepts into the curriculum so that digital citizenship isn’t just “one more thing,” but is threaded into the DNA of how educators teach and work.

The book:

• Provides a five-year-plan for developing a digital citizenship program in your school.
• Covers such topics as digital ethics and leveled approaches to digital citizenship.
• Walks through the digital citizenship responsibilities and opportunities inherent in various roles, including library media specialists, classroom educators and special ed teachers.
• Offers strategies for spreading digital citizenship internationally and explores the future of digital citizenship.

The book offers school and district leaders a path toward a shared and collective understanding so that digital citizenship is embedded in the way students and educators interact with technology and each other. It is a guide for school communities to discover which practices, in the end, will lead to better people.

Audience: K-12 educators, education leaders

• Language: English
• Publisher: International Society for Technology in Education
• Release date: Jun 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781564847805

Mike Ribble

Mike Ribble has served as a classroom teacher, a secondary school administrator, a network manager, and a university instructor. His nine elements of digital citizenship have informed audiences around the world and inspired dialog around responsible technology use. Ribble has presented at national and international conferences and started the ISTE Digital Citizenship PLN. He offers resources for teaching digital citizenship on his website (digitalcitizenship.org).

Book preview

The Digital Citizenship Handbook for School Leaders

Fostering Positive Interactions Online

Mike Ribble and Marty Park

© 2019 International Society for Technology in Education

World rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system—without prior written permission from the publisher. Contact Permissions Editor: iste.org/about/permissions-and-reprints; [e-mail]; fax: [phone].

EDITOR: Emily Reed

COPY EDITOR: Barbara Hewick

PROOFREADER: Ann Skaugset

INDEXER: Kento Ikeda

BOOK DESIGN AND PRODUCTION: Danielle Foster

COVER DESIGN: Edwin Ouelette

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA AVAILABLE

FIRST EDITION

ISBN: 978-1-56484-782-9

Ebook version available.

Printed in the United States of America

ISTE® is a registered trademark of the International Society for Technology in Education

About ISTE

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is the premier nonprofit organization serving educators and education leaders committed to empowering connected learners in a connected world. ISTE serves more than 100,000 education stakeholders throughout the world.

ISTE’s innovative offerings include the ISTE Conference & Expo, one of the biggest, most comprehensive edtech events in the world—as well as the widely adopted ISTE Standards for learning, teaching and leading in the digital age and a robust suite of professional learning resources, including webinars, online courses, consulting services for schools and districts, books, and peer-reviewed journals and publications. Visit iste.org to learn more.

Also by Mike Ribble

Digital Citizenship in Schools, Third Edition: Nine Elements All Students Should Know (2015)

Related ISTE Titles

Digital Citizenship in Action: Empowering Students to Engage in Online Communities (2017) by Kristen Mattson

To see all books available from ISTE, please visit iste.org/books.

About the Authors

MIKE RIBBLE, ED.D., (@digcitizen) is the author of Digital Citizenship in Schools, now in its third edition. Ribble has served as a classroom teacher, a secondary school administrator, a network manager, and a university instructor. His nine elements of digital citizenship have informed audiences around the world and inspired dialogue around responsible technology use. He has presented at national and international conferences, and helped form the ISTE Digital Citizenship PLN. He offers resources for teaching digital citizenship on his website (digitalcitizenship.org).

MARTY PARK, ED.D., (@martypark) is the chief digital officer with the Kentucky Department of Education where he focuses on strategic implementations and experience design of emerging technologies for learning. He previously served as a regional education technology leader for the department and, prior to that, was the chief information officer and district technology coordinator for one of Kentucky’s largest school districts. Park also consults on federal and state programs and is a frequent speaker at international, national, and statewide events. He’s an adjunct professor at the University of Kentucky in Lexington and Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky, and an innovation fellow for the Digital Learning Design Lab.

CONTENTS

Foreword

PART I: THE BIG PICTURE

INTRODUCTION DIGITAL ETHICS AND CITIZENSHIP—THE SAME, JUST DIFFERENT

  Chapter 1 Just Citizenship? Why Do We Need the Digital?

  Chapter 2 The New Nine Elements and the S3 Framework

  Chapter 3 Planning Your Digital Citizenship Program

  Chapter 4 Digital Citizenship Policy Guide

PART II: DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP IN THE CLASSROOM

  Chapter 5 Creating Positive Connections: An Administrator’s Guide

  Chapter 6 Understanding the Concepts of Technology Use: An Educator’s Guide

  Chapter 7 Student Voice Is an Automatic Four-Chair Turn

  Chapter 8 Building a Solid Foundation of Technology Use (Elementary/Primary School)

  Chapter 9 Reinforcing Skills at the Middle-Level Grades

Chapter 10 Integrating the Ideas of Digital Citizenship at the Upper/High School Level

PART III: OUTSIDE OF K–12, THOUGHTS AND IDEAS

Chapter 11 Helping Parents in the Digital World

Chapter 12 Digital Citizenship in Teacher and Leader Preparation

Chapter 13 Beyond the Educational Community: Digital Citizenship in Business and Professional Life

Chapter 14 Spreading Digital Citizenship Internationally

Chapter 15 What’s Next for Digital Citizenship?

Appendix A Needs Assessment

Appendix B Family Contract for Digital Citizenship

References

Index

FOREWORD

Digital Citizenship: Lighting the Path into an Uncertain Future

Recently, humanity crossed a line. On October 25, 2018, Christie’s Auction House, which has served as a mainstay of the auctioning world ever since it was founded in 1766, sold a piece of artwork for $432,500. There is nothing remarkable here except for the fact that the painting was created by artificial intelligence (AI). Artists have been toying with AI art for decades, but this sale seemed to legitimize it in a big way by bypassing the primary art market and going directly to Christie’s and then grab(bing) a shocking price (Elgammal, 2018).

We will have to wait for historical hindsight to determine whether it fetched such a high price because of the media hype campaign that accompanied it, or because it actually has real value as artwork. And we need to be cognizant of the fact that human artists, like the Wizard of Oz, were behind the curtain with their hands on the levers, directing how AI’s creation would play out. Regardless, the point not to be missed here is this: AI can now create respectable artwork. Since the dawn of the digital age, we have lulled ourselves into believing there were at least a few areas of human enterprise that would always distinguish us from our machines. The ability to create fine art is—or, perhaps, was—one of them.

At least humans can still claim superiority over machines in the realm of emotional communication, right? Not so fast, says Kia. The car maker is working with MIT to develop READ (Real-time Emotion Adaptive Driving) to analyze and modify our emotional state through bio-signal recognition technology and AI. Why is it important that our cars make us feel better? Because, as the theory goes, in the future we will be spending our time cooped up in self-driving cars, and who knows how anxious or lonely we might become if we no longer have to focus on the act of driving. That’s why Kia doesn’t just want your car to get you places. It wants your car to be your friend.

One might argue that AI will never replace intense, human interpersonal relationships, like those we establish with our therapists. Woebot has proven effective in using cognitive behavioral therapy techniques with clients. As a bot (vs. a human), Woebot offers some advantages: it is available 24/7, even in the middle of the night when panic might strike and help can’t be reached; it can communicate endlessly without tiring.

Imagine where technologies like these will be in a decade. After all, it’s only 2019, and the future is just getting started. We live in the shadow of the Kurzweil Innovation Curve, where change is inevitable, inexorable, and at least exponential. We are left to address the question at the heart of the modern human condition: How do we steer the roller coaster of innovation that seems to have no braking system and surprises us at every turn? The answer, digital citizenship.

Digital citizenship is usually defined as something like the responsible, safe and ethical use of technology, particularly in an online environment. Unfortunately, the result of letting a definition like this guide us is that we have too often associated digital citizenship with not doing bad things, rather than engaging in positive behaviors. Fortunately, Mike Ribble and Marty Park have written a book that counteracts that trend. Based on the belief that digital citizenship requires a new kind of leadership to help establish digital citizenship as a positive, reflective force in the lives of our children, they provide theoretical and practical guidance for navigating the future. As the authors point out, Expanding the human side of technology is vital. Leaders will need to know how to manage the human, ethical dimensions of modern life that seem to shapeshift every time a groundbreaking technology appears. Leaders will also need to know how to include digital citizenship not as an add-on curricular area, but as part of a foundational approach to a K–12 education.

In an age of genetic engineering, implants, and fake news, reflecting on the technology they use could well be a survival skill for students. The power and reach of new technologies are simply too great to absorb without questioning their implicit and explicit ethics and impacts. Digital citizenship provides the framework for our questioning. It also can provide a framework for our positive inspiration, a theme that Ribble and Park focus on as a way to remind us that the way forward is to use technology consciously to improve the human community.

Digital citizenship is the new character education, not replacing but rather adding to our approach to character that began long before computers had arrived. Should we have one approach to character education or citizenship and drop the digital? Yes, as soon as more traditional approaches include digital considerations in a clear and comprehensive way. Until then, we need to shine a bright light on the digital aspects of character and ethical behavior in order to guide our efforts in the realm of citizenship. The Digital Citizenship Handbook for School Leaders: Fostering Positive Interactions Online illuminates the path in this regard and provides a great deal of practical guidance in the process. Although it is written for leaders, it is for everyone—teachers, students, administrators, parents, and community members. Because when it comes to digital citizenship, everyone needs to lead.

Jason Ohler

Professor Emeritus, University of Alaska

Author, Digital Community, Digital Citizen and Four Big Ideas for the Future

PART I

The Big Picture

About This Book and How to Use It

This book is written for leaders who want to help their students, staff, and community develop digital superpowers to supercharge learning experiences. It is written as a call to action for leaders to use all available energy to find the best path so that, in order for digital superpowers to truly shine, all gain experience in using them—while also learning the responsibilities and pitfalls (whether accidental or intentional) that can go along with them.

As you may have noticed by now, this handbook may in fact take two hands to carry around. (Perhaps we should have called it a handsbook.) It is jam-packed with full, systemic, sustainable, and scalable implementation models. However, this book was not designed or written to be read from cover to cover, start to finish. This is a modular handbook. We have designed the content to be read and referenced just in time when needed by the right leader. The chapters and sections should be personalized to get the right content to the right person, at just the right time. FIGURE 0.1 demonstrates how each leader could choose to focus on the chapters in a modular fashion.

We hope you do not feel that you got tricked into thinking your digital citizenship roadmap could be firmly tucked away between the thumb and forefinger of your singular right or left hand—like a fourth-grade composition notebook. Know that many years of experience and action research has gone into helping guide you to what we believe is a customized digital citizenship roadmap for your school. By investing time and energy into the depth of content in this handbook, our hope is that it will help you pick and choose what will work best for your students, while also helping you eliminate wasted efforts on strategies that will not work for you. This handbook should get you on the quickest route to your digital citizenship destination, where your destination is a proven comprehensive learning and growth journey, not a defined point with a set arrival time and calculated miles to travel.

FIGURE 0.1 Handbook chapters and audiences.

#DigCit Community

This handbook introduces numerous resources. Many are from school district collaborators, many are from the global DigCit tribe, and many are custom resources designed for this book. To make it easier for you to get to the online resources, many of the hyperlinks are shortened with a customized URL, digcit.life. Be on the lookout for these customized hyperlinks created just for you. These resources will encourage you to further develop your life-long DigCit experience and connect you with new DigCit community members. Our hope is that, while reading, you interact and participate with the content and with the community, and we also hope that you take the opportunity to help lead others toward an awesome DigCit.Life journey.

INTRODUCTION:

DIGITAL ETHICS AND CITIZENSHIP—THE SAME, JUST DIFFERENT

A leader’s job is not to do the work for others, it’s to help others figure out how to do it themselves, to get things done, and to succeed beyond what they thought possible.

—SIMON SINEK, AUTHOR OF START WITH WHY:

HOW GREAT LEADERS INSPIRE EVERYONE TO TAKE ACTION

Establishing the Why

Schools and districts have come to the realization that just saying No to bad technology practices rarely solves the issue of poor online use and is definitely not helping to prepare students. The No leadership posture can be identified easily by extreme blocking and filtering of websites, little access to devices, and reluctance to integrate digital tools and resources into learning out of fears of what else a student might do. Also saying No is a culture of adults who choose not to engage (or are unable to engage) in conversations when students share a story about what a peer did online or through the latest app. The ideals of digital citizenship have not changed but the issues have become more expansive, more serious, and far-reaching. Students are creating a digital footprint of the data that accumulates around their online lives. Some refer to this data as a digital tattoo, a term that speaks more to the permanent nature of this information, as well as to the conscious decision to share it, a decision they may not be proud of in the future. How do leaders change this so that students and others can point to what they have done in the digital space, showcase what they have published, and invite others to see?

The concern for educators and parents alike is the seeming disconnect between what students are doing with the technology and what they are doing in their schools and homes. The idea of anonymity and separation from others is causing students to act in a way that they would not want their parents to see. Technology has become so personal that much of student activity can be done from a smartphone or tablet (and not from a desktop or laptop). How are educators and parents going to teach their students that they might be making mistakes today that will follow them for the rest of their lives? Even after 15 years of technology knowledge and understanding, there is not a clear path to help technology users follow. Now is the time to remedy that situation.

No matter what segment of society you belong to, technology is defining you and evaluating what you do and where you go. The decisions you make today will define you in the future. As a powerful example, institutions of higher education are scanning and taking inventory of the digital footprints or tattoos of many potential student candidates in order to make decisions about the people they have never met. Businesses are looking at the digital remnants left behind by applicants to determine if they will be a good employee, even before the interview. Too often, even the briefest of comments shared through social media show that these applicants may end up sharing information or representing themselves in a less than positive way—why should a company take that chance? Even potential teachers are being encouraged to take down (or at least scrutinize) their social networking sites before they start their student teaching experience. Some may consider this to be an infringement of an individual’s rights, but many schools and colleges of education see it as a means to protect their students’ reputations (and future employment opportunities). On the opposite end of the digital social spectrum, some businesses may not want to hire someone without an online digital presence or established personal brand in the digital sphere.

Today, it is not if you will be part of the digitally connected mainstream, it is when. The real question is who will assist in providing direction to display your best self for all to see. Many educators are asking the question, How do we deal with these issues, and how do we help our students?

The focus of this handbook and the support that can rise from it is on how schools and districts can develop a meaningful approach to embedding a curriculum that infuses technology into an established curriculum. The concept would be similar to the teaching of civic understanding that many schools use today to explain how and where students fit into their society; it will begin with those around them and build outward. However, digital citizenship poses a more difficult problem because—unlike civics, which offers the organization of cities, states, and countries—in the digital realm, every child can begin with access to the entire world. A curriculum of digital citizenship needs to be taught at two levels at once—the horizontal (the world immediately around them) and the vertical (their connection to the rest of the world). These will not be easy concepts to master, especially in a synchronous practice, but they need to be taught to prepare students to work and compete in a digital world. These concepts will also need to be taught to young students so they can begin the process before they learn inappropriate habits.

Let us begin with the end in mind. Too often when discussing or planning for digital citizenship, we are not sure what we want to end up with or what adjustments might be needed in the classroom. In the end, the goal is that our children or students should be good digital citizens. Defining good and having that as an endpoint can be difficult, especially if we have not defined what is meant by being good in the digital space. The question must be answered: what should be expected from a digital citizenship (digital safety, digital health, etc.) program? What can be agreed upon? One, technology has changed us; for good, bad, or indifferent, all users have been changed. The rapidly changing nature of technology is now an expectation; it is the new norm. Too often it is assumed that everyone has equitable access to tools and connectivity—which is false (and must be realized before embarking on a technology program). Second, to be good at something takes time. If you want to be a good writer or painter, you must write or paint. The full understanding of technology, beyond intuitive aspects, takes time and effort. In other words, there are often far-reaching implications (both intended and unintended) that are uncovered by the adoption of new digital experiences. Third, new technology gives children and young adults an advantage. The tools today have been created to be intuitive or at least understandable if you are willing to play, making them easier for kids to figure out, as they are willing to try and perhaps fail. The issue becomes, what are the consequences of these failures? Also, adults generally do not have the time or willingness to explore and may consider technology one more thing that they have to learn, especially when there are compounding gaps between perceived and realized advantages. There is also the inherent fear of what might go wrong.

This is our hope when focusing on digital citizenship: to provide a path to shared and collective understanding. Will everyone be a computer coder? No, and it is not necessary. Will every citizen, every technology user, be an expert in all areas? No, and we do not need that either. However, expanding the human side of technology is vital.

The goal of this handbook is to provide leaders in schools and districts a strategic roadmap that points to new possibilities of where they might arrive in the end. Our hope is to provide readers an experience and understanding of the topics so that digital citizenship is not just one more thing but is threaded into the nature of how to accomplish the goals today. Every district and school is as different as every student is different. Therefore, this handbook is not prescriptive in nature but a guide for school and district leaders, members of the staff, parents, and even members of the community to what practices, in the end, will lead to better people.

Who Are Today’s School Leaders? Yes, This Handbook Is for You

Picture the first person who pops into your mind when we say school leader. Most people immediately picture the school principal or possibly an assistant principal. That is certainly a good start. However, what about that teacher who is completely in charge of the largest classroom in your building? You know, that one teacher who sees every student, every week. If you pictured your library media specialist or teacher librarian, then we are starting to heat up. Great principals are very clear about the value of developing a leadership team in great schools (Johnson, Chrispeels, Basom, & Pumpian, 2008). A team full of smart and hardworking teachers who can work with others. A team with students who have a voice. A team with parents and other staff members who are engaged with students every day. You are a school leader. You have a voice. Your school needs you to lead others in the understanding and positive use of connected digital experiences. Your school needs you to take a personal pledge to get engaged with digital citizenship skills and the associated issues because your students leave the four walls of your school every evening, every weekend, and every summer. Digital citizenship skills need to go with them and be on call when (not if) needed.

If you are a current or aspiring school principal reading this book, that is awesome! First and foremost, thank you! There are many great school reform books you could be reading, and you are choosing to invest in your school’s digital culture. Let us be clear and get straight to the point: you will want to quickly start designing sustainable structures and strategies for when you are no longer at the helm of the ship. Most principals are in the same school for only four years (Taie & Goldring, 2017). You will either transition to another school as a principal or step into a districtwide leadership role as a superintendent, possibly as the director of curriculum and instruction. Establishing a meaningful digital citizenship program is one of the best future-proofing gifts you could give your students and your school.

Education Issues and Digital Citizenship

Parents and schools need to provide a consistent message to our children and use common, shared language. Granted that there may be different rules between home and school digital use, but the concept needs to be the same that all users must be aware and responsible for their technology use. Students, teachers, school and district leaders, parents, and community leaders need to use the same language and terminology and be able to engage in meaningful dialogue. Just as schools are pushing to work with parents, parents need to find new ways to work with schools and see how this message is being shared with their children. If there is not a plan in place, parents should feel compelled to ask that a program be provided so that all children are prepared to enter a digital society (see Chapter 4 for more detail on who our students are listening to when it comes to digital experiences). There are certainly barriers that technology can unintentionally produce, but it can also remove those barriers; technology has no bias, only what those using the tools bring with them.

What Is Digital Citizenship?

Since the early 2000s when the term digital citizenship was being introduced on a large scale, users have identified with various aspects. Many have focused the idea of digital citizenship to a single idea, such as safety, etiquette, or communication; or a single issue, such as cyberbullying or sexting. However, as the digital citizenship community has grown and matured, so has the need for a modern definition.

In our schools, digital citizenship reflects our quest as a community to help students—as well as adults—understand the changes that technology has created and decide what is helpful verses what distracts us. This is worth repeating and emphasizing: digital citizenship skills should focus on the point of action in deciding what is helpful and what is not helpful. In a 2017 survey conducted by the Digital Citizenship Institute, when asked to define digital citizenship, respondents most frequently used the words responsible, safe, respect, appropriate, and ethical. Additional terms used in common definitions of digital citizenship are: digital identity, positive, legal, social interactions, and rights and obligations of using and sharing. These are the skills and ideas that we want to share with our students, as well as all technology users.

Here are a few definitions of how others see digital citizenship:

• Digital citizenship is the ability to participate safely, intelligently, productively, and responsibly in the digital world. (digcitutah.com)

• Digital citizenship includes the norms of appropriate, responsible, and healthy behavior related to current technology use, including digital and media literacy, ethics, etiquette, and security. The term also includes the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, develop, produce, and interpret media, as well as internet safety and cyberbullying prevention and response. (Washington State’s law)

• Digital Citizen: a person who develops the skills and knowledge to effectively