Teach Good Digital Citizenship

                In order for your faculty to understand the true meaning of what a good digital citizen is you need to show them.  You should show them both the good and the bad of the internet.  How social chat rooms can both be useful or hurtful to teens.  Some teens find comfort in them being able to express themselves and others find themselves being ridiculed to no end.  The video “Growing up Online” was one that did show both sides of the story. 

                Bullying is a huge issue right now in school and cyber bullying is now a new type of bullying.  I would show a variety of videos that show the results of cyber bullying.  These reports are not pleasant but they are real.  They do show how the internet can be harmful to many.  If someone wanted to “tease” or “ridicule” a peer than all they need to do is post something online and it catches like wild fire and spreads all over.  Just a small post can ruin someone’s life.  I would show my faculty that the internet is very useful in a school setting but it needs to be monitored and any type of inappropriate use should be noted and brought to an administrator’s attention.  Just like so many argue that we need to change the way we teach due to the uprising of the internet and multimedia tools, I would not just lecture and say do this do that, I would show them how to promote good digital citizenship.  I would make it interactive for all members of my faculty or workshop.  Using videos would get the right message about digital citizenship across to the teachers.  I know that for a fact my school would be a much better place knowing that everyone from teachers to students would understand how to use the internet to better themselves not only as students or teachers but also as citizens to our community.