RJ Stangherlin

Keystone Technology Integrator and STAR Discovery Educator

This site is for Mrs. Stangherlin's classes at Salisbury High School.

Digital Citizenship for Parents

How do parents keep up with the ever-changing technologies that their students take for granted as part of their daily life and use? Today’s ISTE webinar hosted by Mike Ribble, Ed.D., provides some answsers. Parents are a large area often left out of digital citizenship. Interestingly, digital students’ brains look much different than non-digital citizens, leaving parents in yet another quandry with understanding their children. Add to that new issues of digital citizenship in bridging the gap in technologies between parent and child. What are the issues that parents need to be aware of as they delve into the topic of DC. Ribble suggests that illegal use of downloads and hacking are found so easily on YouTube and elsewhere, so students have ubiquitous access. What is called into is not only internet etiquette but also cyber addictions. Social networking sites, not bad per se, post questionable user information. Cyberbullying enters home and school, research is complicated by what is real and what if fiction, and the list goes on and on.

Not all of the internet is bad; it becomes a question of guiding use. Nonetheless, PEW reports that students have issues with what they post as teen. They forget that what they post is their new digital footprint, and parents often are not in the social networking loop that they students use. To the good, students have access and have become creators of content, and many parents are in regular communication on and off-line with their students. Collaboration via blogs, wikis, and texting globally exist and students use them. So do teachers. But as we look at the digital future with students interacting with the whole world, as consumers and creators. And Web 2.0 are everywhere.

So, what is age-appropriate for owning a cell phone? Are parents aware of gaming systems that also become internet interaction? Do parents know if their children have a social network site? a digital footprint? What is the best method of communication in the digital age? Ribble’s questions cut to the heart of what is appropriate use and who is responsible to teach acceptable use. What is acceptable data? Wikipedia in one year has become certainly more respectable, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

What are some of the long-term issues we need to keep in mind? Is it about better hard/software? Is there a mindset about having the newest, coolest whatever. Do parents let students “keep up with the Joneses”? Can any form of communication become an addiction? Ribble cites gaming and shopping, but are these the only issues? What about cybercheating in gaming, shopping? And what impact does a bad digital footprint create? Will students be accepted into colleges, and will corporate America hire students with a questionable footprint? Getting students aware is an issue, but a tremendous opportunity for parents and teachers, I think, to collaborate.

Who is teaching our children about technology. The first line and first educators should be the parents. But how can you teach if you are not aware. School and educators are the next line, and according to Ribble, NCLB, state-mandated testing and district issues are prominent concerns and now we add the tech layer. So who gives students the educational awareness: mostly themselves and their friends and the world of the internet. If children take cues from us, the adults, then adults must make their use appropriate.

What we need is a common language of digital citizenship that can keep students, teachers, and parents connected in the same dialogue. Ribble’s suggestion is Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship that parents and teachers need to embrace. In short, the areas for discussion are expansive and the information overwhelms, so Ribble suggests the nine themes as a framework and common language to provide solutions.

In a Q/A session: Cell phones in school is definitely an issue, but as a tool it is invaluable. I asked the presenter: What do you suggest as a starting point for engaging parents and teachers in a collective dialogue about their students’ use of technology, their digital footprint.
RJ Stangherlin (Submitted question): How do we get them to know there is a common language? Where do we begin? Ribble suggests that parents begtin with Googling their students to find out what their footprint is.

I share my footprint through Retaggr and post it to my blogs and wiikis, so that students can see that I have a footprint and perhaps emulate it, learning by modeling. Educators have a responsibility to impress on students that what they post now is not gone forever when it is deleted.

How we get to digital citizenship, according to Ribble, is through conversation, with parents discussing with their children. They also need to be aware of what technologies they provide for their children, what the potential of the tool is and what can be done with it. But Ribble fails to understand that by high school, students are often the purchasers of their products, and that can leave them beyond conversation. What I notice that I miss about an ISTE webinar, that is present in Discovery Educator Network webinars and virtual conferences is the collaborative side-bar chat. If we are collaborating, why not have ISTE let us collaborate? Bottom line on Ribble’s four-point approach to technology is that the buyer must beware or be aware and younger children must use technology with some guided practice. Modeling behavior, from parents and teachers, is critical. I believe that if we are asking students to be creators, we need to be creating with them as well. Our creation models for their efforts. Ribble suggests that we need to slow down and take the opportunity to examine what we are doing. We need to think about the speed with which technology moves is boggling and often negates reflefction and feedback. I think that the technology is always the backdrop to the learning, and the tools are useful only to the extent that they support creativity and appropriate consumption. Ribble believes digital citizenship is the pathway to the future for our children. Bottom Line: students, parents, educators and all stakeholders must help craft an acceptable use policy to govern our children.

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Mike Ribble
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