You will be exercising Digital Citizenship throughout this course.

Being a good digital citizen involves sensitivity to other cultures, empathy for others, manners and polite behaviour, competence in technology use and being educated on the hazards of the Internet.

There will always be preditors who are waiting to prey on the unaware internet user. In order to keep your private information safe, always use the “settings” option on all your internet sites. It is here that you can set your profile/blog/Facebook settings so no one can see your private information, like email, phone number or address (there is also the GPS function). Never publish your telephone, email or address publically on the web. You may, however, feel confident to use your real name, especially at the high school level. You are establishing your web reputation and presense.

Protocols for Communication:

Never ridicule. Follow the same protocols as if you were sitting face to face with someone. Never use inside jokes that they would not understand. Invariably someone from a different culture would find offensive what you think is humourous. Avoid stereoyping, racist/sexist remarks, generalizations and of course, personal attacks. Always exercise diplomacy, good manners and kindness. If you transgress during our course, you will not only lose marks, but you could be banned from the site you are using.

There are copyright issues to consider. The Creative Commons was established in 2001. The idea of universal access to research, education, and culture is made possible by the Internet, but our legal and social systems don’t always allow that idea to be realized. Copyright was created long before the emergence of the Internet, and can make it hard to legally perform actions we take for granted on the network: copy, paste, edit source, and post to the Web. The default setting of copyright law requires all of these actions to have explicit permission, granted in advance, whether you’re an artist, teacher, scientist, librarian, policymaker, or just a regular user. To achieve the vision of universal access, someone needed to provide a free, public, and standardized infrastructure that creates a balance between the reality of the Internet and the reality of copyright laws. That someone is Creative Commons. You can protect your original internet content to a copyright from this Creative Commons. You can also attribute your non-original work by referencing the source.

ISTE’s (International Society for Technology in Education) standards for students:

Digital Citizenship
Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students:

a. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.
b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.
c. demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.
d. exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.

Remember, your digital footprint lasts forever. Tread with care and responsibility.