Digital Citizenship

The following letter to the school board was sent on Friday evening by a Mt. Lebanon resident and taxpayer.  Fellow blog authors at Blog-Lebo and lebodesign and I were CC'd this article sent to the board. His point was there might not be a need for a forum on disagreement in the community if truth, facts and honest interaction was the rule.

It is being reprinted here with permission.

Subject: Check out Harvard Education Letter

To all:

On the subject of plagiarism and regarding the upcoming Community Relation's Board Forum "Can We Disagree Without Being Disagreeable" I offer the following link: Harvard Education Letter

I found it to be extremely timely in that it relates to the plagiarism issue, the Community Forum and Policy Committee topics.

While we are educating our children to live and work in the 21st century, shouldn't we also lead them on a path towards being "Good" 'Digital Citizens'? We as adults should "teach our children well" as Crosby, Stills, Nash wrote in one of their songs.

I still find it unfortunate that Mrs. Posti chose to defend her "wittingly or unwittingly" plagiarism. But, to move forward let’s learn from the issue and educate our kids in practicing "safe, legal and ethical use of digital information and tools." Let them know there are standards they should aspire too. We'll be creating better citizens and a better community!

As to the forum, I believe that YES -- "we can disagree without being disagreeable", if and only if the adversaries first agree on what it is they are being disagreeable about! See Mr. Rothschild's response to Mr. Reese that appears on Mrs. Gillen's blog. Playing loose and free with claims, facts and responsibility I believe is what creates the animosity in the community!

I quote the start of the Harvard article here:

"Volume 27, Number 5 September/October 2011

Turning Digital Natives into Digital Citizens By DAVE SALTMAN
Today’s K–12 students are commonly called “digital natives” because they have grown up with digital technology. But natives can run wild, using the Internet to (wittingly or unwittingly) plagiarize others’ work or bully peers using social media.

Now, educators are teaching digital natives how to become good digital citizens. As defined by federal officials in the recently released National Education Technology Plan and by educators in the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS), model digital citizens “practice safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and tools.” While cyberbullying remains a concern, teachers are helping students investigate the weighty issue of intellectual property rights in order to keep them within legal and ethical bounds. Using websites as well as their own tools, they are helping students understand important concepts such as fair use and copyright, and are also helping them see the relevance in these topics by learning how to protect their own digital work."

And below this from the "National Education Technology Standards for Students (NETS)" should be adopted by our policy committee for... students, teachers, administrators and board members! I love A!

5. Digital Citizenship

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

1. Advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.
2. Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.
3. Demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.
4. Exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.