As a citizen of the digital world I find it second nature to remember things like security, etiquette, and rights. It is important that we, as teachers, are reminded that these lessons and responsibilities must be taught to our students as we make progress towards being fully immersed in a digital world.
Three essential things for students to understand are:
privileges v. rights- It is a privilege for a student to have access to technology, it is not a right. Although, it is important for them to be able to have access/learn about a technological world- they must first posses the maturity that accompanies that exposure. Dually, rights also applies to what can be borrowed or taken from them or from someone else. Kids need to understand that they cannot pull pictures from any site and use them as their own. In my past experiences, Copyright is a foreign topic to students. They need to understand that when creating their own materials and using other's resources.
etiquette- Respect of others and respect for self are important in the digital world. Students need to understand that just as respect is required in the classroom, respect in required in the online classroom. This includes respect for boundaries set for them. Students need to respect a class Wiki or blog and be sure that they can be proud of what they post.
security- Just as parents teach their children to be weary of strangers, we need to teach our students to be weary of the Internet. Most situations pose a certain level of danger (even on a playground) and you have to teach children fallback phrases to live by. If you come to something on the playground that you know shouldn't be there, get away from it, and find the nearest adult. This same principle can be applied to the Internet. If you aren't sure, ask. These simple lessons that they've most likely already heard before just need to be redirected and applied to the digital world.
I think the only way to teach these lessons are through experience and practice. Being able to work with students in small groups to introduce possible dangers/troublesome situations and work through those questions with them is invaluable. Allowing students to try new things (within reason) and assist them after modeling is a great way to help guide students into the digital world.
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