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Digital Citizenship and the IB Learner Profile

"The rate of change in the world is accelerating with the rapid advances in technology. We need to ensure our students are learning new literacies, so they can engage effectively in a world very different from when their parents and teachers went to school. This engagement encourages you to think about teaching your students digital citizenship" (IBO.org).

We can use the IB Learner Profile as a guide to teaching digital citizenship to our students. Each of the Profile characteristics can in some way be connected to digital citizenship. Inquiry as a digital citizen would have to do with active participation, sharing your knowledge with others, and interacting appropriately in an online community. Communication would involve areas such as effective and willing collaboration, being courteous with postings, and insuring proper grammar is used. Principled digital citizens would show strong ethics, respect privacy and copyright laws. Open-minded PYP Digital Learners would be willing to share their perspectives and listen to those of others. Good digital citizens could show caring by being committed to the online forums in which you are involved and always being respectful of others and thinking about their feelings. Risk-takers are willing to try new digital resources and find a variety of ways to communicate and interact with others online. Balanced digital citizens realize that there are many points of view to consider. They also need to be balanced in the amount of time spent online or in front of a screen. Finally, digital citizens can be reflective by reading the responses of others, asking for clarification when needed, and being willing to change one's mind or stand up for stated values and beliefs after careful consideration of the views of others. (Barbara Stefanics, Head of ICT, International School of Vienna, IBO, 2010).

Comments

  1. Very well explained! Those are extremely important characteristics for a digital citizen to have, especially if one wants to properly teach others how to be one!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great points that are important to remember if we want our students to be safe and successful in the digital world.

    ReplyDelete

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