OTL504-1: Digital Citizenship Scenarios through JiTT

Digital Citizenship Scenarios & Just-in-Time Teaching

Today’s students are rising up the academic ranks in an always-connected world leading to a different set of far-reaching implications than the generations that came before them. Students need to be taught about these implications to make positive decisions online and many schools are using instruction in ‘digital citizenship’ to accomplish this. Common Sense Media defines digital citizenship as the “responsible use of technology to learn, create, and participate” (James, Weinstein, & Mendoza, 2019) and one methodology that aligns well with this is Just-in-Time Teaching.

Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) is a classroom teaching technique designed to make use of active learning and discussion in the classroom by giving students time outside of class for reviewing content (Mcdaniel, 2013). This, accompanied by engaging scenarios for tech ethics, can help students come to learn the importance of proper netiquette and how to present themselves online.

The "engaging" part is particularly important, as it has been found that traditional lectures are ineffective at guiding students to making positive choices online. Teachers, an excellent, inexpensive, and quick read on this very topic can be found in a book called Digital Citizenship in Action: Empowering Students to Engage in Online Communities by Kristen Mattson. It aligns with ISTE's standards, particularly because it is published by ISTE!

Provided on this page a set of slides for one such scenario that is designed to align with ISTE's Digital Citizenship standards 2a and 2b, the first regarding the permanence of their digital actions and the latter for engaging in positive and ethical behavior of online social interactions (ISTE, 2016) . The first part of the scenario is meant for students to explore outside of class (the JiTT part) with intention of coming to class prepared to talk about the issues presented. The scenario is meant to be relatable to situations many middle and high school students have experienced in some capacity with a reveal at the end that it's based on a real-life example.

At the close of the exercise, students should be introduced to an 'at a glance' resource for future reference, be that something posted on a classroom resource site or printed out in the classroom. For this particular topic, Common Sense Education has a set of posters available for a variety of topics including a "Top 10 Things to Think About Before You Post" that fits perfectly with this particular scenario (Common Sense Education, 2014).