ISTE Standards for Students 1.2 – Digital Citizen

This standard emphasizes how students recognize the rights, responsibilities, and opportunities of living, learning, and working in an interconnected digital world and act and model in safe, legal, and ethical ways. Therefore, the students are expected to:

1.2.a. cultivate and manage their digital identity and reputation and are aware of the permanence of their actions in the digital world.

1.2.b. engage in positive, safe, legal, and ethical behavior when using technology, including social interactions online or networked devices.

1.2.c. demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property.

1.2.d. manage their personal data to maintain digital privacy and security and are aware of data-collection technology used to track their navigation online.

Teaching in the digital era is challenging to comply with disruptive technology advancements. Educators must ensure students get successful and positive engagement with digital technologies by allowing them to cultivate values, skills, attitudes, and knowledge. Hence, they develop in different ways as part of lifelong learning. To illustrate, during the Covid-19 pandemic, I shifted the in-person instruction to fully online settings. Maintaining a conducive atmosphere in the digital world is extensive homework for educators. Again, my students and I worked harder to recognize the rights, responsibilities, and opportunities of living, learning, and working in an interconnected digital world and act and model in safe, legal, and ethical ways. Therefore, the related stakeholders worked hand in hand to create a safe, legal, and ethical digital environment to support the teaching and learning process by issuing a Dean Decree on Student Ethics in Online Learning. This decree provides general rules for online communication during online learning. I would say that this policy also aligns with Standard 1.2.b. pointing out that students engage in positive, safe, legal, and ethical behavior when using technology, including social interactions online or when using networked devices. Besides, I also encouraged students to promote ethical behavior in online LMS discussion forums and WAG Group discussions in which students must be aware of language use when delivering their thoughts. To this extent, I adopted and adjusted a resource-sharing checklist template of the DEL Certification Program (LMS Discussion Forum: Resource Sharing Checklist),

To encourage students to cultivate and manage their digital identity and reputation and be aware of the permanence of their actions in the digital world (Standard 1.2.a.), I facilitated a discussion in the department student orientation to introduce online learning environment and learning tools as seen in my presentation How to Be Tech-Savvy Students. This presentation covers a virtual learning environment, writing tools, research tools, study skills, and tips to learn something new. Hopefully, this information will equip students with good resources to be more aware of their actions in the digital world.

Moreover, promoting academic integrity in digital learning is essential for students as digital citizens. Academic integrity is a solid example of how students understand and respect the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property (Standard 1.2.c.). Promoting Academic Integrity in Online Learning, my post explored some critical points and pedagogical strategies. In classroom activities, for instance, online discussion encourages students to respect one another in delivering their opinions. In the Fishbowl Discussion in the LMS forum discussion, as seen in my post, Enhancing Student Engagement in Online Learning through Fishbowl Discussion: A Reflection – Ignasia Yuyun, students shared some resources to support their peers’ investigations. This way, students had to be aware of sharing reputable resources in the LMS forum discussion by checking the QUEST Project: Resource Sharing. As undergraduate students, they are expected to write an undergraduate thesis at the end of their study. To ensure that students understand and respect the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property, the department provides the UDE Guide to Thesis Writing. Also, as introduced in the student orientation (How to Be Tech-Savvy Students), I encouraged students to use some writing tools, such as Turnitin. Finally, to support research activities, particularly the data-collection technology (Standard 1.2.d.), students are introduced to reference manager tools, such as Mendeley. This tool helps search for, locate, extract, organize, evaluate, and use or present information that is relevant to a particular topic.

To conclude, as digital citizens, students in the 21st century are encouraged to foster respect in digital interactions and emphasize accountability for personal data and media usage.