Thinking about Online identity, Professional social networks, Research profiles or your institutional policy on social media?

The constitution of citizenship is up for debate in this era of rapid technological change. Technology can equally well facilitate good or bad citizenship, and there are many reasons to argue that it does not create a neutral or democratic environment. Rules of social engagement, knowledge creation and ownership are shifting. One argument is that most academics come from a generation referred to as ‘digital immigrants’ and are expected to teach ‘digital natives’, and so it would be likely for these natives to get restless – frustrated by their teachers’ and institutions’ misuse or lack of use of the social networking tools and concepts that are everyday features of their lives. But is this the case? Researchers like Bennett & Maton (2010) have debunked the idea of digital natives/immigrants a decade ago. So what constitutes ‘good citizenship’ in this environment? Any discussion of digital citizenship should focus on two broad questions:

How is Internet technology fuelling educational and social change, and in what ways does this challenge and facilitate concepts of citizenship in the current context?
How should teachers and institutions respond to the ‘digital’ demands?

Defining digital citizenship
An ability to practice and advocate online behavior that demonstrates legal, ethical, safe, and responsible uses of information and communication technologies (Greenhow & Ribble, 2009, p. 125).
Digital citizenship represents capacity, belonging, and the potential for political and economic engagement in society in the information age. Digital citizens practice conscientious use of technology, demonstrate responsible use of information, and maintain a positive attitude to learning with technology. (Alam & McLoughlin, 2010, p14)

Developing digital citizenship
Some of the issues that arise are: digital persona (professional and personal), privacy, participation (in politics and society) and liberation/democracy (massification of education). How do we manage our identity as educators in the age of open and massive education and how do we define the rules of engagement with digital media? Netiquette is one way of building awareness of the code of conduct online but does digital citizenship support academic freedom? One thing we tend to forget is that we don’t need to share everything, we have control over the amount and type of information we share. The interaction equivalency theorem shows what the reality of educational communication and interaction is in today’s day and age. Alam & McLoughlin discussed how educators are grasping the concept of digital citizenship in formal courses a decade ago.