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chapter 2

Uniting Digital Citizenship and Global Citizenship

When the public got its first taste of the World Wide Web, we had little idea of the change it would usher into the world. The Internet we know today continues to grow exponentially. In June 2016, Cisco (2016) estimated that our annual global IP (Internet Protocol) traffic would surpass the zettabyte (ZB) threshold by the end of the year. Cisco (2016) further estimates that we will reach 2.3 ZB per year by the end of 2020.

Our level of global interconnectedness is staggering, with most people incorporating the Internet into many facets of daily life. Its presence is constant, and its absence seems unimaginable. The Internet allows us to become true global citizens, both socially and as a workforce. We can see and track our actions on an international scale. We measure our impact on the global environment and gauge our social and moral differences and similarities. We rally together to inspire hope and provide aid for countries dealing with hardships and tragedies. This interconnectedness allows us to see how local or individual efforts can have a global effect. Seeing the impact of the individual in the global community shows us the great positive potential of the Internet. But, we also see that same impact reveal how exposed we are to scrutiny, manipulation, and threats to our privacy and security.

When you think about it, it makes sense to cultivate empowered individuals who are dutifully aware of their responsibility—both for and with the power of the Internet—for the lasting well-being of our global community. This is a hallmark of the global digital citizen.

We frequently use the phrase global digital citizen, but what does that mean? How do we define this individual? A starting point for creating a new level of ethical consciousness among global individuals is to define the characteristics of global digital citizenship, which encompass a range of human qualities that we break down into the tenets listed in figure 2.1 (page 24).

Figure 2.1: Tenets of global digital citizenship.

In this chapter, we examine each of these tenets, why they are important, and what it means to exemplify them. Each of these sections concludes with an assessment rubric derived from chapter 8, “Global Digital Citizenship,” of our book, Mindful Assessment (Crockett & Churches, 2017). Mindful Assessment (Crockett & Churches, 2017) presents complete frameworks for what we call essential fluencies—crucial new skills and mindsets learners need to flourish in 21st century life. Global digital citizenship is the last of these six essential fluencies. The global digital citizenship assessment rubrics in this chapter are also available for free online. Go to go.SolutionTree.com/technology to access them.

Although we place emphasis in this chapter on the teacher-to-student dynamic, it’s important to understand that we must all value and model the tenets of global digital citizenship if we are to instill these values in our youth. We begin with personal responsibility.

Personal Responsibility

For teachers, developing a student’s sense of personal responsibility is about gradually shifting the responsibility for learning to the student, and developing his or her sense of accountability for lifelong learning. It includes demonstrating how one governs oneself in matters of finance, ethical and moral boundaries, personal health and fitness, and all relationships. The following sections illustrate the good that comes from internalizing these traits.

• Taking responsibility for lifelong learning

• Nurturing relationships of every definition

• Maintaining physical, mental, and emotional health

• Managing financial matters

• Developing ethical and moral standards

At the end of these sections, we include an assessment framework that explains how to set students on this path and develop them into citizens with a strong sense of personal responsibility.

Taking Responsibility for Lifelong Learning

One of the greatest gifts teachers can give students is developing their capacity and desire to learn independently. The New Zealand Ministry of Education (2007) identifies the following key competencies that support lifelong learning.

• Thinking: Using creative, critical, and cognitive processes to make sense of information, experiences, and ideas

• Using language, symbols, and text: Understanding and using the codes that express knowledge

• Managing self: Developing a can-do attitude and seeing oneself as a capable learner

• Relating to others: Interacting effectively with diverse groups in multiple contexts

• Participating and contributing: Establishing active involvement in local and wider communities

Through these key competencies, lifelong learning becomes a habit of mind and creates a sense of pride and accomplishment in all of us. Taking responsibility for our learning also adds to our capacity to teach and learn from others.

Nurturing Relationships of Every Definition

Teachers must encourage themselves and their students to learn proper ways to communicate. People enter our lives with unique backgrounds and histories that are often contrary to our own. Understanding and relating to others foster compassion and empathy and help us grow. These traits give us an opportunity to learn from other people, develop our sense of perspective and pluralism, and respond to conflict with civility and constructive thinking. On its website, the Australian Curriculum (n.d.b) identifies the importance and significance of intercultural understanding:

Intercultural understanding is an essential part of living with others in the diverse world of the twenty-first century. It assists young people to become responsible local and global citizens, equipped through their education for living and working together in an interconnected world.

The curriculum from the New Zealand Ministry of Education (n.d.) also encompasses this critical area by embracing cultural diversity:

Cultural diversity is one of eight principles in The New Zealand Curriculum that provide a foundation for schools’ decision making. The principle of cultural diversity calls for schools and teachers to affirm students’ different cultural identities, and incorporate their cultural contexts into teaching and learning programmes.

Through these practices, we begin to understand all the ways that we are connected to each other despite any cultural differences.

Maintaining Physical, Mental, and Emotional Health

Teacher or student, maintaining a balance between physical, mental, and emotional health within ourselves is essential in helping us better manage our everyday affairs. Some practices for maintaining holistic health can include activities like the following.

• Maintaining regular physical exercise

• Taking up a hobby

• Helping others

• Joining a club or group

• Changing up a daily routine

Having physical vitality, for example, increases our longevity and our ability to enjoy life at any age. Activities that support mental and emotional health help diminish stress on the mind and body and make us more resilient. All of this contributes to whole-being wellness and stability.

Managing Financial Matters

Financial education helps students understand that wealth of any kind comes with responsibilities. Money management encourages the adoption of lifelong smart financial strategies. It shows students the value of hard work and maintaining its rewards.

Developing Ethical and Moral Standards

Treating others with respect lies at the core of every culture’s ethical and moral standards. By developing a personal ethical structure, students can learn the fundamental differences between right and wrong, just and unjust, and moral and immoral. It provides students with personal guidelines for living honest and charitable lives, and sets an example for others. This is part of how all of us contribute to the safety and well-being of our whole society.

Establishing a Personal Responsibility Assessment Framework

Figure 2.2 presents a rubric for assessing the development and progression of a global digital citizen’s sense of personal responsibility.

Figure 2.2: Global digital citizen assessment rubric—personal responsibility.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/technology for a free reproducible version of this figure.

It is important to understand the purpose of this rubric and those that follow in this chapter. It is not intended as a summative judgment of a person, but rather a formative discussion of what is possible. We have not presented benchmarks for age levels as every individual, depending on life circumstances, will be at different levels. Stress, for example, could play a major role in our ability to evaluate, and we may instead simply react. Additionally, the evaluative capacity we expect to see from an individual varies from person to person. Using these measures as a formative tool allows us to reflect on who we are, what we value, and what we want to be.

Global Citizenship

In a world where an Australian follower can retweet an American user’s tweet and have a Pakistani citizen see it moments later, we are all global citizens. Global citizenship involves recognizing and fostering how 21st century technology transcends the physical boundaries between citizens of the world by enabling communication, collaboration, dialogue, and debate across all levels of society. The following sections detail the importance of recognizing and fostering a student’s presence in the global community and the personal connections within that community. We also talk about understanding the concept of circles of possibilities that affect how all of us can make our mark on the world. We conclude this topic with a framework for assessing student progress toward becoming good global citizens.

Recognizing and Fostering Global Community

Because we are part of a global community, barriers of time and distance no longer exist. This brings about an awareness that technology instantaneously connects us with the world, and with that comes personal and communal responsibilities. We have the means to help and support people all over the world, in addition to those in our local communities. This may seem a Herculean task, but the goal is not to solve all the problems of every community around the world. The goal is to recognize and empathize with others’ struggles while endeavoring to contribute to positive solutions wherever possible. We believe that guiding students to this realization helps foster more respect for the various traditions, values, faiths, beliefs, opinions, and practices of a global community.

Recognizing and Fostering Personal Connections

The connectivity that brings us together as global citizens brings with it new personal connections. For example, you may be surprised to learn that 35 percent of couples married between 2005 and 2012 first met online and report they are more satisfied than other couples (Magid, 2013). Having connections of every kind shows us the benefits of being able to share our ideas with more people than ever before. It encourages acceptance, sensitivity, and humility in dealing with others.

Students must learn to see the marketplace they will become a part of as global citizens and recognize the significance of their ability to use shared technology to do work all over the world. They must learn to manage many relationships with peers and colleagues all over the globe and understand why, thanks to technology and the connectivity it provides, it has never been easier to foster and renew relationships with faraway people. For example, a classroom can connect with global learners and established professionals using applications like Skype. Likewise, websites like Kiva (www.kiva.org) allow learners to use microlending to help entrepreneurs in poorer world regions get started on their own business ventures.

Understanding Circles of Possibilities

Further cementing links between personal connections and global communities is also about recognizing what we call circles of possibilities. Ask yourself this question, How do you see the world? When Lee’s Japanese sensei first asked him this question, he had an immediate response, one that came without considering the meaning of the question or his deepest feelings. Maybe you also had such a response when you read this question.

Some see the world through the lens of fear, that the world is not safe. These individuals are constantly concerned about what the world will take from them. Others see the world through curiosity, and to them the world is a wondrous place full of possibilities and opportunities. Many see the problems that the world faces and feel a sense of despair. This despair can be so painful that these individuals find distractions to escape reflecting on human suffering and their own feelings of helplessness. Our students, who are our children, feel this too.

What we believe has been most beneficial in building capacity in students, teachers, and administrators alike is an understanding of what all of us can do and how that leads to change. If you knew for certain you would succeed, that you would solve the problem which is your greatest concern, would you take action? Of course you would. This empowerment is reflective of a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset—that is to say, that achievement is a factor of effort and not fixed ability (Dweck, 2006).

This is the point at which we introduce students to circles of possibilities. We ask students to consider what is possible at various levels and then take action based on what can be done. The levels start with me, and then expand to encompass family, community, country, and the world.

• Me: What can you do to solve this problem within your own life? If you never spoke about it, blamed or judged others, but only altered your own thoughts and actions, what could you do?

• Family: How do you affect the choices your family makes? Consider that once you have accomplished all you can do, you have already begun to impact your family, just through the example you set. Because your capacity to impact your family is limited by your own efforts, the greater your actions and convictions then the greater the impact on your family.

• Community: How can you and your family impact your community? Consider not just where you live, but all your communities such as school, clubs, and organizations that you belong to.

• Country: How can you, along with your family and communities, create change in your country?

• World: How can you, your family, communities, and country transform the world?

In asking students to think about these circles of possibilities, have them consider the following facts about bottled water (D’Alessandro, 2014; Pacific Institute, 2007).

• Producing the yearly bottles for American consumption requires the equivalent of more than seventeen million barrels of oil, not including the energy for transportation.

• Bottling water produces more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.

• It takes three liters of water to produce one liter of bottled water.

• A one-liter bottle in the ocean can break down into fragments so small that a piece could be found on every mile of beach in the world.

• We only recycle 5 percent of the plastics we produce, and virtually every piece of plastic ever made still exists in one form or another.

Ask students to consider that if the environmental havoc the bottled water industry causes is overwhelming to them, they could simply never purchase or drink from a plastic bottle again. They could carry a refillable bottle and use it instead. Likewise, they could even keep a set of cutlery in a bag rather than use the plastic cutlery found in the school cafeteria or fast food restaurants. We’re sure you and your students can think of other examples, but you get the point.

All this begs the question: Does this solve the global problem of plastics? You or your students may think that it doesn’t, but we disagree. In this scenario, an individual is doing 100 percent of what he or she can do to solve the problem. When enough people do the same, spreading from individuals, to families, to communities, and so on, the problem is solved. It is a similar question to asking, “Does your vote count?” Who would be elected if nobody voted? When students understand that they can solve a problem by taking action within their capacity, they only see possibilities of what more they can do.

Because the levels beyond me are where we tend to lay blame, many think their actions don’t matter because it’s not in their control. It’s the government’s fault, the school’s fault, the test’s fault, the media’s fault, and so on. Ask your students to consider this: When we lay blame at the feet of others, we also surrender to them our power to solve it. After all, if it’s their fault, then they are the only ones that can fix it and so we are powerless and at their mercy.

No matter at what level you work—me, family, community, country, world—you impact all other levels. Your efforts matter because without you it is not possible for everyone to change. What will you do? The answer always starts with me.

Establishing a Global Citizenship Assessment Framework

Figure 2.3 (page 36) presents a rubric for assessing the development and progression of a global digital citizen’s sense of global citizenship.

Figure 2.3: Global digital citizen assessment rubric—global citizenship.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/technology for a free reproducible version of this figure.

Digital Citizenship

To have digital citizenship is to engage in appropriate and exemplary behavior in an online environment. The essence of digital citizenship is about shifting accountability for appropriate behavior from teachers to students, which fosters independence and personal responsibility. This shifting of responsibility includes ensuring that students show respect for self, others, and property. We conclude this topic with a framework for assessing a student’s progress and growth as a digital citizen.

Showing Respect and Responsibility for Self

Having respect for yourself is about being aware of how you portray yourself with your online persona. Students must start thinking critically about the short- and long-term effects of the information and images they post, and the value of being private when necessary. Students must be able to set a positive example for others to follow.

Students must be mindful to stay away from behavior that puts them at risk, both online and offline. Acting responsibly encourages exemplary personal governance as a habit of mind and adds to a student’s sense of self-worth and self-esteem (Blitzer, Petersen, & Rodgers, 1993). It also reminds him or her of the little things like safely and effectively password-protecting information, and, when appropriate, securing property and resources.

Showing Respect and Responsibility for Others

It’s important for students to always consider the consequences of behavior, such as bullying, flaming, harassing, and online stalking—the evidence is everywhere (Chambers, 2013). When an individual attacks someone else online, his or her target is obliged to respond in kind. This perpetuates a cycle of escalation that can and has resulted in consequences in the physical world. Respecting others teaches students the value of being constructive and friendly online. It encourages them to model behavior for others, like responding to online conflicts with a sense of civility and constructive thinking.

Both teachers and students must learn to discourage and report abusive and inappropriate behavior and recognize that there is potential for great harm in forwarding or sharing potentially inappropriate or harmful information or images. This is how we come to see the value in making others feel protected, and therefore valued themselves. In our experience, people who feel valued are less likely to engage in destructive behavior.

Showing Respect and Responsibility for Property

Teachers must consistently stress the importance of asking permission to share another’s intellectual property. How we give credit to creators of intellectual property (by properly citing sources and authorship) says much about our respect for those who devote their time to creativity in the service of others. Exploring fair-use rules and copyright laws, and how they apply to sourcing and using online information, is a crucial part of respecting another’s property.

We believe that teaching students to treat their own and others’ property with care and respect, including intellectual property, is vital to preserving a sense of digital and global community. Instead of stealing images, teach students to use free or open-source resources and learn how to properly search for and recognize them. Both Google and Flickr include features that support searching for Creative Commons or royalty free images (Crockett, 2016). This reminds them that any kind of digital piracy is still theft, and that this theft is not a victimless crime. As such, they make a choice to act with integrity and to value what they use or own.

Establishing a Digital Citizenship Assessment Framework