Developing Digital Citizenship

Digital citizenship is a powerful enabler of inclusion in social, cultural and civil society.  Becoming a digital citizen is ‘part of who we all are’ in school; it should be planned for, and addressed, through multiple contexts including structured activities and wherever there is a meaningful opportunity to talk and learn about being online.

It is time to seek a definitive statement for digital citizenship and its relationship to ‘digital literacy’ and ‘digital fluency’. At Sunnyhills we are informed by the guidelines set by Netsafe. Netsafe’s view is that the proliferation of terms and abstract concepts does not help schools. A consensus view of the values, aims and knowledge underpinning these terms is required.

Netsafe presents a revised model of digital citizenship:

Netsafe asserts that digital citizenship combines the confident, fluent use and combination of three key elements:

• Skills and strategies to access technology to communicate, connect, collaborate and create;

• Attitudes, underpinned by values that support personal integrity and positive connection with others;

• Understanding and knowledge of the digital environments and contexts in which they are working, and how they integrate on/offline spaces;

and then critically:

• The ability to draw on this competency of ‘digital fluency’ to participate in life-enhancing opportunities (social, economic, cultural, civil) and achieve their goals in ways that make an important difference.

Six Under-pining Principles for Digital Citizenship 

Netsafe advocates for the following six principles to underpin approaches to the development of digital citizenship:

1. Ako  |  Young people are “active agents” in the design and implementation of digital citizenship, including approaches to online safety

2. Whānaungatanga | An unbounded, coherent home-school-community approach is central to the development of digital citizenship and online safety management

3. Manaakitanga  |  Approaches to digital citizenship are inclusive, responsive and equitable in design and implementation

4. Wairuatanga  |  Digital citizenship in action positively contributes to wellbeing and resilience development enabling safer access to effective learning and social opportunities

5. Mahi tahi  |  Digital citizenship development and online safety incident management are fostered through partnership approaches, coherent systems and collaboration

6. Kotahitanga  |  Evaluation and inquiry underpin the ongoing design of digital citizenship approaches, based on rich evidence from young people and their whānau.

Alongside the wealth of resources available on the NetSafe site for parents here, we have found that parents like the information on this site too, to support how to be aware and use cyber smarts at home.