Digital citizenship, defined as exhibiting appropriate and
responsible behavior with digital technology use, is an essential
component of technology education. The purpose of this
study was to examine K-12 educators’ perceptions of their
students’ digital citizenship knowledge and practices as they
relate to cyberbullying, digital footprint, digital privacy, digital
netiquette, and digital identity. One hundred and seven educators
responded to a survey on digital citizenship practices.
Based on the educators’ perceptions, student understanding
and practice of digital citizenship were rated as not well for
most of the items on the survey. While educators’ perceptions
of their students’ digital citizenship practices did not vary
among school levels or based on their roles as teachers or
technology coaches, educators who taught digital citizenship
had higher perceptions of their students’ digital citizenship
practices.
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Middle School Student Perception of Technology Use and Digital Citizenship Practices
Digital citizenship is defined as using knowledge and skills to
exhibit appropriate behavior online using digital technology.
Two hundred and thirty-seven middle school students were
surveyed about digital device use and perception of digital
citizenship practices on cyberbullying, digital netiquette,
digital footprint, digital privacy, and digital identity. Findings
indicated that student use of mobile devices has increased,
which has established the need for parental monitoring of the
online behavior of their children. Only 55.3% of the surveyed
students indicated parental monitoring of their internet/social
media use, and only 37.1% of the students identified digital
citizenship as being taught in their schools. Seventy-three percent
of the students indicated having never been cyberbullied,
and only 55.7% indicated knowing how to collect proof if
they suspect cyberbullying has occurred. Fifty-seven percent
of the students cited following digital netiquette when communicating
or posting online, 59.7% of the students have
shared their password with a friend, and 48.5% have added a
friend and followed someone they did not know. Middle
school students lack an understanding of digital citizenship
practices, which has implications for teachers, administrators,
and parents on teaching digital citizenship at school
and home.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1723746
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10198995
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Computers in the schools
- Volume:
- 37
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 0738-0569
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 196-215
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
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