Moving digital citizens toward a caring Internet

Description

The session I am proposing straddles the Identity and Privacy in Online Educational Spaces and the Digital Wellbeing strands. A voluntary faculty development course, Digital Pedagogy Identity Networks and Scholarship (#digpins), started this trajectory and was intended to give faculty a chance to focus on their own digital practices in a shared space as well as give them access to some of the #highered communities already communicating and sharing online. In my position as an instructional designer whose main duty is helping to develop quality online courses at our small liberal arts school, this led me into two discussions:

1. what is the role of digital citizenship in higher ed?
2. what is the responsibility and role of faculty members in this pursuit and exploration of digital presence and digital citizenship?

Takeaway

• Examples of faculty and staff thinking about their online presence as individuals, educators, scholars, and whoever they want to be, and how this then influences their digital practices and pedagogy.
• Ways in which higher education is responsible for addressing digital citizenship and how to approach that responsibility as staff and faculty.
• Practical activities and exercises, and their outcomes, used during the process of the #digpins course.

Abstract

This paper looks at the different pieces of a growing conversation about digital citizenship at St. Norbert College as a way to better understand and make sense of how higher education can contribute to a more caring Internet. Our conversation started with a faculty development course which focused on exploring digital identity. As the community of faculty thinking about digital identity has started to grow, we are seeing more meaningful digital projects in teaching and learning as well as more discussions about interacting in online spaces. There is more hallway talk about digital citizenship as well as participation in conversations outside the walls of our campus with the online #digciz community, bringing in a more diverse and global perspective. None of these pieces are neat, nor do they necessarily fit together. They need to be nurtured and supported to become an essential and meaningful part of more students’ college experience.