A Matter of Life or Death

The article by Ribble, Bailey, and Ross (2004) about Digital Citizenship had many valuable suggestions for integrating the NETS for teachers into actual practices that teachers can implement daily to teach digital citizenship.  At this historic moment, schools are beginning to teach students valuable technological skills alongside critical thinking and problem solving skills that will surely help students succeed in their future lives.  Exposing students to 21st Century Skills and teaching them to use the technologies themselves is necessary for students that will be entering the future workplace, where this type of literacy and knowledge will surely be a skill.  As educators, we need to reflect on the fact that although students may seem to be more adept at using things like the Internet and smart phones than we ourselves may be, they by no means should be given free reign, nor an unstructured environment in which to use these technologies.

Students need to be made aware of the legal implications of their actions.  These past two weeks of resources has taught me several new things about legal issues that could arise from technology.  I was unaware of many of the copyright issues as well as the fact that an adolescent sending sexts of themselves is actually sending child pornography and makes them a sex offender.  As a teacher, this highlights to me that although the legality of technology may be constantly changing, gray, and difficult to uncover, it is my job as someone who is trying to successfully teach the 21st Century Skills, to sift through and be clear on these issues.  Teaching students technology without the legal and ethical component is like teaching a student to physically drive a car without also teaching them the laws that dictate the rules of driving and what can happen if one is negligent or careless when they drive.  If I teach the use of technology without teaching students about responsible, appropriate use as well as opening their eyes to the other serious issues that can arise from inappropriate use, I believe that I have failed in properly educating them.

The tragic stories of Hope Witsell, Jesse Logan, and the other adolescents who shared their situations on the news shows sadly point out how serious educating students about these issues really is.  In fact, it is a matter of life or death.  Adolescents (and even some adults, for example the mother who created a fake page to harass a teen) are insecure and lack maturity and experience in the world.  I feel that appropriate use, as well as what can result from inappropriate use needs to be exemplified and explicitly laid out for them in as many ways as possible.  The individuals who make these issues explicit should be the ones who are teaching them how to use the technology (teachers!).  Although it is sometimes impossible for schools to control what happens outside their walls, they must make every attempt to educate and prevent these types of situations from happening.  Schools must attack this issue head on by making students aware of these types of tragedies.

  As a former Rutgers alumni, inappropriate technology use has recently made headlines in the tragic suicide of Tyler Clementi, who took his own life after being exposed over a webcam for being a homosexual.   To hear about Tyler's sad story, which I instantly thought of after watching the video clips, click here.  I not only think about how sad Tyler must have been, as well as his friends and family, but I also think about how the individuals who committed the terrible violation must feel.  Although they may not have thought the situation would end up the way it did, they have to live with themselves everyday for their horrible act of cruelty.  Did they ever hear about stories like that of Hope Witsell and Jesse Logan?  Did they know the legal implications of their actions?  Did they understand that their actions would result in the death of a bright, young man with all of the promise in the world?  These types of tragedies can and should be prevented.  Although schools should not be the entire burden of educating children about these types of issues, they are responsible for, as Ribble, Bailey, and Ross (2004) point out, "teaching overall citizenship, to learn to live together with fellow citizens, and above all to learn to obey the law".  For some students, the public education system is the ONLY place where they are exposed to and have the opportunity to learn these important things.