The Digital Citizenship Blog

Technology has changed the way in which we do things, the way in which we work, play and socialise. The advances of technology, the impact of social media and the technological trends influencing our lives has resulted in an online society, a global society. Just as we are citizens of our country, so are we citizens of the online society and as such we need to learn how to use technology appropriately. Moreover, we need to ensure that we learn how to use the technology for the betterment of ourselves as well as society as a whole. This manual seeks to address the nine core elements as identified by Mike Ribble (2007). These nine elements address what makes good digital citizenship. By creating awareness of these elements through the manual, it is hoped that we achieve modelling and demonstration through the face-to-face contact time with the lecturers and students. As a result, hopefully, we will be able to reflect on the journey and evaluate on the kind of digital citizen we all should model. Therefore the nine elements will form the core structure of this manual, however, these core elements cannot be viewed in isolation. In order to become good digital citizens, we also need to understand the fluencies involved in using the technology in learning, work and socialising. Churches, Jukes, and Crockett (2011) identified that there are five fluencies we need to master in order to go beyond being digitally literate to being digital citizens. It is strongly recommended that the web literacy series, available as a MOOC, be undertaken, as this series addresses the various skills that are needed. This is a short, fun, course that is open to everyone, but we encourage that all students and lecturers access this to enhance their digital skills. This is a journey that we all need to undertake, no matter our age, toward understanding what it takes to become a responsible digital citizen. Good luck and enjoy the journey to becoming a responsible digital citizen

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