In The Beginning
It was in one of our first classes with Valerie Irvine that our guest speaker, Alec Couros, came to talk to us about the changes he sees happening with children and social media. In his presentation, he mentioned an activity that had students practising digital citizenship and “texting” on paper prompts spread around their classroom walls. I’m not sure what first sparked my interest in this particular activity, but the idea was firmly stuck in my head. I then began reading, researching, and becoming interested in digital citizenship. My final presentation for EDCI 568 highlighted a MediaSmarts survey given to 800 Canadian parents of children ages 0-15. It stated that 42% of children ages 0-4 had their own smartphone (Brisson-Boivin, 2018). This statistic solidified my desire to begin what would eventually become this project.
Research
Throughout my research, I continued to be drawn to the articles specifically about the effects of cyberbullying on the mental health of adolescents. I quickly found myself immersed in articles describing terrible and negative online behaviours. Cyberbullying, online aggression, and hate speech were common themes researchers studied among adolescents. From there, I was reading about the effects of the behaviours on the victims, like anxiety, self-harm, depression, and other disorders that were on the rise in part because of negative online behaviours. Knowing the obstacles my students could possibly face in the future, I saw a big need to add digital etiquette into my curriculum.
Pandemic Realities
Then, four months later, the COVID-19 pandemic closed classrooms and workplaces around the world and people were relying on technology like never before. Work- and learn-from-home orders meant video conferencing was sometimes an all-day, everyday occurrence. As our online classes began, my students started to talk to me about what they were doing to stay connected with their classmates. Online games, FaceTime, Zoom playdates, and messaging with friends were becoming pretty regular topics of conversation. Knowing that the speed at which things change with technology, the idea that students are beginning to communicate online with one another without possibly knowing some basic skills is one that was worrying for me. I soon began to realize that I needed to introduce the idea of digital etiquette to help them navigate this new form of communication.
Closing Thoughts
I hope you find this unit plan useful when introducing digital etiquette to your class. Even if you find one idea helpful, I feel confident that it will alter your curriculum for the better.
References
Brisson-Boivin, K. (2018). The digital well-being of Canadian families. MediaSmarts. Ottawa. http://mediasmarts.ca/sites/mediasmarts/files/publication-report/full/digital-canadian-families.pdf