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Digital Citizenship in a Teacher Preparation Program as a Way to Sustain Future Education

Tue, April 16, 5:00 to 6:30pm, Hyatt Regency, Floor: Bay (Level 1), Bayview A

Proposal

Digital Citizenship in a Teacher Preparation Program as a Way to Sustain Future Education

Abstract

Teachers are charged not just with teaching academics, but also teaching social skills so that students can be good Digital Citizens for the global community. This study is aimed at exploring how teacher candidates in an urban teacher education program understand the issues of Digital Citizenship. A quantitative approach using two online survey instruments was implemented at a teacher education program in the United States. This study proposes to conduct online surveys by using the Computer Self-Efficacy Scale and Digital Citizenship Scale developed by Al-Zahrani in 2015 to understand teacher candidates’ levels of Digital Citizenship. The Computer Self-Efficacy Scale revealed that teacher candidates were more confident with the general uses of computers for common tasks such as writing essays on computers and least confident with specific tasks such as understanding vocabulary terms relating to computer hardware. The Digital Citizenship Scale revealed that the digital citizenship practices with the highest mean are those concerning the subset of respecting for oneself and others, followed by the subset of practices with regard to educating and connecting with others, and the subset of protecting oneself and others.

Introduction

The role of Digital Citizen starts the moment when one clicks on the Internet. While the frequency of technology use can yield many personal and professional benefits, it also imposes many challenges. White collar crimes, security breaches, hacking, online predators, flash mob robberies, copyright infringement, cyberbullies, illegal cryptocurrency mining, are just a few of the challenges and risks by modern society. The issues of Digital Citizenship are evolving with the advances of modern technology.
Researchers have identified Digital Citizenship as a dynamic and growing issue (Jones & Mitchell, 2016; Ribble, 2015). Digital Citizenship is important not only in the United States but all around the world (Nath & Chen, 2018, p. 447). According to Digital Citizenship (Ripple, 2017, para 1), “Digital Citizenship is the norms of appropriate, responsible technology use.” Digital Citizenship is a concept that helps teachers understand what students should know and should be competent with for a worldwide society full of technology. Children start using tablets and other electronic gadgets these days at an early age. When Digital Citizenship education is implemented in curriculum early and well in K-12 education, it can serve to prepare a global community of good Digital Citizens.

Theoretical Framework

This study works to discover the status of teacher candidates’ levels of Digital Citizenship. The first section surveys the research literature that explores Digital Citizenship in general (Nordin, Ahmad, Zubairi, Ismail, Rahman, Trayek, & Ibrahim, 2015). In the second section, the study is further framed by the research literature related to teacher candidates’ Digital Citizenship levels and computer self-efficacy in specific (Choi, Cristol, & Gimbert, 2018; Çiftci & Aladağ, 2017). Third, the last section, explores the literature that argues teachers’ influence on students in terms of technology skills and practices.

Methods and Methodology

Despite much literature highlighting issues prevailing from college-age individuals’ misconducts on the Internet, including hacking, plagiarism, sexting, and so on, little research has focused on the overall status of college-age individuals’ Digital Citizenship levels. To date, even less research has explored the relationship between teacher candidates and their Digital Citizenship levels.
The current study aims to understand teacher candidates’ Computer Self-Efficacy and Digital Citizenship levels. A quantitative approach using two online survey instruments was implemented. This study proposes to conduct online surveys by using the Computer Self-Efficacy Scale and Digital Citizenship Scale developed by Al-Zahrani in 2015 to expand knowledge about teacher candidates’ Digital Citizenship. The 18 question Computer Self-Efficacy asks questions such as trouble shooting skills, capabilities of installing and uninstalling software, describing the function of computer hardware, and other questions about individuals’ technological abilities. The 46 questions of Digital Citizenship Scale fall into the three subsets of “Respect Yourself/Respect Others” (24 questions), “Educate Yourself/Connect with Others” (11 questions), and “Protect Yourself/Protect Others” (11 questions). These three subsets are based on the main themes and elements of Digital Citizenship proposed by Ribble (2014).
The subjects of the study are 50 teacher candidates, or pre-service teachers, who are individual in a teacher preparation program prior to obtaining his/her initial teaching licenses at an urban university located in the south-central region of the United States. Teacher candidates are typically college-age individuals, who are technologically well connected and who allocate substantial amounts of time to the use of Internet, computers, and other types of technology tools (Palfrey & Gasser, 2013).
The following research questions guided this current study:
(1) What are teacher candidates’ levels of Computer Self-Efficacy?
(2) What are teacher candidates’ levels of Digital Citizenship?
To investigate the two questions, a quantitative analysis was used to measure teacher candidates’ mean scores and standard deviations on Computer Self-Efficacy and all three subsets of Digital Citizenship.

Findings

The two online surveys developed by Al-Zahrani (2015) were conducted and data was collected in the fall semester of 2018 from 50 teacher candidates.

Table 1Computer Self-Efficacy Scale (N=50)

Subscale M SD
Computer Self-Efficacy 4.11 0.95

Based on the data in Table 1, which explains the results of the Computer Self-Efficacy Scale, the total mean for teacher candidates’ Computer Self-Efficacy is 4.11. In particular, the Computer Self-Efficacy questions with the highest means are those concerning general uses of computers such as “I feel Confident ... [using the computer to write a letter, essay or assignment” (M= 4.86) and ‘I feel Confident ... [working on a personal computer]” (M= 4.68). The Computer Self-Efficacy questions with the highest means are those concerning specific uses of computers such as “I feel Confident ... [troubleshooting computer problems]” (M= 3.64) and “I feel Confident ... [understanding terms/ words relating to computer hardware]” (M= 3.7).

Table 2 Digital Citizenship Scale (N=50)

Subscale M SD
Total Respect Yourself / Respect Others (N=24) 4.52 0.80
Total Educate Yourself / Connect with Others (N=11) 4.21 0.99
Total Protect Yourself / Protect Others (N=11) 4.08 1.10
Total Digital Citizenship 4.34
0.95

Based on the data in Table 2, which explains the results of the Digital Citizenship Scale, the total mean for teacher candidates’ Digital Citizenship is 4.34, which indicates good levels of awareness. In particular, the Digital Citizenship practices with the highest mean are those concerning respecting for oneself and others (M= 4.52). This is followed by practices with regard to educating and connect with others (M= 4.21) and then protecting oneself and others (M= 4.08).
The results of both the Computer Self-Efficacy Scale and the Digital Citizenship Scale are comparable to the survey results conducted by Al-Zahrani in 2015.

Conclusion

Digital Citizenship is important not only in the United States but all in a world that increasingly operates electronically. Teachers are charged not just with teaching academics, but also teaching social skills so that students can be good Digital Citizens for the global community. These good practices are everyone's responsibility and needs to be embedded into curriculum and campus culture to become ways of studying, teaching, and working. The authors believe that preventive education of Digital Citizenship can be the most effective way to protect students from risks associated with online misbehaviors for a better future. The purpose of the study aligns with the 2019 CIES theme of “Education for Sustainability”.

Reference

Al-Zahrani, A. (2015). Toward digital citizenship: Examining factors affecting participation and involvement in the Internet society among higher education students. International Education Studies, 8(12), 203–217.
Choi, M., Glassman, M., & Cristol, D. (2017). What it means to be a citizen in the Internet age: Development of a reliable and valid digital citizenship scale. Computers & Education, 107, 100–11
Choi, M., Cristol, D., & Gimbert, B. (2018). Teachers as digital citizens: The influence of individual backgrounds, internet use and psychological characteristics on teachers’ levels of digital citizenship. Computers & Education, 121, 143–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.03.005
Jones, L. M., & Mitchell, K. J. (2016). Defining and measuring youth digital citizenship. New Media & Society, 18(9), 2063–2079.
Nath, J., & Chen, I. (2018). Technology in the Classroom: For Now and in the Future. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt.
Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2013). Born digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Ribble, M. (2014). Digital Citizenship: Using Technology Appropriately. Retrieved, from http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/nine-elements.html
Ribble, M. (2017). DigitalCitizenship. Retrieved from http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/
Ribble, M. (2015). Digital citizenship in schools: Nine elements all students should know. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.
Wizbowski, R. (2017). The top ten ways to be a better cyber citizen. Retrieved from https://www.justaskgemalto.com/us/top-10-ways-be-better-cyber-citizen/

Authors