ePortfolio 6

For my Google+ discussion I mainly focused on respect and educate subgroups so for this post I thought I would dive more into the remaining protect group.

            The third subgroup of Dr. Ribble’s nine elements of digital citizenship is protect yourself/ protect others. Within this group there are three elements, they are rights and responsibilities, safety and security, and health and welfare. When I hear rights and responsibilities I immediately think of the statements you are always given at the doctors. On the paper it states the clinics responsibilities to you as a patient, like prompt billing, maintaining privacy, and treating patients respectfully. It also states the responsibilities of the patient which include providing accurate information, communication with provider, and prompt bill paying.

When I look at digital citizenships rights and responsibilities I see many of the same things exist between medical facilities and in the digital world. Just like on the forms there are always consequences if the rights and responsibilities are violated on both sides. When digital citizenships rights and responsibilities are not followed there are consequences including students abusing cell phone policy which results in a blanket ban of cell phones during school. In order for us to not loose the many privileges we are given in the digital scape we need to remember the elements of digital citizenship to maintain a safe and growing digital environment.

The eighth element of digital citizenship is health and wellness. This is a key element because it ensures the internet is a safe place. An online resource I found discussed how the issue of increased childhood obesity has a direct relationship between easy access to technology and young children’s inactivity. While this may be a big problem there are also many others including mental health, and social wellness. It is important to remember that technology is a large part of our society and has many positives related to it, but it also has many negative aspects including children’s exposure to online predators, and cyberbullying. Students need to learn the skills to avoid such situations and if they do experience them they must be reported to a family member or adult.

The last element is security. I believe this is one of the most important elements, but it is also the hardest to learn and remember. Most individuals don’t realize how much of their digital lives are stored on computers. You have all heard how some companies take your data and sell it to other companies. This is just one of the many instances where private information including phone number, address, and demographic information are not kept as secure as it would be if all the information was a hard paper copy.

Personally I know that as a young adult it was very hard for me to understand that what I was putting out into the digital world was not always used in the way I had intended. When I was young (middle and early high school) I used MSN messenger and loved it because it was the only way to communicate with my friends since this was before text messaging. While I used it in a safe manor I know many students in my class and around the country have scary or even threatening experiences while interacting with strange people over the internet. With the increase of social media and knowledge about available security options I believe everyone should take the time to see what personal information they are putting out into the digital world.