Promoting Responsible Digital Citizenship in Higher Education

This paper presents an account of the genesis, rationale, implementation and evaluation, of an initiative to promote responsible Digital Citizenship in Higher Education settings. The genesis was concern about the negative... [ view full abstract ]

This paper presents an account of the genesis, rationale, implementation and evaluation, of an initiative to promote responsible Digital Citizenship in Higher Education settings. The genesis was concern about the negative impacts of inappropriate online activity within the DkIT community. Our initial hypothesis was that our students are digital natives. Yet, the norms of interaction in the online world appeared different from those of the face-to-face world. Awareness of, and concerns for the feelings, well-being, and rights of others did not seem to apply to the same extent in digital spheres. There appeared to be little awareness of the obligations of respect, equality, reciprocity and collegiality which characterise our intra-communal flesh and blood relationships. Thus, whilst the online and face-to-face worlds are inextricably intertwined and cannot be decoupled in practice, these spaces engender different sets of norms. Therefore, our rationale was to create a dialogue within our HE setting that sought to challenge this false division separating online and offline communications and interactions. The subsequent theoretical underpinning of this initiative drew upon and synthesised literature from community development, republican citizenship, and the social psychology of online communications. We implemented a two-strand response: firstly, a train-the-trainer workshop model; secondly, a live VLE which functions as an asynchronous interactive space for ongoing dialogue. These aspects are now embedded as part of the first-year students’ formal induction process. In addition, other participants who have engaged with this learning experience include student ambassadors, programme directors and course convenors. The outcomes have been threefold: an increased awareness of appropriate netiquette; dissemination of the institute’s formal expectations around digital activity, and crucially, the training of a network of digital citizenship champions. The evaluation of our initiative indicates the emergence of a systemic cultural change within our institution in relation to online behaviour. Furthermore this knowledge and experience will contribute and inform the discussion of this increasingly important area in the higher education sector.