Further musings on Digital Citizenship

Becoming a digital citizen and being a digital native is the way of the future. It can’t be stopped and it can’t slow down. The material world that we live in feels sometimes as though it fades into the background and we are communicating more and more via digital methods.

For those of us that are old enough to remember, the internet was something that you did research on and received information about a topic. You could basically look at the internet as a one way street; giving us information without giving us the means to return the favour. This was called Web 1.0. Today however, Web 2.0 is here and this is the natural habitat of the digital native. Within this habitat, the digital native has many tools that it needs to survive. These tools include: blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, ebay, twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Myspace, Delicious, Stumble Upon, Wikipedia, Skype, Photobucket, flickr and visual thesaurus, just to name a few.

Many of the tools that the digital native is competent with are also useful in an educational setting. What does this mean for the modern library and more importantly, for this particular library? Do we need to think about changing the way that we provide information to many of the digital natives (students) that we assist every day?

With the introduction of eBooks, iPads and media players, we already have a big fat foot plonked heavily into the digital world.

So where to now? We use facebook, ebay and many other Web 2.0 tools every day. Many of them could be utilised in schools to deliver information efficiently because of the collaborative capabilities of Web 2.0.

Although this all seems fine and dandy, there are a few complications. How do we control the flow of information so that it is still beneficial to our students learning? We have a duty of care with our students and it would be necessary to make sure that they are aware of online privacy laws and what that means for them. Do they know that you are not allowed to put up any one else’s photo without their permission, and what can they do if someone has done this to them? Do they know how to adjust the settings on Facebook or similar to block out unwanted people/comments? How do we moderate digital conversations so we know that students are safe from bullying in the library, the one place where students traditionally come to feel safe and secure at recess and lunch times?

Questions I think we need to ask ourselves/to ponder upon.........

·        Most of today's young people are comfortable with technology, but are they using it appropriately – or even capably?

• Do they understand their roles and responsibilities in digital society?
• What are our own personal standards / ethics, especially if we think we cannot be caught or seen?
• How can we, as adults, help children to become responsible digital citizens?

These are challenges that at some stage, every school library is going to have to face. To provide relevant information to students we need to be in tune with the ways in which they are comfortable with receiving, and in using it. Libraries have been doing this reasonably successfully since around 3 A.D, and this is just another step along the long road of information storage/retrieval and usage. We just keep changing our methods of doing this to suit the clientele we are working with.

The scary part of this ramble is that it sounds like I know what I am talking about – and I do, to some degree, but in actual fact, I am being a duck. Calm and unruffled on the surface – but paddling like crazy underneath, just to keep my head above water. The good bit is I don’t think I am alone – and that is comforting in a way – we can all keep paddling along together and learn from each other. After all, isn’t that what this digital and social world is all about – collaboration?