Today’s Adult Educators need to be informed about the themes and principals of Digital Citizenship and the safe, appropriate and responsible practices associated with using technology. Digital Citizenship encompasses than digital etiquette or what was known as netiquette back in the early days of internet computing with Telnet and UseNet news groups. Although most easily located sources are the internet are geared toward k12 educators or targeting at file sharing and copyright laws; a responsible and progressive educator would not assume that their adult students know or practice digital citizenship and a creative educator can adapt the information on these sites can for adult students. I would like to thank my Walden colleagues who recently shared links related to digital citizenship on their blogs; I would like to share these resources on my blog this week.

Gayle Simon’s Blog is located at http://educ6177galej.blogspot.com/2012/12/educ-6177-week-7-assignment-1.html and she shared Common Sense Media at http://www.commonsensemedia.org/about-us/our-mission
Common Sense media is a comprehensive website with tons of resources and references related to all types of media and the internet, including special sources for educators.

It appears that most of Common Sense Media resources are free; they cover lessons and modules on everything from email to passwords, to safety issues, creative work, responsibilities, online gender stereotypes, cyber bulling, data and file sharing, sexting. The lessons range from primary ages to college bound high school students in grades 9-12 and many of these lessons and issues could be easily adapted for adult learners.

Revonne Lester’s “Education Station’ http://educationstation2012.blogspot.com/2012/12/digital-world.html#!/2012/12/digital-world.html featured a link to Brain Pop located at http://www.brainpop.com/technology/digitalcitizenship/

Brain Pop is an animated interactive site for students and educators and its page on digital citizenship covers all the important themes: copyright, safety, on line searches, privacy, viruses, plagiarism, cheating, cyber bullying and more. This is a great introductory and refresher information source for everyone.

William Caruso’s blog http://carusoeducationtechnologies.blogspot.com/2012/12/digital-citizenship-ethics-and.html shared a significant resource with Exam Guard and URL ishttp://www.examguard.com/TestingEngine.asp

Exam Guard is a program that prevents all learners; distance, remote, self paced or even in classroom exam takers from cheating on exams with their computers. The program blocks tabs or windows and makes certain that only one tab or window can be open at a time of a PC. This means educators need to no longer hire exam proctors, and students should not have to travel to take exams if the software is installed on their PC.

Digital citizenship is a priority in education as integrating technology as a major teaching and learning strategy is essential for preparing learners to live and work (PBS, 2004). Technology is here to stay and its use is increasing in all aspect of our lives; we can no longer make up rules as we go along or be satisfied with simple and basic rules of netiquette (Network Netiquette, 2012). Educators and learners must be aware of principals of digital citizenship; it is essential for educators to integrate these principals into their teaching practice and to be informed by and teach the rights as well as responsibilities of digital citizenship (PBS, 2004).

Most digital citizenship sources, projects and professional learning management systems on the internet are geared to K-12 instructors (Teach Hub, 2012) (Edmodo, 2012) (Schoology, 2012). A majority of sites and projects for adults are targeted toward teaching digital citizenship with respect to illegal file sharing (Digital Citizenship Project, 2012). However, the themes of digital citizenship encompass much broader principals thank the problems of illegal file sharing and the concerns of the Recording Industry Association of America.

One site educators should be aware of is the Digital Citizenship Project at Illinois State University. The project goals were twofold: research and monitor file sharing and community outreach and education. They hoped for a ripple effect; train 3,000 teachers yearly, if each teacher passed on their learning, to 20 students, and then about 60,000 students would learn how about citizenship every year (DCP, 2012). Unfortunately, it appears that the project is in an inactive status or that it did not realize its full potential. I suspect this is because the scope of the project was too focused or file sharing. Adult educators can benefit from utilizing the project’s resources and philosophies and perhaps and should be aware of this major digital citizenship project for college level educators and learners.

The second site I would like to share is a link to a pdf file published in 2004 by PBS; although a dated publication, and again geared toward younger learners, PBS were forwarding thinking and got it right with Digital Citizenship: Addressing Appropriate Technology Behavior (PBS, 2004). Most digital citizenship sites focus heavily on the restrictions and responsibilities; PBS notes and I would like to point out that students have rights as well and it is important for educators to consider and understand their rights. “Rights. When creating or publishing anything digitally, students have the same copyright protection as any other content creators” (PBS, 2004).

Finally, this post would not be complete without referencing the work of Mike Ribble and his site Digital Citizenship (2012). Although Ribble was not the first to advance the themes and principals of Digital Citizenship, his work on defining and advancing digital citizenship brought the concern to the our attention and popularized the concepts in the mainstream of education (Ribble, 2012). Although Ribble’s work and many of the sources on the internet are geared for younger learners, we should not assume all adults are aware of digital citizenship. Adult educators and adult learners can benefit and improve their digital literacy from information gained on most sites related to digital citizenship.

References

Digital Citizenship Project (2012). Retrieved on Dec. 11, 2012 from http://digitalcitizen.illinoisstate.edu
Edmodo (2012). Retrieved on Dec. 11, 2012 from http://www.edmodo.com/
Network Netiquette (2012). http://www.networketiquette.net/netiquette.htm
PBS (2004). Digital Citizenship: Addressing Appropriate Technology Behavior. Retrieved on Dec. 11, 2012 from http://www.pbs.org/teacherline/courses/tech340/docs/tech340_bailey.pdf?cc=tlredir
Ribble, M. (2012). Digital Citizenship: Using technology Appropriately. Retrieved on Dec. 10, 2012 from http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Home_Page.html
Schoology (2012). Retrieved on Dec. 11, 2012 from https://www.schoology.com/home.php
Teach Hub (2012). Retrieved on Dec. 11, 2012 from http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-digital-citizenship

Open Access and Distance Learning for College level History Courses

This week I searched the web for open access and distance learning courses, programs and degrees in the discipline of History. I have conducted this search many times over the years and am always surprised that my searches yield few opportunities and such meager results. I conducted research last year to try and discover why history degrees were not readily available in on line and distance learning programs. The results of my research were a mix of complex factors related to economics, faculty training, technological infrastructure, and old school ways of thinking in the academe about teaching and learning. The most obvious problem I noted was not a lack of personal interest in studying history, but rather a lack of offering studies in the humanities in general. I consider history to fall under the umbrella of humanities and the study of peoples and the lifeworld. Distance education and distance educators are serving an educational system geared to supporting corporations, the military, the medical or educational fields and profit making entities (Sumner, 2000). The majority of online and degree programs are aimed at preparing learners for careers in those industry and growth fields. There are very few courses and programs, especially advanced degree programs for history and other humanities courses offered in distance, on line or open learning formats; I will discuss an example of each and provide links to those sources.

Open Access and History

I was able to find an open access, entry or survey level U.S. History course at http://www.uccp.org/ . This course is offered through the University of California as an open research for teachers and students. It is considered a college prep type course and only a supplemental learning experience. Although this course is free; there is no way to track enrollment, there are no credits, grades are assessments available. The course seems to be a very general U.S. history courses covering the colonial era and up to Reconstruction period following the Civil War. I think someone would have to have a very specific reason to take the course; a newbie history buff, refreshers courses for GED exams, prep for college entrance, new teachers syllabus example, but otherwise I see very little value and predict there is very little interest in such a broad survey course on U.S. History. The site does not look like it has been updated or revised in quite a long while.

Distance Learning and History

As I mentioned above; it is virtually impossible to earn a history degree in a distance program or on line. There are very limited advanced degree offerings from a few dubious and questionable proprietary on line colleges.
My search this week for history courses revealed that more distance courses were becoming available from traditional universities. The History department at Michigan State University is offering distance courses in all levels (100-400) of history during the summer months. The courses are full credit bearing and offered by regular faculty; the courses are not free, but tuition is reasonable and out of state students do not have to pay out of state fees. The courses count toward degree and graduation credit and most credits are transferable to other degree granting universities. http://history.msu.edu/onlinecourses/

A very nice feature of the on line history studies at MSU is a link to MATRIX http://www2.matrix.msu.edu/.
Matrix is a great resource for history educators and history students; it is one of the premier online humanities centers in the U.S. MATRIX is dedicated the application of new technologies, hosts on line resources and databases for teaching, learning and research. It houses major digital library repositories, partners with museums and is devoted to the application of new technologies for teaching, research, and outreach. As one of the premier humanities computing centers in the United States, MATRIX creates and maintains online resources, provides training in computing and new teaching technologies, and creates forums for the exchange of ideas and expertise in the field.

References

History Department University of Michigan (2012).
Retrieved on Dec. 6, 2012 http://history.msu.edu/onlinecourses/
Matrix (2012) Retrieved on Dec. 5, 2012 from http://www2.matrix.msu.edu/
Open Access (2012). Retrieved on Dec. 5, 2012 http://www.uccp.org/
Sumner, J. (2005). Serving the System: A Critical History of Distance Education. Open
Learning. Vol. 15, No. 3. Retrieved on Dec. 4, 2012 from http://pages.towson.edu/bsadera/istc717/modules05/module8/3888263.pdf