Digital Citizenship in the Classroom

Action Research Report

Master of Art in Education: Digital Teaching and Learning
EDUC 526
Azusa Pacific University
Instructor: Hixon
http://vanspronsenportfolio.weebly.com/
Kimi Van Spronsen

Abstract

This action research project focuses on my goal to create a classroom
environment and unit plan implementation to teach my students about Digital Citizenship
and then put our knowledge concerning Digital Citizenship into practice. The reason for
choosing this for my Research Report was due to my growing realization of how little my
students and myself truly knew and practiced digital citizenship. As a high school math
teacher working in a 1:1 iPad program on a daily basis my classroom is a hive of digital
activity but we have never taken the time to explore the importance of being an upright
digital citizen. My goal through this project is to provide my students with tangible ways
to practice digital citizenship and then have them take the initiative to share and practice
this knowledge throughout the school.
























Section One: Introduction
As I began teaching this year in a 1:1 iPad program I recognized that although the
school administration constantly stressed the importance of being a moral and upright
digital citizen to both the students and the teachers there was nothing actually done to
increase the awareness of either students or faculty as to what digital citizenship entailed.
My main goal for this action research project is to begin at a base level of what the
students know and then to develop and implement a plan to help my classes become
leaders in digital citizenship and then push and mentor them to share their knowledge
with the peers and school wide. In order to begin this plan I selected one of my math
classes that had moved ahead in the curriculum and therefore had additional time to
devote to learning about digital citizenship. My hope is that this action research plan will
help me create a curricular unit around digital citizenship that I can then utilize in all my
classes at the beginning of next year.
Section Two: Implementation
To carry out my action research plan, I am dividing my students into groups of
four and we will walk through and explore the topic of digital citizenship. To
accommodate class time and restrictions students will use twenty percent of their class
time each day to digital citizenship. In order to cover all the material the student will be
given a different topic every day. However in order to make room for students to initiate
their own discoveries and to follow up on their own research the daily questions will be
broad and give overall direction without dictating the exact path. To give students the
opportunity to practice their newfound knowledge each student will keep and update a
daily blog of their findings and respond to the other members of their groups blogs. At
the conclusion of two weeks of study students will use an additional week to brainstorm
and create a way to share their knowledge school wide.
Section Three: Results
In order to quantitatively track the results of my students I began this Action
Research plan by giving students a ten question quiz on Digital Citizenship which they
answered collectively as a group. An equivalent quiz was then given after one week and
then again at the conclusion of the study. As can be seen by the chart below all four
groups saw improvement across the board. Group 2 and 4 ended at the highest level
correctly answering 8.5 and 9 questions respectively correctly. What is not shown in this
data chart is the growth in the depth of students answers particularly the language that
students used when they were discussing different topics. As they continually studied
different areas of digital citizenship including copyright and fair use they had a better
grasp on the language and vocabulary.

Outside of their quiz scores the students blogs also exhibited a high level of
understanding and they were able to analyze and properly discern appropriate behavior as
they created their own digital footprint. The most surprising result of the study was the
ways in which students chose at the end of their own research to share their knowledge
0
2
4
6
8
10
Pre Test Mid Test Post Test
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
with their peers school wide. Students recognized a need for students to not only focus on
digital citizenship but also to be more aware and conscious of the digital footprint that
they are creating. One group in particular created a website that presented 4 different
imitations of a digital footprint that could be compared and then ranked to try and help
the reader understand the impact of their virtual identity. Every group felt the desire to
create a hands on project for students to participate in as they viewed merely sharing the
information verbally or through a visual presentation was not enough.
Section Four: Conclusion
The conclusion to this Action Research Report was that it is indeed possible for
students to grow and exhibit proper digital citizenship but beyond that it is vital for
students to teach each other about their virtual identity. One of the main changes I would
make to this research report would be to extend the amount of time dedicated to the
project and to place it in the beginning of my curriculum, and then allow it to be an
ongoing discussion throughout the school year. I was always nervous to begin this
discussion with my classes since I did not know how to tackle such a large issue but it
was refreshing to see the students reactions and there are a multitude of minor tweaks I
would like to make for next year including changing the focus from digital citizenship to
the concept of digital footprint. The concept of digital footprint provides greater
opportunity for hands on activities and learning and can easily lead into the discussion of
digital citizenship as well. In order to assist my students in learning how to be good
citizens in this new technological age I need to be proactive in my own classroom and
also encourage my fellow teachers to pursue similar tactics.

Section Five: General Comments
Perhaps the greatest lesson I learned from this experience was the great need to
have my students learn and dive into the concept of digital citizenship. Since I am
working in a 1:1 school this issue cannot be ignored and needs to be part of our
technology curriculum. I enjoyed having the chance to actually create a plan that could be
implemented and tested in a real classroom environment. So often we discuss the theory
behind implementing different plans and ways to see growth but rarely do you have the
chance to create a plan where things can actually change! I have also learned that the
more planning done on the forefront of the implementation greatly eases the transitions
and execution of the plan itself.