Why Teach Digital Citizenship?

According to the nice people at Wikipedia (people like you and me!)... Mossberger, et al. (2011) define digital citizens as "those who use the Internet regularly and effectively." 

In qualifying as a digital citizen, a person generally must have extensive skills, knowledge and access, using the Internet through computers, mobile phones, and web-ready devices to interact with private and public organizations. (These factors naturally preclude many from becoming fully realized as ‘digital citizens’... such as people who are illiterate and those who have no viable way of accessing the Internet).

In terms of teaching these skills and the knowledge that empowers digital citizens, what goes on in the classroom can play an important role... 



Although this video refers to an Education Authority in an English-speaking environment, I firmly believe we need to equip students of English in Brazil and elsewhere, who are learning to use English for Global Communication, with the necessary digital skills and awareness of issues like cyber-safety from an early age.

If you believe, as I do, that the purpose of education is to prepare the learner to interact effectively with their world and its inhabitants, there can really no longer be much justification for NOT integrating technology with the language we teach in class, since the majority of our students are most likely to use that language in an online environment first (or indeed exclusively). This may be in the form of the written word as in chats, e-mails, blogs, comments on social media etc.... or in the spoken form, as with skype, youtube and other platforms using voice, but however or wherever they use English, digital citizenship is a MUST!

If you are a teacher, how have you approached this topic? If you are a learner (aren't we all?) how do  you feel about this topic? I look forward to reading your comments.