Digital Communication

Video Transcription

Hello, everyone. I hope you're having a wonderful day. Today, we're going to look at the concept of digital communication.

And for today's lesson, I have taken a quote by Austrian American author Peter Drucker. And his quote says, "the most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said." And I think that this is especially important as we talk about the concepts of digital communication, especially the safety and security that students need to take when communicating with others digitally.

So, today, by the end of the lesson, you should be able to summarize the nine elements of digital citizenship. You should be able to describe the specific element of digital communication. You should be able to discuss why knowledge of digital communication is important and specifically identify what digital communication elements your students should be learning.

Now when we look at digital citizenship, we see that there are nine major elements to help make up digital citizenship. The first of which is digital access. Digital access has to do with the access that students in your classroom have or don't have to these technological devices and the way in which you as a teacher have to adapt in order to help your students of all access means become a digital citizen.

The second major element of digital citizenship is digital commerce. This looks at the way in which we buy and sell things using new technology as a medium and what we as teachers need to communicate with our students concerning buying and purchasing online. The third major element of digital citizenship is digital literacy. This looks at how fluent we are, both we as teachers and our students, in the use of new technology. This looks at fluency both in and out of the classroom.

The fourth major element is digital etiquette, focusing in on some of the norms our society has established for how we interact online and how we use these new technologies. The fifth element of digital citizenship is digital law. This takes the elements of digital etiquette one step further and focuses on the law pertaining to our interactions on the internet.

The sixth and seventh elements of digital citizenship are our digital rights and digital responsibilities. These elements focus in on the rights that we as teachers and our students have as we interact online and the responsibilities that come with those rights. The eighth element of digital citizenship is digital health, which looks at the way we are protecting our health and well-being given our new modes of communicating and interacting with the internet. This looks at how we are affected both physically and emotionally.

And the final element of digital citizenship is digital security. Focusing in on what are the elements that are put in place to help protect us as we interact online and become fully-fledged digital citizens. So let's look specifically at digital communication. First and foremost, what is it?

Well, digital communication is a lot like communicating in the real world, focusing on appropriate ways of interacting in that digital world. The rules of digital communication are very, very similar to the rules of interactions face to face. However, sometimes our interactions are not always as clear digitally as they are in person. So why is digital communication so important to know?

Well, first and foremost, digital communication is changing faster than the speed of type. What this means is that there are many, many, many, different options for students to communicate digitally. There's texting, instant messaging, posting on social networks, using email, using cell phones, as well as new apps being developed every single day in order to help students communicate online.

Now this is really excellent, but it also requires some education on how to make smart digital choices and what students are going to need in order to keep up with all of these new types and means of communication. It's also important for us to know about digital communication because it is way too easy to fail in digital communication. Teens often make poor decisions, and this ends up being fodder for news agencies. Those who haven't made wise decisions are discussed every single day in the news. So it's important for us to make sure that students stop and think about the potential lifelong consequences of a tweet, or a post, or a Snapchat, or something that they put out there into the digital universe.

Next, it's important for us to look at what specifically about digital communication we want to teach our students. First, it's important for us to teach them proper digital communication, discussing the differences between the way that we talk with someone face to face, the way that we write someone a handwritten letter, and then the way in which we communicate with them online, looking at what's safe, and what's appropriate, and making sure that all of the communications however private or public they may be are only going to be beneficial to that community. It's also important to remind students that their personal information should stay personal.

When you put something out into the digital world, it is so hard to get that back because nothing digitally ever really goes away. And this is something that many of my students have difficulty understanding. They think, well, if a Snapchat deletes itself after a certain number of seconds, that means it's never there. When in reality , not only can the receiver of that take a screenshot of what was sent but there are companies and organizations making tons of money retrieving these elements. So it's important to remind them that their personal information should stay personal if they don't want it to come back to them.

All right, let's go ahead and review. Now that we are at the end of the lesson, you should be able to summarize the nine major elements of digital citizenship. You should be able to describe digital communication. You should be able to discuss why digital communication is important. And finally, you should be able to identify what digital communication elements your students should be learned.

Now I would like to take just a little moment for reflection. As you reflect on this information, what are some of the challenges that you foresee in implementing knowledge of digital communication that help student balance appropriate and inappropriate times to be communicating digitally? Now to dive a little deeper and learn how to apply this information, be sure that you check out the additional resources section associated with this video. This is where you'll find the links targeted toward helping you discover more ways to apply this course material.