Inspire #Digcit in Online Communication

Get past the rule: communicate appropriately online.

Rather than simply telling students what is right and wrong, I choose to look beyond the communication.  As a science teacher, I often told my students about discoveries made in science.  A discovery is only a discovery if communicated out to the world.  It is how people gather information, learn about new things, and how they identify with people.  Whether spoken or written, communication is the key to transfer of knowledge.  A person may have found the cure to all disease, but without communication, nobody knows and the disease continues.

Who discovered the double helix?  Who won the Nobel Prize for it?

So how can we inspire good digital citizenship in online communication.  Rather than give a set of don'ts, inspire greatness. Are your students communicating about a discovery?  Have they designed a solution to a problem? Are they trying to change the culture at their school?  None of these things can be done with poor communication.

Look at commercials, presidential elections, anything negative; people get sick of it.  Going back to my favorite book, Start with Why, people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.  If you want people to buy your product, buy in to your culture change, and support your solution then you need to communicate in a manner that speaks to them.  A lesson in Digital Citizenship does not need to be about do's and don'ts, it can be more about marketing.  Changing an idea in your head to a movement takes communication.

Turn a dream into a movement, spread the positive, solve a problem.

Regardless of how you word it.  Students rise to a challenge and will surprise you with the things that they do.  If all we do is get our kids to "not say bad things online" then we are selling them short.  Have them communicate online to create something.