Develop Students' Digital Citizenship Profiles Using Online Diaries
of Field Work
Hanan M. Elshair
Professor of Instructional Technology
Department of Instruction and Information Technology.
Faculty of Women, for Arts, Sciences, and Education.
Ain Shams University, Egypt
Hanan M. Elshair is a Professor of Instructional Technology interested in
E-learning design and implementation and technology-based global
learning and communication
Author Email: [email protected] – Website:
http://profhananelshair.net/
Develop Students' Digital Citizenship Profiles Using Online Diaries
of Field Work
Abstract
This paper investigates how online diaries of field work can
improve students' digital citizenship profiles. It uses the Ribble (2004)
framework of technology learning to help female students to observe,
reflect, and act on aspects of technology uses and misuses in their
institution. Students formed nine groups of 2-3 each , each group was
assigned an academic department to collect data using field work
assignment sheet, then reflect on their observations and acts using online
diaries form and a questionnaire both created by the researcher. For six
weeks, students acted as digital citizens to fulfill the tasks required from
them, and were able to track the development of their profiles represented
as healthy leaves of a tree programmed to reflect students' inputs to the
online questionnaire. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to
analyze data collected by the instruments, results showed varied
improvements in aspects of digital citizenship, where the highest degree
measured for digital communication and digital access, and lowest degree
for digital responsibilities and digital law. Qualitative analysis of students
diaries revealed improvement in students awareness of learning
community, attitudes to make changes in the environment, and courage to
modify negative behaviors.
Keywords: Digital Citizenship - Online Diaries - Field Work –
Community based Learning – Technology – Higher Education – Female
Students – Reflective Learning
Introduction
Digital citizenship is a new term that has recently evolved in
accordance with the revolution of the digital age and digital technology'
increased usage. Educators are now focusing on how to educate the
students on the proper use of technology after incidents were collected
regarding negative uses of technologies. Although specialists have
observed different aspects of digital citizenship implementation, still few
researchers have examined the way by which students' digital citizenship
profiles can be developed. One of the methods suggested for use is
"reflective teaching"; a teaching methodology that motivates students to
reflect on actions and observation they encounter in the day or in class.
Reflective thinking techniques are varied, and one of them is "personal
diaries writing"; a technique by which the student can reflect in written
format on things that surround him and relate to digital citizenship. This
paper is inspired and built on the work cited to Ribble (2004-2011). He
defined digital citizenship as the norms of behaviors with regard to
technology use. The nine elements of digital citizenship defined by
Ribble (2004); digital access, digital commerce, digital communication,
digital literacy, digital etiquette, digital law, digital rights and
responsibilities, digital health and wiliness, and digital security are used
in this paper to develop the tasks assigned to students and instruments
used to collect data.
Method
This paper investigates how online diaries of field work may
improve students' digital citizenship profiles. 29 female students studying
instructional technology major were randomly assigned to groups of 2-3
each and an academic department to observe, reflect, act on uses and
misuses of technology using task sheet provided by the researcher.
Theoretical background covered the elements of digital citizenship
during F2F lecture setting, where relation between technology and
community, people, users was introduced using concepts clarification and
case studies. A website was developed which contained :
 A digital citizenship questionnaire which included nine elements of
digital citizenship with three items for each element and each item
requests a yes/no response from the student,
 An online diaries form which hosts approximately 200 words
 The digital citizenship profile tree, which reflects the development of
students profiles as they get involved with field work
Tasks assigned for students field work in weekly basis were:
 observe positive and negative behaviors related to technology uses
within the department
 log in to the website and write personal diaries to reflect on your
observations
 share your diaries with colleagues at your group
 think of ways to change negative behaviors and appraise positive
ones
 approach the department and apply your ideas
 return to the website and answer the online questionnaire
After six weeks of field work, students were permitted to view the digital
citizenship tree and get feedback on areas that were developed in their
profiles and areas that still need improvement.
Two types of data analysis were implemented, a quantitative analysis of
students inputs to the questionnaire, and qualitative analysis of students
diaries. Descriptive analysis of students profiles as reflected in the digital
citizenship tree was also administered to define areas of strengths and
weaknesses
Results
Online digital citizenship questionnaire
Students answers to the online digital citizenship questionnaire was
analyzed using quantitative methods. Mean was calculated for each items
category for each time the students responded to the survey. Results as
shown in figure 1
25
20.7
20
23.0
22.0
21.0
19.0
Digital access
15.0
14.0
15
14.0
Digital
communication
12.0
11.7
11.0
10.3
10
9.0
8.7
7.0
5
3.0
2.3
2.0
1.3
1.0
5.0
4.7
4.0
3.0
5.3
5.0
4.0
Digital literacy
9.0
7.3
6.0
5.3
4.0
Digital
commerce
Digital etiquette
8.0
Digital law
5.3
4.3
4.3
3.0
3.0
Digital health
and safety
Digital security
0
week one week two week three week four week five
Digital rights and
responsibilities
week six
Development of DC competencies by week 1
Digital access, digital communication , digital rights and responsibilities,
and digital literacy were ranked as elements with the highest positive
development. While digital security, digital etiquette, and digital
commerce were ranked as elements with lowest development.
Surprisingly, digital health and safety, and digital security didn't maintain
the same pace od development and reversed after week three. Meanwhile,
digital literacy and digital access had successfully improved regulatory.
Online diaries
Online diaries content was analyzed using qualitative methods by three
rounds of analysis by the researcher and an assistant. The aim was to
inspect all sentences that reflect actions, attitudes, thoughts related to
elements of digital citizenship. Sentences like: I tried to help, I focused on
negative behaviors, it is hopeless , how can modify, I have to show them,
etc. The analysis targeted frequencies of those patterns among students,
and frequencies of each pattern by time during the six weeks. Content
analysis revealed the following competencies of digital citizenship:
 Awareness of digital citizenship elements
 Awareness of positive and negative behaviors in relation with
digital citizenship
 The intent to change negative behaviors of others
 The intent to appraise positive behaviors of others
 Taking actions
 Advocate to actions
 Giving support by multi ways
 Consulting colleagues to improve performance
 Adopting actions made by others
Students DC profiles
Qualitative analysis of students DC profiles as reflected in the DC tree
which built on the student's inputs to the questionnaire. Profiles are seen
as in figure 2
digital citizenship profile tree 2
Each leaf represents one item of the digital citizenship questionnaire , and
the nine branches represent the nine elements of digital citizenship. A
green leaf indicates positive responses counted 3 (yes) of 6 responses. A
yellow leaf indicates negative responses counted less than 3 (yes) of a
total of 6 responses. Figure 3
Indications for profile appearance. 3
Conclusion
Online diaries can be used to develop some elements of digital
citizenship. But online dairies should be accompanied by regulated work
to reflect upon. Reflective teaching is a good way to stimulate students'
thoughts and actions. In this paper, an investigation of how online diaries
of field work can develop students' profiles as citizenship. Two methods
were used to measure that development, a quantitative method, where the
students were asked to response to an online questionnaire that measures
their actions as digital citizens. Elements such as digital literacy, digital
access, and digital communication were ranked with highest
development, those elements are internal and governed by the individual
personality and attitude, and are controlled by the student himself. while
elements such as digital security, digital etiquette, and digital commerce
were ranked with lowest development. Those elements are external to the
individual and need effort to be developed as they are governed by the
person relationship to the others. As the sample of the study were female
students, they were also governed by values and cultural variables that
might have affected their efforts to make the change and act positively.
Implications of findings
The results of this paper stress the importance of online diaries in
developing students digital citizenship profiles. The website developed
for the current experiment is addressing the elements of digital citizenship
and can be used by students and educators and researchers interested in
digital citizenship reflect on daily uses and experiences related to
technology uses. It can also be used as a measure of how students use
technologies and respond to others uses. The online questionnaire is a
tool to be used and implemented by other educators and researches. The
digital citizenship profile tree is an interesting tool to encourage students
in different learning stages to track the development of their digital
citizenship behaviors. The results also showed impact of culture and
community on student's behaviors and actions. The tendency to enhance
personal characteristics related to digital citizenship while characteristics
of people are not adequately enhanced. Also, the elements related to
dealing with other individuals such as digital commerce, digital security,
and digital commerce are governed by social values and habits. The
findings also revealed the effect of gender, this was verified by sample of
the study where selected as females and the analysis of their online
diaries revealed the effect of being a girl when approaching people in the
community with advices and instructions on proper use of technologies.
Further research is suggested that compare the digital citizenship profiles
of female to male students.
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