Rethinking Digital Citizenship

The need to teach responsible and ethical digital habits has never been more pressing. For students, digital citizenship isn’t just a skill — it’s essential to navigating everything from staying connected with their friends to learning about the world around them, to preparing for college and career. But with technology advancing so quickly, how can we help young people make healthy choices?

Richard Culatta, CEO of ISTE+ASCD, has called for us to rethink what it means to be a digital citizen. In a recent conversation with EdSurge, he explained why digital citizenship is far more than just online safety. His approach calls for a broader focus that encourages students to use technology in creative, meaningful ways — for the good of society. As artificial intelligence and other innovations transform the digital space, there is an urgent need to prepare students to thrive in the future.

EdSurge: How do you define digital citizenship?

Culatta: When we think about digital citizenship, it’s about how we show up in our digital communities. This is a key distinction from older definitions that focused primarily on online safety and protecting personal information. Those earlier concepts felt self-focused, emphasizing individual protection above all else.

Being a digital citizen today means understanding that we are all in a very real, albeit virtual, community with other individuals. Our actions can and will significantly impact other community members and vice versa. This shift changes how we approach teaching young people about digital citizenship.

Participating in this virtual world isn’t optional; it’s where many of life’s most important moments now occur. But understanding how to present ourselves and use our voice for good in this space is a skill we can choose to develop. Digital citizenship is no longer just about creating strong passwords; it’s about using technology to make our digital community a better place.

Why should educators and families prioritize digital citizenship?

Understanding how to leverage the digital world for personal success and societal contribution is one of the most valuable skills for young people today. We often incorrectly assume that kids will just figure out how to navigate the digital world on their own, but that’s not the case. It’s much harder for young people to observe and model effective digital skills compared to other life skills.

For example, we can easily demonstrate showing respect for shared spaces in the physical world, like picking up litter in a park. Children can visibly observe when we bend down to pick up a discarded can and toss it in the bin. However, when adults engage in positive digital behaviors — such as sharing uplifting content, tactfully addressing misinformation or using online tools for community engagement — children might only observe dad sitting at his laptop.

This is why it’s so important to overtly teach good digital citizenship skills. Unlike in other parts of our children’s lives, without this intentional instruction, we risk leaving a significant gap in our children’s preparation for the digital world they’ll inherit.

In what ways might access to generative AI influence digital citizenship?

I don’t think generative AI fundamentally changes the core digital well-being skills we need to teach; it simply adds urgency to teaching them. AI is a powerful accelerator that has the potential to enhance either healthy or harmful purposes. The determination depends on how we choose to use it.

Like any technology tool, building balance in our tech use, engaging meaningfully with others and using technology to foster curiosity are all foundational skills. However, we should be concerned that we’re introducing AI at a time when we still haven’t prioritized teaching these foundational digital citizenship skills. It’s a little like giving someone the keys to a Ferrari before they’ve even earned their driver’s permit.

AI should be a catalyst for a conversation about what skills should remain uniquely human versus those that technology could take over. We should make that determination by seeking to understand how AI can help us be better humans. Humans excel at discernment, judgment, humor, civility and creativity. However, we struggle with tasks like brainstorming or synthesizing large amounts of information. These are areas where AI excels, which could allow humans to focus more energy on becoming better at our skills, like being ethical decision-makers.

Understanding that AI isn’t magic is critical for students to understand how to best apply it in their lives.

That’s why ISTE+ASCD is launching one of its largest campaigns, GenerationAI, to help educators rethink learning design in an AI world. We’re shifting the focus from how to use AI tools to the more important question of how to redesign learning for a connected future.

How are schools addressing cell phone bans in relation to digital citizenship?

Schools that haven’t prioritized teaching digital citizenship skills often resort to banning devices. However, we need to teach young people how to use technology for learning and problem-solving for them to be prepared for a healthy future. If we’re not teaching these essential skills in school, in partnership with parents, where will they learn them?

Healthy tech use at school requires having the right conditions in place. Many schools rely on acceptable use policies that students sign without ever discussing or ensuring they understand what they are signing. Even worse is when schools provide acceptable use policies in complex legal language that students don’t even understand. Instead, we should approach tech use like classroom norms — discussing and establishing them with students in simple language. ISTE and CoSN have created a useful guide on creating healthy norms for tech use that gives examples for how to create effective norms.

Schools that take time to set appropriate tech use norms with students see healthier environments and kids learning lifelong skills. Banning technology might feel like a quick fix, but it creates bigger problems down the road when students never learn critical digital well-being skills. Banning devices from school means that kids will learn digital behaviors from sources other than parents and teachers, such as social media or peers who also haven’t developed healthy tech habits — which is very concerning.

It’s important to note that if a school’s tech culture has become dysfunctional, it’s completely appropriate to pause device use temporarily while taking time to establish healthy norms and teaching key digital citizenship concepts. However, long-term, categorical bans on technologies that are critical for kids’ future success are not a good option.

What are some ways in which ISTE+ASCD is supporting educators in strengthening digital citizenship competencies with their students?

We offer several resources on digital citizenship, including a set of free digital citizenship lessons for teachers to use with students from kindergarten to seniors in high school. We also offer online courses to help teachers and school leaders better understand how to teach digital wellbeing. And, of course, this is a topic we address at all our events.

If a school’s technology norms are just a list of “don’ts” (the things we don’t want kids to do with technology), we’re missing the opportunity to practice positive behaviors. It would be like teaching math by only listing wrong answers and never practicing solving equations. We need to explain and model the digital skills we want kids to develop. The goal is to move beyond just prohibitions and focus on teaching positive, constructive ways to use technology effectively.

We also have a free online community called Connect, where educators can share what’s working and discuss building healthy digital skills.

How can schools partner with parents to reinforce digital citizenship beyond the classroom?

Schools can help by sharing the ways they encourage positive tech use: fact-checking, fostering curiosity, managing assignments and supporting the school community. They can also provide examples of healthy tech norms for home use.

Balance is critical, but it’s important to understand that establishing a single “screen time” limit is far less helpful than discussing the value of individual activities that take place on a screen. We shouldn’t group all screen activities together any more than we would group all outdoor activities as “outside time” — some types of activities deserve more time than others, depending on the value they are providing.

Instead of focusing on “screen time,” we should shift to thinking about “screen value,” evaluating the quality of individual digital activities rather than time spent on a device. This approach helps kids understand the difference between valuable and less valuable screen activities.

If we are diligent in teaching digital citizenship skills, we will establish the foundations for a much healthier and inclusive future online world.

Bring digital citizenship to the classroom in meaningful ways. Check out ISTE’s Digital Citizenship in Education, which includes DigCit Lessons.