Rights and Responsibilities

     Of course, the most notorious of recent abuses is probably the Russian interference in our most recent presidential election. I believe that Russia was out of bounds in its weighing in on what should be protected internal affairs of the United States. Although citizens of the United States can debate and mull over ideas in a public forum, citizens of a foreign power should have no such protected rights---particularly when they seem to have done so to disrupt and spread discord with false (even conflicting) information. It would be helpful for people reading posts from people or bots from outside the country to be able to identify them as such. Americans users of digital media need to do their homework and become more savvy about digital content. The internet can be such a powerful shaper of public opinion and digital users need to exercise intelligence.

Margaret, I think that your comments underscore why critical media/digital literacy is an important part of digital citizenship instruction. We need to teach students to do more than follow directions in the classroom but to develop higher-order thinking skills and apply them beyond the cinderblock walls.

Very well stated

I think, along with this, is the importance of teaching a discerning mind when it comes to reading online content.  I think this is so hard with my junior high kids-"If it's on the internet, than it has to be true!".

This was my immediate thought as an answer to the question regarding digital abuse. I'd add that FaceBook
should have been monitoring and shutting down these websites. I believe they knew at some point what was happening and did nothing to stop it. Money over Cyber Citizenship on the part of FB??

I agree with some of this, but not completely. There are no national boundaries on social media, so enforcing limits on who can post what would be extremely challenging. However, one responsibility is with each social media platform to be sure to indicate the originator of the message. Another responsibility is with each of us to investigate the origin of the message and try to determine its’ intent before sharing, forwarding or liking that message.

This is so true,  students are not aware of the difference between .com, .net, .edu, .gov.