Rights and Responsibilities

As noted in the course materials, rights come with responsibilities.  The growth of the digital world and social media have provided anyone and everyone with a world stage on which to share their ideas.  In the US, we enjoy the right of free speech but that right does not give us the right to use our speech to harm others.  We all have a responsibility to ensure what we post online will not be harmful to others.  This includes not engaging in hate speech or cyberbullying that is targeted at specific people or groups as well as inciting violence or spreading misinformation that can harm the general population.

Professionally, we also have a responsibilities to ensure what we post online is based on accurate information when we are presenting any information as factual.  We need to make sure we are providing students or others with correct and valuable information.  We are responsible for ensuring that we are able to support the information we post with relevant science and/or research.  

We also have the responsibility to be good role models for digital citizenship for our youth.  We can model appropriate netiquette and online behavior so that our children can learn what is appropriate when interacting with others in the virtual world.