Preparing Students for Cyberspace!

Digital Art and Lego Starship by: Jim DeCesare

Is it possible to grow both towards technology and away from it simultaneously? This is the conundrum I find myself in. The paradigm is no longer shifting in education…it has shifted to all-things-digital, especially the lens through which we view primary, secondary (and post-secondary) education. Our students are not merely incorporating technology. They are now considered digital citizens.

I gave a presentation entitled, Creativity in the Digital Age at technology conference recently. During the question and answer portion, a professor in the audience told me that he sees the world through the lens of Venn diagrams (labeled, intersecting circles to explain complex content simply). At the end he handed me a business card with a Venn diagram sketch of my talk with two merging circles…one labeled “art,” the other labeled “digital,” and the intersection of the two was labeled “creativity.” The professor was well intended, but I asked myself, ‘Can creativity really be summed-up in a simple Venn diagram, so easily explained?’ I felt that the professor either missed the essence of my presentation, or I fell-short making my case…probably a bit of both.

Of course, it is the natural inclination for educators to seek clear and simple understanding of complex subject matter, and just as natural for this overly-sensitive-artist-type to yell to the heavens about the value of creativity! But this whole digital-thing in education needs a plan of action. I get it. Policy and creativity must play-well together so that we may best prepare our educational systems for the 21st Century.  

I recently led a brief meeting with colleagues to start the formal conversation in our school on digital responsibility. I asked a friend, a PhD in science (and Master's candidate in Curriculum Development) to share his presentation with the faculty based on a curriculum entitled, “Digital Citizenship,” by Mike Ribble. The key points of the curriculum are valid: teaching students digital law, etiquette, rights, responsibilities and so on. The presentation described a “Digital Citizen” as one who is in good standing as a resident, sharing common space with others and abiding by impartial laws.

To earn citizenship usually requires that one is a member by birthright or has taken an oath of loyalty. There are certainly grey areas of citizenship, but the concept is easily understood. Cyberspace is not so easily understood. It is nebulous, not linear. Cyberspace is our new frontier...wild and untamed. As educators, we are in a time like no other. My three year old daughter Annie Rose can now navigate an iPad gaining instant access to the world via internet!

No ceiling can limit the height of student achievement, and no floor can limit the depth of failure. Cyberspace is exponentially expanding, and unpredictable. We may call it digital citizenship (or whatever buzz-term we wish) to give it understandable form. The truth is we are asking students to stake-their-claim in a land where there is no actual fixed position.

Let us prepare students to explore this foreboding digital-realm by treating cyberspace more like outer space. Help each not to fear cyberspace, but to respect it's elusive, erratic, unconstrained, unpredictable and volatile nature. By all means, analyze data and form school policies that address key concerns!

Just as importantly, arm students with the ability to cultivate CREATIVITY, to tell their unique STORY, to find PURPOSE, to discover unique GIFTING, to build EMPATHY...to SEEK TRUTH. Encourage students in these ways to be well-prepared space travelers...to be Cybernauts! 

I believe we can move toward technology and away from it simultaneously; by reinvesting our energy on the character development of our students…along with…curriculum development and policy.

To infinity and beyond!!!!...Oh yeah, that's Buzz Light Year. Oops.