Pedu 2020 103989

Journal Pre-proof
Early childhood educators’ teaching of digital citizenship competencies
Alexis R. Lauricella, Jenna Herdzina, Michale Robb
PII: S0360-1315(20)30187-1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2020.103989
Reference: CAE 103989
To appear in: Computers & Education
Received Date: 9 January 2020

Revised Date: 23 July 2020
Accepted Date: 25 July 2020
Please cite this article as: Lauricella A.R., Herdzina J. & Robb M., Early childhood educators’ teaching
of digital citizenship competencies, Computers & Education (2020), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.compedu.2020.103989.
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Author Credit Statement
Alexis Lauricella: formal analysis, writing, review and editing, visualization, supervision;
Jennifer Herdzina: conceptualization, writing, review and editing, visualization; Michael Robb:
conceptualization, methodology, investigation, resources, data curation, writing and editing
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Early Childhood Educators’ Teaching of Digital Citizenship Competencies
Alexis R. Lauricellaa
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Jenna Herdzinab
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Michale Robbc
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aTechnology in Early Childhood (TEC) Center, Erikson Institute 451 N LaSalle Dr, Chicago, IL
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60654, USA alauricella@erikson.edu
bTechnology in Early Childhood (TEC) Center, Erikson Institute 451 N LaSalle Dr, Chicago, IL
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60654, USA jherdzina@Erikson.edu

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cCommon Sense Media, 650 Townsend St., Suite 435 San Francisco, CA 94103 USA
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mrobb@commonsense.org
Corresponding author: Alexis R. Lauricella email alauricella@erikson.edu

RUNNING HEAD: DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP
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Early Childhood Educators’ Teaching of Digital Citizenship Competencies
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Abstract
As technology access and use increases in early childhood classrooms and at home, there
is an increased need to support students’ understanding of how to be safe, responsible, and
cooperative digital media users. While teaching media literacy, in education has some historical
context, it is only relatively recently that school districts have expanded their efforts to teach
other digital citizenship competencies, including internet safety, media balance, and digital
footprint. The purpose of this paper is to use survey data of teachers to document how the
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teaching of digital citizenship competencies in elementary school vary based on factors such as
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demographics of the students and the amount of educator experience. Results from this
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descriptive study, indicate that elementary educators are teaching digital citizenship as early as
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kindergarten but not all competencies of digital citizenship are being taught equally.
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Additionally, early teaching of digital citizenship competencies is more likely to occur in

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suburban schools and schools with more racially-ethnically diverse students. These results have
implications for education policies around supporting digital citizenship competencies starting
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early in formal schooling.

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Introduction
The world in which young children are growing up in is different than that of previous
generations. In just the last decade, we have seen increases in regular access and use of digital
technologies across all age groups (Rideout, 2015, 2017). In addition to access and use of
technology at home, many school districts are intentionally incorporating technology into their
educational objectives and goals (e.g., Chicago Public Schools, n,d.; Los Angeles Unified School
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District, n.d.; The New York Department of Education, 2018) and districts are often providing
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1:1 access starting as early as Kindergarten. As a result, there has been a recent push to extend
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expectations of educators to include global digital citizenship curriculum within their classrooms
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due to the increased access and use of digital technology by youth. The United Nations General
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Assembly (2015) highlights that all students must learn new skills to support them to become
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global citizens and there are explicit calls for educators to support these digital citizenship skills
as part of the necessary preparation of 21st century learners (Bennett, Aguayo, & Field, 2016).
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Moreover, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has incorporated many
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aspects related to digital citizenship into their standards for educators (ISTE, n.d.). Children are
viewed as both being impacted by society as well as an agent of impact on society, thereby
school systems are grappling with the challenge of how to support children to become positive
citizens in an increasingly digital participatory society (Jenkins, Ito, & Boyd, 2015).
A variety of terms have been coined to refer to the important skills that youth need to
master in order to effectively access, use, and understand digital media. “Digital literacy” and
“media literacy” encompass the skills that youth must develop to be intentional consumers and
users of digital technology (Gilster, 1997; Christ, & Potter, 1998). While understanding how to
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use the technology is crucial, there is evidence that it is important to know how to use
technologies safely and responsibly, even at very young ages. The term “digital citizenship” has
emerged to reflect the ethical, safe, and responsible use of Internet technologies (Mattson, 2017;
Ribble, Bailey, & Ross, 2004),.
Given this dramatic change in the technology used, its explicit incorporation into formal
learning environments, and the continuous use of technology throughout development, it is
imperative that we examine how younger students are being taught digital citizenship
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competencies including thinking critically, behaving safely, and participating responsibly in the
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digital world. Therefore, this study seeks to descriptively explore which digital citizenship
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competencies educators are teaching young children (grades Kindergarten-5th grade). Teaching
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digital citizenship in early childhood specifically is still relatively rare, therefore we were
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interested in what teacher, student, and school factors were associated with the teaching of digital
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citizenship to younger children. Based on the results of this study, we can determine which
particular groups and populations may be in need of additional support to begin to educate youth
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on digital citizenship.
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Digital Citizenship in Early Childhood
As the various types of media have evolved over the years from books and newspapers,
to the radio and television, so has the way researchers, practitioners, and policy makers have
defined the understanding of media. The terms used to describe the literacy of ever-changing
elements of types of media include “media literacy”, “information literacy” “digital literacy”,
“Internet literacy”, “metaliteracy” among many others (e.g., Association of College and
Research Libraries, 2015; Gilster, 1997; Livingstone, Bober, & Helsper, 2005; Mackey &
Jacobson, 2011). Media literacy is defined as “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and
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act using all forms of communication” (National Association for Media Literacy Education, n,d)
and is probably the most widely used term as it dates back to the late 1980’s with the work of
Len Masterman and Barry Duncan (see Jolls & Wilson, 2014).
As the use of media became more widespread, research on the effects of media literacy
education has increased in recent years and migrated from adults to young children. In Ukraine,
the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX)’s media literacy program, Learn to
Discern, has increased adults’ knowledge of the news media industry and ability to identify fake
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news stories (Murrock, Amulya, Druckman, & Liubyva, 2017). The participation in media
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literacy curriculum have led to an increase in media knowledge and analysis skills in high school
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students (Martens & Hobbs, 2015; Hobbs & Frost, 1998).
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Digital citizenship extends many of the ideas of media literacy with a focus on the role
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and responsibilities of the users (Ribble, 2017). Digital citizenship is the “continuously
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developing norms of appropriate, responsible, and empowered technology use'' (Ribble, 2017).
Ribble’s nine digital citizenship elements include digital access, digital commerce, digital
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communication and collaboration, digital etiquette, digital fluency, digital health and welfare,
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digital law, digital rights and responsibility, and digital security and privacy.
While much of the data on the effectiveness of media literacy and digital citizenship
education are focused on adolescents and adults (e.g., Kahne & Bower, 2019;Parry, 2008;
Vromen, 2017; Hui & Campbell, 2018), there are arguments that this learning should be starting
much younger. Much like the research on children’s health behavior, starting better practices
earlier leads to better habits for life (Hayman, 2010), Rogow (2015) argues that it is critical to
support digital literacy and digital citizenship skills earlier rather than correcting
misunderstanding later (Rogow, 2015). Similarly, Ohler argues that teaching digital citizenship is
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aligned to teaching “character education” in the digital age (Ohler, 2011). Ohler (2011) states
“The digital age beckons a new era of character education, aimed directly at addressing the
opportunities and challenges of living a digital lifestyle” (p. 16). He further argues that teaching
and supporting digital citizenship for the purposes of character education should occur through
the school system.
While the research is minimal in the US, there is some evidence for the success of these
early digital citizenship experiences in other countries. For example, during an analysis of media
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literacy education in Turkey, Ireland, and Finland, researchers concluded that media literacy
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education should begin as early as possible in elementary school and be both integrated cross-
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curricula as well as taught as subject-specific (Tanriverdı, & Apak, 2010). Evidence has
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suggested that starting early is developmentally appropriate and can have positive effects. For
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example, a case study implementing a digital literacy curriculum, I-LEARN, in a Kindergarten

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class helped children locate information sources (Tecce DeCarlo, Grant, Lee, & Neuman, 2018).
Beyond classroom teachers specifically, librarians, either through school or public library
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spaces, can also be a space to support digital citizenship competencies (Moreillon, 2013). The
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American Library Association (2007) has developed their own standards to support 21st century
learning and skills with resources for librarians to continue to support digital citizenship. In fact,
school librarians have intiated some of the limited research on digital citizenship lessons in
elementary school years. For example, a K-5 school librarian has developed lessons to support
responsible digital citizenship as well as lessons focused on personal privacy and plagerism for
these young learners (Heaser, 2012). Creative use of popular video games, like Minecraft, have
also been used as interventions in which older elementary students used the game to teach
younger students digital citizenship skills during an after school club (Hill, 2015).
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Teaching Digital Citizenship
Digital citizenship differs from some of its comparable conterparts (e.g. media literacy) in
part because of its focus on citizenship and people as citizens in their participation with and
through digital technology. With a focus on citizenship as a way of understanding others and the
world around us (Ribble, 2017) , the teaching of digital citizenship becomes increasingly more
developmentally appropriate for even the youngest learners.
Recently, organizations have developed resources to support teachers teaching of digital
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citizienship competencies. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)
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provides education standards to help children become “empowerd learners” particularly around
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technology use (ISTE Standards, n.d.). Moreover, Krueger (2020) published an article to support
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educators in effectively teaching digital citizenship to students by providing 9 key resources and
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Ribble (2017) provides extensive examples, lessons, and activities to support teachers in creating
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digital citizenship lessons for students in grades K-12. Finally, Common Sense Media developed
their own digital citizenship curriculum which is free to edcuators. The Common Sense Media
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Digital Citizenship curriculum includes curriculum materials to support six digital topics based
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on research (James, Weinstein, & Mendoza, 2019). These six topics, or competencies, include:
(1) Media Balance and Well-Being, (2) Privacy and Security, (3) Digital Footprint and Identity,
(4) Relationships and Communication, (5) Cyberbullying, Digital Drama, and Hate Speech, (6)
News and Media Literacy. This curriculum and associated materials are taylored by grade for
teachers of Kindergarten through 12th.
To date, we are unaware of specific factors that relate to or predict early childhood
educators teaching of digital citizenship with their students. While these curriculum and
materials exist and many of them are developmentally appropriate for teaching these concepts to
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younger children, there are challenges and structural limitations that may impact teachers
abilitity or likelihood of teaching digital citizenship competencies. First, there are limited polices
and resources to increase teacher training on educational technology and how to teach digital
citizenship competencies (Authors, 2019; Livingstone, Haddon, Görzig, & Ólafsson, K., 2011;
U.S. Department of Education, 2017), which can lead teachers without guidance or support to
approach these hard to teach topics. We know that teachers report feeling unprepared to address
cyberbullying with students and are only moderately aware of the extent of cyberbullying that
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exists by students (Styron et al., 2016). Many teachers, particularly those who have been
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teaching for many years, are less comfortable using digital technology themselves (Authors,
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2014) and are less likely to engage in digital citizenship with their students (Choi, Cristol, &
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Gimbert, 2018). Aspects of teacher experience and efficacy using technology their classroom
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likely influence their capacity to support and engage in digital citizenship curriculum with
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influence what digital citizenship competeneices teachers teach and when. For example, if digital
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citizenship competencies are more relevant to things their students are dealing with in or out of
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school, you would suspect that those compentencies might be more likely to be focused on or
taught by teachers if any. For example, if teachers are experiencing situations within their school
regarding hate speech or bullying, that topic may make its ways into the curriculum where other
concepts may not be as directly relevant. Unfortunately, there is not enough research that has
documented what types of teachers, schools, or districts are more or less likely to teach digital
citizenship in early childhood.
Current Study
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This current study seeks to provide descriptive data about which digital citizenship
competencies educators are teaching in their educational practice with young children (grades
Kindergarten (K)-5) and what teacher, student, and school factors are associated with the
teaching of these competencies. This study uses a nationally representative dataset of K-5
teachers to examine which digital competencies teachers are teaching and what factors of the
school environment are related to teachers teaching of these competencies in elementary school
years. Therefore, we ask the following research questions:
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RQ1: What digital citizenship competencies are K-2 and 3-5 teachers teaching?
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RQ2: Do the digital citizenship competencies being taught in elementary school differ by
grade grouping (K-2 vs 3-5)?

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RQ3: Do factors related to demographics of the school related to the teaching of these 6
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digital citizenship core competencies?

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Method
Author & Author (2019) developed a 20-minute online survey that was administered to a
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national sample of United States K-12 teachers by Rockman et al. The data was collected in
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May, 2018. Random-probability sampling of a national teacher database was used with sampling
quotas to achieve equal groups of teachers from the following four grade-band levels: K-2, 3-5,
6-8, 9-12. The final sample collected by Rockman et al included 1208 K-12 teachers. For more
information on the sample and methodology see Author & Author (2019).
Participants
For the purposes of this study, we examined a portion of the dataset collected by Author
& Author (2019). For the purposes of this study we focused only on data only for K-5 teachers
who completed the full survey (N=585). We examined the data based on teachers who taught
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grades K-2 (N=291) and those who taught grades 3-5 (N=294). On average, teachers reported
being in the classroom for just under 13 years (M= 12.82, SD= 9.10), and there was no
significant difference in years in the classroom for teachers who taught grades K-2 or 3-5.
Demographics of the schools where respondents worked are provided in Table 1.
-----Insert Table 1 Here----
Measures and Coding
Teacher demographics. Teachers responded to demographic questions about their
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teaching experiences. Teachers were asked how many years they have been teaching in the
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classroom (years teaching). Teachers were asked which grade they taught and this was
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categorized as either Kindergarten to second grade (K-2) or third to fifth grade (3-5) for analysis
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purposes.
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School demographics. Teachers were asked about the racial/ethnic demographics of the
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students in the school in which they taught. They were asked to indicate the approximate
percentage of students that identify as the following racial-ethnic groups: White, African-
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American/Black, Latino/Latina, Asian, Multiracial, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacticic Islander,

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American Indian or Alaska Native, or Other which required a total of 100%. The racial/ethnic
demographics of the school was then coded into the following three categories: 1) predominantly
white if White was reported for 75% of the student population) 2) predominantly students of
color if African-American/Black, Latino/Latina, Asian, Multiracial, Native Hawaiian or Other
Pacticic Islander, American Indian or Alaska Native, or Other was reported for 75% of the
student population ( 3) more or less racially-ethnically diverse if less than 75% White and less
than 75% African-American/Black, Latino/Latina, Asian, Multiracial, Native Hawaiian or Other
Pacticic Islander, American Indian or Alaska Native, or Other. For the regression analysis this
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variable was then dummy-coded such that each of the three responses became their own variable.
For example, “predominantly white” was the label for the variable with 1= predominately white
and 0= predominately students of color or more or less racially-ethnically diverse, “POC school”
was used as the dummy variable in which 1= predominately students of color and 0=
predominately white or more or less racially-ethnically diverse, “Diverse school” was used as a
dummy variable in which 1= more or less racially-ethnically diverse and 0= predominately white
or predominately students of color.
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Teachers were asked if their school was in: 1) rural, 2) urban, or 3) suburban to indicate
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the setting. Setting was also dummy-coded in the same fashion as described above. Teachers
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reported the state or territory in which they currently reside. Region was then coded based on the
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U.S. Census Regions into: 1) Northeast, 2) South, 3) Midwest, 4) West 5) Non-state. Teachers
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indicated whether their school was: 1) public or 2) private. To assess the economic status of the
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school teachers were asked if their school was a Title 1 school (yes or no). In the United States a
Title 1 school is a categorization used to indicate increased federal funds provided due to higher
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concentrations of low-income students attending the school.

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Digital citizenship curriculum and competencies. Teachers were asked whether or not,
and how they have taught students about digital citizenship issues in their classroom. The
question provided the definition of digital citizenship as “competencies involved in thinking
critically, behaving safely, and participating responsibly in the digital world.” Teachers were
then asked what curricula and/or resources they used to support students’ development of digital
citizenship competencies in their classroom and allowed to select all that applied. Options
included: 1) Common Sense Education Digital Citizenship Curriculum, 2) BrainPop, 3) Everfi,
4) Be InternetAwesome by Google, 5) I keep Safe, 6) Netsmartz, 7) Media Smarts, 8)
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Learn.com, 9) other, please specify______, 10) I don’t use digital citizenship curricula or
resources in my classroom.
If teachers reported that they used a digital citizenship curriculum, they were asked about
which of the following six digital citizenship competencies they taught and were allowed to
select all that applied: 1) Media balance and well-being, 2) Privacy and safety, 3) Digital
footprint and identity, 4) Relationships and communication, 5) Digital drama, cyberbullying,
and hate speech, 6) News and media literacy. Descriptions of each of the competencies were
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included within the question. Specifically, Media balance and well-being were lessons in which
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students were taught about being aware of the health impacts of media and promoting balance
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between media use and other activities. Privacy and safety included lessons about protecting
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online data, understanding how individuals are tracked online, and how to be careful of online
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scams. Digital footprint and identity focused on lessons discussing what students share about
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themselves online and how that affects identities and reputations. Relationships and
communication discussed how students communicate and how they develop relationships using
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digital media and how to avoid risky sharing of information or behaviors like sexting. Digital
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drama, cyberbullying, and hate speech includes conversations about the importance of treating
others online with kindness, respect, and dignity. News and media literacy focuses on how to
evaluate online information and credibility, and being a critical media consumer and creator.
Total competencies was calculated by summing all of the competencies a teacher reported
teaching. Additionally, if a teacher taught any of the digital media competencies, they were
coded as “1” for Taught Competencies. If none were taught they were coded as “0” for this
variable.
Results
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Descriptive Statistics
Teaching digital citizenship. Teachers reported that they taught digital citizenship
during early elementary school grades. Three-quarters of 3-5 teachers and 60% of K-2 teachers
reported that they taught digital citizenship in their classroom. The majority of K-2 teachers
(62%) and 3-5 teachers (69%) reported using some sort of digital citizenship curricula in their
classroom.
To answer RQ2, chi-square analyses were conducted for each of the digital citizenship
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competencies to test whether there was a difference in the lessons being taught in K-2 compared
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to 3-5. Results indicated that teachers varied in their teaching of specific digital citizenship
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competencies in elementary school classrooms. Only 22% of K-5 teachers taught media balance
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and well-being, 45% taught privacy and safety, 45% taught digital drama, cyberbullying, and
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hate speech, 32% taught relationships and communication, 31% taught digital footprint and
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identity, and 30% taught news media and media literacy. One-third of K-5 teachers (33%) said
that the did not teach any of these competencies. Teachers of younger grades (K-2) were more
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likely to report that they did not teach any of these digital citizenship competencies (40%) than
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teachers of older grades (3-5), (26%), chi2=13.70, p <.01. Teachers of students in older grades
(3-5) were more likely to teach privacy and safety (52%) compared to K-2 teachers (38%),
chi2=11.96, p <.01. (See Table 2).
A regression analysis predicting the total digital citizenship competencies with grade
group (K-2 or 3-5), school setting (dummy coded: rural, urban, or suburban), years of teaching
experience, private vs public, and dummy variables for school racial demographics was
significant F(8, 516)= 4.80, p<.01. Results indicated that teachers of older students (3-5) taught
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more digital citizenship competencies compared to teachers of younger students (K-2).
Additionally, there were differences by school demographics; teachers in diverse and POC
schools were more likely to teach more digital citizenship competencies than teachers in schools
that were predominantly white also teachers in suburban schools taught more competencies than
those in urban schools (see Table 3).
Logistic regressions predicting whether teachers taught any digital citizenship
competencies with grade group (K-2 or 3-5), setting (dummy coded: rural, urban, or suburban) of
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school, years of teaching experience, private vs public, and dummy variables for school racial
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demographics was significant, LR chi2 (8) =20.72, p<.01. Results indicate that teachers of older
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students were more likely to teach any digital citizen competencies. Teachers who had been
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teaching for fewer years were more likely to teach any digital citizenship competencies. None of
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the classroom demographic variables were related to teachers’ likelihood of teaching any
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competencies.
There were two digital citizenship competencies that that were more likely to be taught
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than the others: privacy and safety and digital drama, cyberbullying, and hate speech (see Table
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2). Logistic regressions were conducted to examine what factors predicted teachers teaching of
privacy and safety and digital drama, cyberbullying, and hate speech digital citizenship
competency. Both logistic regressions were significant LR chi2 (8)=26.82 p<.01 (Digital
Drama); LR chi2 (8)=24.69, p<.01 (privacy and safety) (see Table 3). Results indicated that
teachers of older grades were more likely to teach privacy and safety and digital drama,
cyberbullying, and hate speech. Teachers in schools that were predominantly racially-ethnically
diverse (compared to predominantly white) were more likely to teach privacy and safety.
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Teachers in rural and urban school districts were less likely to teach privacy and safety than
those in suburban districts
Discussion
Overall, these findings shed light on digital citizenship education in Kindergarten through
5th grade in a sample of teachers from the United States. The findings demonstrate that teachers
of children in elementary school are beginning to educate them about the digital citizenship but
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that there are differences in these concepts being taught as a function of student grade, school
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racial demographics, and school setting.
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While historically the research has examined the effect of media literacy and digital
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citizenship with older students and adolescents (Hui & Campel, 2018; Jones & Mitchell, 2016;
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Blevins, LeCompte, & Wells, 2013) this study is documenting that middle and high school is not
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the only time students may be receiving digital citizenship curriculum. Based on this study, the
majority of Kindergarten to 5th grade teachers are reporting that they do teach at least some
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digital citizenship competencies in their classroom, answering RQ1. That being said, still one-
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third of K-5 teachers reported that they do not teach any digital citizenship competencies at all.
Leaving many young children without any education from their classroom teacher on these
important topics.
The study shows that not all digital citizenship competenices are being taught in early
elementary school. For example, less than one-quarter of K-5 teachers reported teaching media
balance and well-being in these grades. In contrast, certain concepts around privacy and safety
and digital drama, cyberbullying, and hate speech were more likely to be taught in these early
years than other digital citizenship competencies. Teachers seem to be supporting the digital
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citizenship competencies that are most related to developing positive character features in their
students, which is inline with Ohler’s (2011) focus on digital citizenship to support character
education. Privacy and safety and digital drama, cyberbullying, and hate speech are all concepts
that relate to being kind, respectful and considerate humans both online and in the non-digital
world. Moreover, these concepts and skills align with social emotional learning standards that
are key factors in elementary school curriculums. According to the Collaborative for Academic,
Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL, 2010), social emotional learning is defined as:
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the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the
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knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions,
set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish
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and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
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The five core competencies of social emotional learning include: self-awareness, self-
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management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making (CASEL,
2010). Interestingly, it seems that many K-5 teachers are recognizing the clear overlap between
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social emotional skills and digital citizenship competencies and choosing to focus on those
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digital citizenship competencies with their students.

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With regard to which types of contexts in which these digital citizenships are being
taught. The strongest predictor of teachers teaching digital citizenship compentencies was if they
taught older elementary school grades (3-5) compared to younger (K-2), answering RQ2.
Teachers of older students (3-5) reported teaching each of the digital citizenship competencies
more than K-2 teachers, they were more likely to teach at least one of the compentencies, and
they were more likely to teach the two most frequently taught compentencies, privacy and safety
and digital drama, cyberbullying, and hate speech. This is not surprising as we have seen media
literacy and aspects of digital citizenship being taught more regularly with older youth including
middle school and high school students (e.g., Livingstone et al., 2005; Livingstone & Helsper,
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2010). It may be that the digital citizenship curriculum is more available to teachers of students
in 3rd to 5th grade or that the content feels more developmentally appropriate given that much of
it was intitially created for middle school and high school students. Relatedly, with the exception
of the resources developed by Common Sense Media, there are limited frameworks, curriculum
materials, or tools to support teachers in teaching digital citizenship lessons to younger children.
From a teacher and district perspective, it may be that teachers of 3rd through 5th grade may be
seeing behaviors and actions within their classrooms that demonstrate a lack of digital
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citizenship within their students that leads to the teaching of the competencies in class.
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The demographics of the teacher and school are related to the teaching of digital
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citizenship competencies. Answering RQ3, teachers who had been teaching for fewer years were
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more likely to teach at least one digital citizenship compentency to their students. This is
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consistent with previous results that indicate that that more experienced early childhood
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educators have more negative attitudes toward technology use in classrooms (Authors, 2014). It
is also in-line with research that found a relationship between teachers’ years of work experience
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and digital citizenship engagement (Choi, Cristol, & Gimbert, 2018). Additionally, as digital
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citizenship lessons and curriculum are relatively new, it may be more challenging for a more
senior teacher to incorporate these lessons into their already well-established pedagogy. Given
the overlap between social emotional learning and digital citizenship competencies, it may be
that newer teachers were more recently trained on incorporating the social emotional learning
competencies into their teaching and thus find it easier to overlap their teaching of social
emotional learning with the digital citizenship competencies. More research should be conducted
to better understand whether it is the teachers’ own comfort with technology or other aspects of
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the teachers training that predict teaching of digital citizenship competencies during elementary
school years.
Finally, results demonstrate some demographic differences in types of schools in which
teachers teach digital citizenship compentencies, further answering RQ3. Teachers in schools
which were predominantly racially-ethnically diverse and predominantly with students of color
were more likely to teach more digital citizenship competencies than teachers in schools that
were predominantly white. Teachers in suburban schools also taught more competencies than
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those in urban schools. While these school demographic differences are interesting, it is not clear
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why these differences may exist. Future research should examine these differences in more detail
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to understand why teachers within these types of schools are more likely to engage in these
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digital competencies. Beyond, research to understand why we see differences in teaching digital
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citizenship based on the above mentioned factors, significantly more research is needed to
na
understand the impact and effect of digital citizenship lessons on youth digital citizenship
competencies and behaviors. It is important to examine how, when, and in what ways teachers,
ur
librarians, or technology instructors are supporting digital citizenship competencies and how
Jo
students learning of these concepts is supported and strengthened in developmentally appropriate
ways throughout their education. Additionally, as technology use exists both in school and at
home, assessment of parents own digital citizenship skills and their awareness and support of
their children’s digital citizenship competencies at home is a critical next step in this area of
research.
This study provides insight into this novel topic of digital citizenship education in early
elementary school using a nationally representative sample of teachers and suggests that
conversations about digital citizenship are happening starting as early as Kindergarten. These
18
findings support a growing body of research focused on young children’s media use and now
documents how teachers support young children’s media use and education similarly to the data
of adult support in otherformal and informal contexts (e.g., Baylor & Ritchie, 2002; Authors.,
2014; Authors, 2015).
Moreover, digital media is not only impacting young children’s development, but is also
a place where children must learn social norms and how to behave appropriately. Due to the
large amount of digital media use in early childhood years, digital media is now regarded by
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many researchers as a socializing agent in development (Milenkova, Peicheva, & Marinov, 2018;
ro
Prot et al., 2015). It appears from this data that teachers beginning to recognize the role and
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influence technology has on children’s lives both in and out of the classroom and are taking on
re
the responsibility of supporting them in their learning of appropriate use and beahviors with the
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devices. Despite that young children are “digital natives” (Prensky, 2001) and are exceptionally
na
familiar with digital technologies, (Rideout, 2017), teachers are recognizing that children still
need adults to guide and support them as they learn how to ethically, safely, and positively
ur
behave on digital platforms and are beginning to teach these concepts.

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Furthermore, this study documents that there ae formal efforts occurring in K-5 education
that may have direct positive implications on this second level of the “digital divide” that we are
currently seeing in adults. The original digital divide focused on the difference in access to
technology devices like computers largely based on family income, but as access has increased
that divide has minimized. Instead, Hargittai and Hinnant (2002; 2008) is documenting a
differentiation in comprehension and specific Internet skills. By having teachers introducing
concepts of digital citizenship as early as Kindergarten in schools around the country there is
19
potential to minimize or eliminate this digital skills and comprehension divide that we are
currently seeing in youth and adults.
While this study does not determine the effects of these digital citizenship curiculums, we
recommend that school districts recognize the opportunity to lead the field in introducing digital
citizenship education to their younger students, starting as early as Kindergaten give that youth
are so heavily engaged with technology by the age of 5 (Rideout, 2017). Futher, these finding
stuggest that this is a space that is prime for professional development and support of educators.
of
While some teachers are engaging in teaching these concepts some are not and school systems,
ro
especially those utilizing digital technologies in their classroom learning environments, have a
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responsibility to provide professional development training to teachers to more fully support
re
them in their instruction an guidance around digital citizenship skills in their classrooms. Finally,
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given that many teachers are teaching these concepts, school districts need to establish clear and
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consistent curriculums that schools are following to support children’s learning and
understanding of digital technologies from kindergarten through senior year of high school.
ur
Limitations
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While this study is impressive in its use of nationally representative data, it is not without
limitations. First, as it is survey research, it relies on teacher self-report of teaching behaviors.
Additionally, there is no way to know what the teachers actually teach or how they teach these
digital citizenship competencies from the survey that was conducted. Another important
limitation is that we have no measure for how regularly teachers engage in these digital
citizenship competencies nor do we know the quality or developmentally appropriateness of
these lessons. Moreover, this is a descriptive study, so we cannot make any claims to the
effectiveness of these teaching practices nor do we know if schools or regions have any
20
requirements or expectations for digital citizenship lessons to be taught in these grades. Finally,
due to the focus on teachers within the United States, we are unable to generalize these findings
to other countries or regions.
Conclusion
This study took the first step to document that teachers in the United States are educating
elementary age students about some of the concepts related to digital citizenship. There are
differences still based on grade and teacher’s teaching experience as well as aspects of the school
of
settting that are associated with differences in teaching of digital citizenship competencies. This
ro
study has begun to answer many questions regarding how many teachers are teaching digital
-p
citizenship, which competencies are most commonly taught, and how factors such as
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race/ethnicity, setting of the school, and the teacher's experience relate to digital citizenship
lP
education. It is important that additional studies focus on teachers’ teaching of digital citizenship
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in early childhood and future research must examine how effective and appropriate the digital
citizenship lessons are for youth in this younger age group.

ur
Jo
21
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Tables
Table 1.
Demographics of Schools by Grade Group
K-2 3-5
Race/Ethnicity of School
Predominantly white students 25% 24%
Predominantly students of color 29% 28%
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More or less racially-ethnically diverse 44% 47%
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Region
Northeast
South
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21%
38%
16%
40%
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Midwest 23% 23%
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West 18% 20%
Setting
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Rural 21% 28%

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Urban 31% 24%

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Suburban 48% 47%
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Table 2.
Digital Citizenship Competencies by Grade Group
K-2 3-5 Total
Media balance & well-being 21% 23% 22%

Privacy & safety 38% 52%* 45%
Digital footprint & identity 24% 38%* 31%
Relationships & communication 25% 40%* 32%
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Digital drama, cyberbullying, & hate speech 35% 54%* 45%
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News & media literacy 20% 39%* 29%
Did not teach any of these -p 40%* 26% 33%
Note. Chi-square analysis were conducted to compare frequencies between between grade groups
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(K-2 vs 3-5).
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* indicates a significant difference (p<.05) between groups.

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Table 3.
Regression and Logistic Regression Analysis Predicting Digital Competencies Taught
Total digital Taught any Privacy and Digital drama,

citizenship digital safety cyberbullying,
competencies citizenship (logit regression) hate speech
(linear competencies (logit regression)
regression) (logit regression)
N n=525 n=525 525 525

Constant 1.58** .37 -.47 -.23
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Grade group .80** .65** .64** .74**
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Years teaching -.01 -.02* -.00 -.02
Diverse school .55** .41 -p .47* .18
POC school .53* .29
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-.37 .22
Title 1 school -.00 .12 -.11 .18
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Rural school -.31 -.11 -.47* .05

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Urban school -.45* -.03 -.48* -.43

Public school .05 .12 .04 -.32
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R2 .07 .03 .03 .04

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Note. Linear regression and logit regression analysis were conducted.
* indicates a significant difference at the p<.05 level
**indicates a significant difference at the p<.01 level.
31
Highlights
• Nationally representative sample of K-5 teachers were surveyed

• Educators are teaching digital citizen competencies as early as kindergarten
• Digital citizenship skills are more likely to be taught certain types of schools
• Privacy and safety and digital drama, cyberbullying, and hate speech were taught
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Early childhood educators’ teaching of digital citizenship competencies

Alexis R. Lauricella, Jenna Herdzina, Michale Robb

To appear in: Computers & Education

Received Date: 9 January 2020

© 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

60654, USA alauricella@erikson.edu

60654, USA jherdzina@Erikson.edu

Corresponding author: Alexis R. Lauricella email alauricella@erikson.edu

is an increased need to support students’ understanding of how to be safe, responsible, and

Additionally, early teaching of digital citizenship competencies is more likely to occur in

early in formal schooling.

Ribble, Bailey, & Ross, 2004),.

learning environments, and the continuous use of technology throughout development, it is

Digital Citizenship in Early Childhood

the school system.

example, a case study implementing a digital literacy curriculum, I-LEARN, in a Kindergarten

Teaching Digital Citizenship

developmentally appropriate for even the youngest learners.

Recently, organizations have developed resources to support teachers teaching of digital

teachers of Kindergarten through 12th.

citizenship in early childhood.

years. Therefore, we ask the following research questions:

grade grouping (K-2 vs 3-5)?

digital citizenship core competencies?

Demographics of the schools where respondents worked are provided in Table 1.

-----Insert Table 1 Here----

Measures and Coding

Teacher demographics. Teachers responded to demographic questions about their

American/Black, Latino/Latina, Asian, Multiracial, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacticic Islander,

color if African-American/Black, Latino/Latina, Asian, Multiracial, Native Hawaiian or Other

than 75% African-American/Black, Latino/Latina, Asian, Multiracial, Native Hawaiian or Other

or predominately students of color.

concentrations of low-income students attending the school.

question provided the definition of digital citizenship as “competencies involved in thinking

included: 1) Common Sense Education Digital Citizenship Curriculum, 2) BrainPop, 3) Everfi,

4) Be InternetAwesome by Google, 5) I keep Safe, 6) Netsmartz, 7) Media Smarts, 8)

footprint and identity, 4) Relationships and communication, 5) Digital drama, cyberbullying,

chi2=11.96, p <.01. (See Table 2).

-----Insert Table 2 Here----

more digital citizenship competencies compared to teachers of younger students (K-2).

those in urban schools (see Table 3).

Logistic regressions predicting whether teachers taught any digital citizenship

those in suburban districts

-----Insert Table 3 Here----

digital citizenship competencies with their students.

Finally, results demonstrate some demographic differences in types of schools in which

students learning of these concepts is supported and strengthened in developmentally appropriate

2014; Authors, 2015).

behave on digital platforms and are beginning to teach these concepts.

differentiation in comprehension and specific Internet skills. By having teachers introducing

currently seeing in youth and adults.

limitations. First, as it is survey research, it relies on teacher self-report of teaching behaviors.

citizenship competencies nor do we know the quality or developmentally appropriateness of

to other countries or regions.

citizenship lessons are for youth in this younger age group.

disabilities. NewMedia & Society, 19(5), 726-740.

www.ala.org/aasl/standards-guidelines/learning-standards (accessed 23 July 2014).

Authors. (2011). To be added after blind review.

Authors. (2014). To be added after blind-review

Authors (2019b). To be added after blind review

higher education. Retrieved [10-14-2019 accessed] from

perceived student learning in technology-using classrooms?. Computers & education,