Promoting and Modeling Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

I read with great interest a story in today's Akron Beacon Journal titled Bogus Web site uses image of Akron mayor. Turns out that someone out there in the land of www has decided to practice some less than ethical internet behaviors. An excerpt:

Akron's mayor is a victim of identity theft.

Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic's credit card number wasn't stolen. An image of his face was.

The mayor's photo shows up on a Web site for Bluestar Express, which an Internet watchdog group calls a fake.

Plusquellic is identified as Bluestar shipping company's executive director, Benton J. Martin.

Ray Sodano, a resident of Florida who is involved with http://www.aa419.org — a volunteer organization that seeks to police the Web — called local news organizations Monday about the site.

A little research of my own easily turned up the website where Mayor Plusquellic's picture was jacked from. It was stolen either directly from the City's own webpage or from a site happened to be one promoting a partnership between the City of Akron and The University of Akron called the University Park Alliance. Take a look:

Bogus Site:

Legit Site:

Seeing this article in the local paper really made me think long and hard about our job as educators to teach students about credible internet sources. In this case, the bogus site looked legitimate, so who's to say it isn't? Luckily Ray Sodano's group was out there policing the web for fraudulent information, but that's not always the case. What should we be doing as educators to make sure that our students understand that just because they find something published on the internet, that doesn't mean it is necessarily true? A quick look at the NETS-T standards provided this insight under Standard 4:

Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices. Teachers:

• advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources.
• address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources.
• promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information.

It seems that modeling appropriate use of the internet as well as verifying sources is recommended by ISTE. The Ohio Academic Content Standards in Technology have a Technology and Information Literacy standard that addresses matters like this in a similar manner. For example, Benchamark A for grades 6-8 requires students to "Evaluate the accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, coverage and relevance of information and data sources." That being said, I'm wondering what Ohio teachers are doing to help their students meet or exceed these standards as they help mould responsible digital citizens?