Evaluation of professors' and students' self efficacy of digital citizenship perception of digital citizenship in faculties of communication

After the information revolution digital citizenship, as a new form of citizenship, has found it's place as a competence to be learned and developed by citizens. This occured as a result of digital technologies', especially internet technology's, quick spread in the society and the online experience's becoming an important part of everyday life. After the 2000s, because of intertwining of the digital technologies and the communication and education sectors, the need of digital technologies' usage in faculties of communication, employment of the people who can use and teach these technologies and educating digital citizens has occured. In this context, the general purpose of this study is to determine the digital citizenship self efficacy of the professors' and students in faculties of communication. The research is based on a descriptive model. First a literature review about the digital citizenship was conducted. Then, a Likert scale is developed to collect data. Likert scale consisted of three parts. In the first part, demographic information is collected. In the second part, participants' technology usage competencies were measured. In the third part, the statements, which were prepared according to Mike Ribble's (2008) nine elements of citizenship, were presented to participants. Then the data were analyzed by SPSS. This is followed by semi-structured interviews conducted with the participants who have volunteered from the sample. By the interpretation of quantitative and qualitative data a conclusion has been reached. As a result of the Likert scale, it was found that the participants' digital citizenship self efficacy perception is high. However, several differences found based on comparisons made between the groups by gender, status, department and income. A difference has occured when the quantitative data from the scale and qualitative from the semi-structured interviews are compared. Likert scale results showed that both students and professors believe they are competent with digital citizenship self-efficacy; but the professors who particitipated the semi structured interviews said that they believe themselves, other professors and students are not competent enough. Also, students believe the same thing when it comes to professors. In addition, it has been resulted that the participants think that the goverments' and communication faculties' efforts are inadequate. Also they have several critisisms about the spread of the digital techologies in the society and they have concerns for the future. This situation reveals the necessity of conducting different studies about the measurement of actual state about the topic, not just the perceptions of the participants, and to overcome the points that the participants think insufficient and their concerns about the future. Keywords: Digital Citizenship, Digital Natives, Digital Immıgrants, Information Society, Likert Scale.