I have engaged in many interesting classroom discussions about what young people need to learn in order to be active and engaged participants in a diverse democracy. While technology can sometimes make the world seem bigger and more overwhelming, social networking and other media technologies are actually bringing humans closer together. For me, this means that we have the important opportunity to develop ways to support young people and adults to be thoughtful digital citizens who use technology in the service of equity, justice, growth, learning, health, and community…. [Read More]
Rethinking Digital Citizenship
This is an exciting time to be rethinking digital citizenship as there is much to learn and create given the relatively limited body of theory and practical materials that have been developed to date. Many digital citizenship initiatives focus on online safety and seek to determine the most useful ways to control where young people go and what they consume via the internet. Issues of safety are certainly important and schools are required to filter content on their networks, but what beliefs and assumptions about young people guide our policy and curricular work on digital citizenship? What effects do these beliefs have on adults/youth?
Yasmina Mattison (left) and Keri DeJong (right) presenting their session at TiE2015.