Week Five: Digital Literacy & Digital Citizenship

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This week is truly dedicated to the concepts of digital literacy and digital citizenship as presented respectively in the article by Buckingham (2015) Defining Digital Literacy, and the article by Emejulu and McGregor (2016) Towards a Radical Digital Citizenship in Digital Education. Both articles argue that to educate with technology requires educators to first educate about using technology. Emejulu and McGregor took this a step further by analysing the consequences of technologies and the liberating potential of technologies through the concept of radical digital citizenship.

The Dangers of the Internet

While Watching Ask Yourself: How could we mitigate the associated and direct risks of Digital Media and Technology?

Emjulu and McGregor (2016) note, "radical digital citizenship we mean praxis through which individuals and groups: (1) critically analyse the social, political, economic and environmental consequences of technologies in everyday life; (2) collectively deliberate and take action to build alternative and emancipatory technologies and technological practices" (p. 1). The article provided a vastly fascinating and meticulous examination of the underlying consequences of our contemporary use of digital technologies. I had the privilege of presenting the information and consequential activities related to the article. Before delving into the information one needs to ask themselves: What does it mean to be a citizen? What is the ideal we strive for in the "real" world? As the digital sphere is merely an extension of the real world and thus the inequalities that permeate our neoliberal society are transferred into a techno-capitalist system; How can we recognize our role in perpetuating the inequalities and what can we do to employ these technologies in an emancipatory capacity? To often we are naive or apathetic about the production process and impact of our consumer goods. Who is negatively impacted by our convenience? Who is exploited or excluded? How can we change this this? Will we change this system? Check out the videos below for a fascinating peak at the impact of our technological driven society:

What’s a smartphone made of? - Kim Preshoff

Conflict Minerals, Rebels and Child Soldiers in Congo

Internet Scamming in Ghana

Inside China's High-Tech Dystopia

The internet, video games, streaming, smart phones and a host of other technologies provide a new medium to represent the world and children are engaging with technologies as cultural forms (Buckingham, 2015, p.22). How we educate our children in the real world should be held to the same standards in the digital. Check out the following videos below:

Extracurricular empowerment: Scott McLeod at TEDxDesMoines

https://cpb-ap-se2.wpmucdn.com/global2.vic.edu.au/dist/3/43289/files/2014/06/digital-footprint-28pgio4.png

Kid, you posted WHAT?! How to raise a digital citizen | Keegan Korf | TEDxOmaha

http://www.globaljusticeblog.ed.ac.uk/2017/06/26/towards-a-radical-digital-citizenship-in-digital-education/

I took the opportunity to generate an infographic of radical digital citizenship using the "free" component of https://www.easel.ly/

https://www.easel.ly/browserEasel/9657697

To practice a radical digital citizenship is to resist the idea that a neutral technology exists. Technology always reflects the interests of scientists, engineers and capitalists. By critically analysing the social construction of technology, we can map the effects of particular kinds of technology beyond its ‘intended’ applications (Emejulu & McGregor, 2016, pp. 10-11). Developing an awareness how digital media are constructed and of the rhetoric employed in interactive communication is essential. In the context of digital media, it is crucial to understand who is communicating and why they are communicating that message and by extension a critical examination of the invisible commercial influences that seek to acquire your information (Buckingham, 2015, p. 26).

Emejulu and McGregor ask, “What does radical digital citizenship mean for digital education” (p. 13)?

Digital education must move away from apolitical or politically naïve posture. We need to resist the idea that neutral technology exists.

Check out the videos below for further information.

The Terrifying Cost of "Free” Websites | Adam Ruins Everything

Humans Need Not Apply

The article, Towards a Radical Digital Citizenship in Digital Education, uses social movement theorist Manuel Castells (2012) claims that we have become a ‘network society’, which implies that, "hegemonic power lies with those who control, programme and connect dominant networks … citizen counter-power is contingent on the ability of social movements to ‘reprogram’ networks" (Emejulu & McGregor, 2016, p. 7). The article's authors both engage in research related to social activism. Check out Emejulu's page here and McGregor's page here. Emejulu and McGregor (2016) argue “the ‘old’ power relations within the supposedly ‘new’ terrain of digital activism help to shape articulations and actions that challenge romanticised ideals of open, democratic and non-hierarchical relations within a ‘network society’” (p. 8). Social media affords avenues of protest for a variety of individuals on a global scale (Bonilla & Rosa, 2015, p. 7-8; Khazraee & Novak, 2018, pp. 1-2). The ideal figure is regarded as a ‘network-extender’ who is not bound to time or place and tolerant of difference (Emejulu & McGregor, 2016, p. 9). Individuals previously anchored by to regions or nations are now free, unless held back by poverty. Digital citizens under techno-capitalism, are compelled to pretend everyone is on the same level of privilege and that no institutionalised inequalities exist (Emejulu & McGregor, 2016, p. 10). The two constitutive elements of radical digital citizenship require the critical analyses of technologies and collective action for developing digital emancipatory technologies (Emejulu & McGregor, 2016, p. 10). 

One Year After Michael Brown: How A Hashtag Changed Social Protest

How Smartphones Change The Way You Think | Jeff Butler

Here is my experimentation with meme creation:

imgflip.com/memegenerator

https://memegenerator.net/memes/popular/alltime

Sources:

Bonilla, Y., & Rosa, J. (2015). #Ferguson: Digital protest, hashtag ethnography, and the racial politics of social media in the United States. American Ethnologist, 42(1), 4-17.

Buckingham, D. (2015). Defining digital literacy. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy: Special Issue 2006-2016. 21 - 34. Retrieved from  www.idunn.no/dk.

Emejulu, A.,  & McGregor, C.  (2016): Towards a radical digital citizenship in digital education, Critical Studies in Education, DOI: 10.1080/17508487.2016.1234494

Khazraee, E., & Novak, A. (2018). Digitally Mediated Protest: Social Media Affordances for Collective Identity Construction. Social Media Society, 4(1), Social Media Society, March 2018, Vol.4(1).

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