Digital citizenship education E-Book

Council of Europe

• Herausgeber: Council of Europe
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 155

Beschreibung

For information on competences required, training activities and assessment tools for education for democratic citizenship

The Council of Europe has been protecting children’s digital rights, and fostering opportunities for children’s educational and cultural development in the digital environment for over a quarter of a century. Most recently it has focused on actions designed to empower children as “active digital citizens”, building on the Council of Europe framework of competences for democratic culture. The Reference framework aims to prepare citizens for “living together as equals in culturally diverse democratic societies”.In 2016, the Steering Committee for Educational Policy and Practice of the Council of Europe launched a new intergovernmental project, Digital citizenship education. The aim of the project is to help reshape the role education plays in enabling children and young people to acquire the competences they need to participate actively and responsibly in democratic society as digital citizens, both online and offline.

This present publication is the work of the following members of the Digital citizenship education expert group: Pascale Raulin-Serrier (France), Alessandro Soriani (Italy), Olena Styslavska (Poland), Vitor Tomé (Portugal) and was edited by Ted Huddleston (United Kingdom).

Leseprobe

digitalcitizenshipeducation

Trainers’ Pack

Council of Europe

The Council of Europe has been protecting children’s digital rights, and fostering opportunities for children’s educational and cultural development in the digital environment, for over a quarter of a century. Most recently it has focused on actions designed to empower children as “active digital citizens”, building on the Council of Europe Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC) which aims to prepare citizens for “living together as equals in culturally diverse democratic societies”.

In 2016, the Steering Committee for Educational Policy and Practice of the Council of Europe launched a new inter-governmental project, Digital Citizenship Education. The aim of the project is to help reshape the role education plays in enabling children and young people to acquire the competences they need to participate, actively and responsibly, in democratic society as digital citizens, both online and offline.

This publication is the work of the following members of the Digital Citizenship Education Expert Group:

– Pascale Raulin-Serrier, France

– Alessandro Soriani, Italy

– Olena Stylavska, Poland

– Vitor Manuel Nabais Tomé, Portugal.

The Trainers’ Pack was edited by Ted Huddleston, United Kingdom.

The opinions expressed in this work are the responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Council of Europe.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated, reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic (CD-Rom, internet, etc.) or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the Directorate of Communication (F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex or [email protected]).

Cover: SPDP, Council of Europe

Photo: iStock

Layout: Jouve, Paris.

Council of Europe Publishing

F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex

http://book.coe.intFacebook.com/CouncilOfEuropePublications

Paper ISBN 978-92-871-8981-3

© Council of Europe, April 2020

Printed at the Council of Europe

Contents

Introduction

Using the Trainers’ Pack

Why the Trainers’ Pack is needed

What the Trainers’ Pack contains

How the Trainers’ Pack was developed

Part 1: The trainer

What is digital citizenship?

What is Digital Citizenship Education?

Why Digital Citizenship Education?

What are the 10 domains of digital citizenship?

How is Digital Citizenship Education taught?

How should Digital Citizenship Education be approached in schools?

How do you use the Digital Citizenship Education handbook?

What other resources will you find useful?

Part 2: Training activities

Starting a training session

Competences for Democratic Culture

Digital Citizenship Education

Introducing the digital citizenship domains

Activities for school students

Working with parents and carers

Developing a whole-school approach

Part 3: Evaluation tools

Evaluating your training sessions

Evaluating the impact on young learners

Evaluating the impact of events, projects and initiatives

Part 4: Table of special events and activities

Part 5: Resource materials

Resource 1: Competences for Democratic Culture cards

Resource 2: Definitions of competences cards

Resource 3: Competences for Democratic Culture “butterfly” (blank)

Resource 4: Questionnaire

Resource 5: 10 domains of digital citizenship

Resource 6: Digital domain cards

Resource 7: Digital domain topic cards

Resource 8: Case studies

Resource 9: Children with disabilities

Resource 10: Inclusion-exclusion diagrams

Resource 11: Digital footprint questionnaire

Resource 12: Agree/disagree statements

Resource 13: School policy template

Resource 14: Action plan template

Resource 15: The “butterfly” (complete)

Resource 16: Index for Digital Citizenship Education

Resource 17: Learning activity template

Resource 18: Mapping digital citizenship issues at school

Introduction

This Trainers’ Pack is aimed at trainers and facilitators delivering professional development programmes in Digital Citizenship Education (DCE). It is designed to be used in a range of educational settings, formal and non-formal, including both initial and continuing teacher education.

The Trainers’ Pack combines recent thinking on the nature of digital citizenship with practical ideas and activities for use in educational training settings.

Its goal is to equip educators with the skills and knowledge they need to help young learners become effective digital citizens – active and responsible members of society who value diversity and the democratic way of life.

Using the Trainers’ Pack

The Trainers’ Pack can be used with a number of different audiences, including teachers, teacher-trainers, youth workers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society organisations, community groups and parents or carers. It can be used in different ways according to context and need. For some, it will act as a primer on Digital Citizenship Education, explaining its basic concepts and practices in simple and accessible language. For others, it will provide practical help and support in introducing Digital Citizenship Education to young learners, in either formal or non-formal education settings. It can also be used as a tool to plan Digital Citizenship Education programmes or courses of study for other trainers or educators. In schools and similar formal education institutions it is best used in co-ordination with the given institution’s data protection officer.

Why the Trainers’ Pack is needed

In recent years the lives of young people have been radically transformed by the development of increasingly sophisticated forms of digital technology. A large proportion of young people now look to digital technology as their main source of knowledge about the world, their means of communication with others, and for setting up and conducting their relationships. This has important implications for both the concept of democratic citizenship and education for democratic citizenship.

Democratic citizenship today is experienced and practised not only in the “real”, or offline, world but also in the “virtual”, or online, world, as well as in the interface between offline and online worlds. It involves new forms of rights and responsibilities, and new understandings of justice and the common good. It also involves new risks and dangers.

Young people are often unaware of the potential impact of online activity on their lives and on the lives of others – including issues of data protection, hate speech, social media profiling, fake news and propaganda, the rights of online consumers, and the opportunities provided by digital technology for new forms of social and political action and democratic participation.

While the argument for education for digital citizenship is clear, little co-ordinated work has been done on what this might mean in practice. There is a notable lack of guidance material and advice for trainers and educators in this field, and few age-appropriate teaching resources to use with young learners themselves. It is to fill this gap and provide support for both recent and more experienced trainers in this area of education that this Trainers’ Pack has been developed.

What the Trainers’ Pack contains

The Trainers’ Pack is in several parts. Part 1 sets out the essential skills and knowledge you need to become an effective trainer in the field of Digital Citizenship Education. It explains the concepts of digital citizenship and Digital Citizenship Education in simple terms that can be used with non-experts in the field, and with young learners themselves. It sets out the 10 “domains” of digital citizenship and introduces the Digital Citizenship Education handbook1 and other Council of Europe resources that are recommended for use alongside this Trainers’ Pack.

Part 2 is a collection of step-by-step training activities for use in training sessions, with special input on how to start a session, the Reference Framework for Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC),2 and how to introduce the concept of Digital Citizenship Education and explain the 10 domains of digital citizenship. There are sub-sections on supporting work with particular groups, for example students and parents, and how the trainer can support schools in developing a “whole-school” approach to Digital Citizenship Education.

Part 3 focuses on different kinds of evaluation and how and when they are useful in the training process. These include the evaluation of training sessions and programmes, the assessment of young people’s learning, and the evaluation of special events and activities organised in schools or other educational organisations. Practical examples are provided to illustrate each of these.

Part 4 contains a list of one-off Digital Citizenship Education events and activities, such as competitions, campaigns and special “days”. These are categorised by type and are accompanied by explanatory notes.

The Trainers’ Pack ends with a collection of copiable resource materials that go with the different training activities in Part 2.

How the Trainers’ Pack was developed

The Trainers’ Pack was developed by the Council of Europe Digital Citizenship Education Expert Group as part of the intergovernmental project Digital Citizenship Education, set up by the Steering Committee for Educational Policy and Practice of the Council of Europe in 2016. The aim of this project is to contribute to reshaping the role that education plays in enabling all children to acquire the competences they need as digital citizens to participate actively and responsibly in democratic society, whether offline or online. The Digital Citizenship Education project builds on the achievements of the Council of Europe’s longstanding programme of Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education (EDC/HRE)3, and the initial findings of the project on Competences for Democratic Culture (CDC).

1. Digital citizenship education handbook (2019), Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, available at www.coe.int/dce.

2. Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (2018), Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, available at www.coe.int/rfcdc

3. https://www.coe.int/edc

Part 1: The trainer

To be an effective trainer in Digital Citizenship Education there are a number of specialist skills and types of knowledge and understanding you need to possess, over and above your existing abilities as a trainer or facilitator in other fields. In particular, since you are likely to be working with non-experts, it is important to have a good understanding of the nature and purpose of Digital Citizenship Education and its central concepts and practices, and to be able to explain these in simple and easily accessible language to different audiences.

In the following section you will find definitions of key terms and a basic introduction to important Digital Citizenship Education concepts and practices.

What is digital citizenship?

Digital citizenship is the ability to engage positively with and actively participate in society through the use of digital technology. It sits alongside and exists in a mutual relation of influence with older, non-digital forms of democratic citizenship, such as face-to-face debates, voluntary work, letters to the press, standing for public office, or marches and demonstrations.

Digital citizenship can be expressed in any type of digital-related activity – whether it be creating or publishing content, socialising, learning, researching or playing games. Any digital activity becomes a citizenship activity when it is done with a social or political purpose, or has social or political consequences.

Effective digital citizenship depends on a broad range of digital competences, as well as a number of specifically digital citizenship competences, such as online consumer awareness, the critical evaluation of online information and its sources, and knowledge of internet privacy and security issues. It also depends on a broad range of general citizenship competences, such as respect for others, empathy, and the valuing of democracy and human rights.

What is Digital Citizenship Education?

Digital Citizenship Education is education designed to help young people develop the competences they need to be effective digital citizens. It includes learning how to exercise and defend one’s own and others’ rights and responsibilities, how to promote and protect human rights, and how to participate in the democratic process and defend the rule of law in the digital environment.

Digital Citizenship Education is not about persuading young people to accept certain beliefs or take part in particular political activities online. Rather, it aims to empower them to be able to make their own informed choices about these in light of the opportunities afforded by new technologies.

Why Digital Citizenship Education?

The pervasive use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by young people has opened up a whole new world of citizenship problems and possibilities that simply did not exist in the pre-digital era. It has also blurred the line between online and offline citizenship.

Being digital “natives” does not necessarily mean that young people are actually aware of the impact of new technology on their lives as citizens, or members of society. There is also a growing gap between those who, through families and friends, reap the benefits of this technology and those who drop out, or fall victim to the effects of cyberbullying, trolling, phishing or radicalisation. The competences of effective digital citizenship are not acquired automatically but need to be learned and practised. Education has a vital role to play in helping young people learn these competences, not only to protect them from the risks and pitfalls of the internet, but also to make them aware of how they can use digital technology positively, as active citizens, for the good of society.

What are the 10 domains of digital citizenship?

To become effective digital citizens young learners need to acquire a number of digital citizenship competences. The Council of Europe Digital Citizenship Education Expert Group has identified 10 distinctive areas of digital citizenship competence. These 10 areas or “domains” are based on and derived from the RFCDC, which are the basic building blocks of education for life in a diverse democratic society. Like the Competences for Democratic Culture, each of the domains of digital citizenship is made up of a combination of values, skills, attitudes, and knowledge and critical understanding. They fall into three main categories:

►Being online

►Well-being online

►Rights online

Thus, the 10 domains of digital citizenship,respectively, are:

►Being online

–Access and inclusion

–Learning and creativity

–Media and information literacy

►Well-being online

–Ethics and empathy

–Health and well-being

–e-presence and communications

►Rights online

–Active participation

–Rights and responsibilities

–Privacy and security

–Consumer awareness.

Short descriptions of the combination of competences in each domain can be found in the Council of Europe leaflet, Digital Citizenship Education: 10 domains. A more detailed treatment of each of the domains can be found in the Digital Citizenship Education handbook.

How is Digital Citizenship Education taught?

Preparation for life as a citizen, or member of society, begins with the family in the home, with peers and in the community. Likewise, education for responsible online behaviour has many possible sources, including in non-formal education.

It is the responsibility of schools to build on this foundation of non-formal education for digital citizenship, to give it structure, and lead young learners towards higher levels of understanding and more sophisticated forms of practice. They also have a duty to fill in the gaps and right any misunderstandings that might have resulted from young learners’ earlier experience.

In collaboration with parents, schools are able to lay out positive directions that will help their students learn to become more responsible and effective citizens and members of society, both online and offline. They do this by providing spaces in which young learners can reflect on and experiment with their sense of online identity and the idea and practice of democracy.

How should Digital Citizenship Education be approached in schools?

As digital citizenship competence is more than technical skills and knowledge, as it also involves values and attitudes, it is important for schools to recognise that Digital Citizenship Education is more than a subject in the curriculum. It also implies a mode of teaching and a culture of practice: one in which young learners have regular opportunities to reflect critically on their rights and responsibilities as members of society, under the guidance of teachers who act as role models of democratic citizenship.

Digital Citizenship Education is thus best conceived as a whole-school approach. Opportunities for digital citizenship learning arise just as much in everyday school subjects as they do in civic education or ICT lessons. They also arise in wider school activities, including pupil parliaments and student councils, as well as through links with parents and external and community organisations. Hence there is a need to integrate Digital Citizenship Education into schools’ annual policy development cycles and to involve school data protection officers in all aspects of development.

One way of creating these kinds of opportunities in schools where the formal curriculum is overcrowded is by organising special or one-off events and activities, either by cutting across the curriculum or suspending the formal curriculum for a morning, afternoon or full day. A special section showcasing examples of these opportunities will be found in Part 4 of this Trainers’ Pack.

How do you use the Digital Citizenship Education handbook?

The Digital Citizenship Education handbook will be your main resource, both for informing yourself about Digital Citizenship Education and for designing and implementing your training activities. The handbook contains detailed descriptions of each of the 10 domains of digital citizenship, along with fact sheets setting the context and providing real-life examples of each.

Printouts of extracts from the handbookcan be used as participants’ source material in training activities, to raise interest in a topic, as handouts for information, or for material on which to base discussions.

What other resources will you find useful?

In addition to the handbook there are a number of Council of Europe publications that focus explicitly on Digital Citizenship Education. These include the leaflet Digital Citizenship Education (DCE): 10 domains, the booklet Easy steps to help your child become a digital citizen4and two other publications in the Digital Citizenship Education series: Volume 1: overview and new perspectives and Volume 2: multi-stakeholder consultation report.5 For information about what is available and the work of the Digital Citizenship Education project, go to www.coe.int/dce.

The Council of Europe programme Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education has resulted in a comprehensive collection of publications focusing on different aspects of education for life in a diverse democratic culture. These publications can not only help you to set Digital Citizenship Education in its educational context, they will also help you plan and implement practical training activities. They include the Reference Framework on Competences for Democratic Culture, and manuals on teacher competences, democratic school governance and policy making as well as lesson materials for teachers.6

Further advice and lesson materials on education for democracy and human rights can be found at www.living-democracy.com.

4. Available at www.coe.int/dce.

5. Ibid.

6. www.coe.int/rfcdc

Part 2: Training activities

Starting a training session

Adults are not always as naturally open to learning as children. They want to know what it is they are being asked to learn and why they are being asked to learn it. So it is important, on your first meeting with a group, to set aside a little time to help your participants get in the right frame of mind for training.