Jack Webster, University of Auckland
Students are living, learning and developing in a world increasingly orientated around digital technologies. Schools in Aotearoa New Zealand are encouraged to integrate digital citizenship into school life, but given the continuous development of new digital technologies, most notably generative AI, schools’ approach to digital citizenship education needs revisiting.
Digital citizenship education uses opportunities within the curriculum to explore issues or developments related to digital technologies and their uses in society. The aim is to raise awareness of the impact of the digital on individuals and wider society, and also develop skills that enable students to utilise digital technologies and digital spaces in their present and future participation in society.
Schools tend to address digital citizenship as a part of a charter or guideline for students to adhere to. This usually includes appropriate behaviours such as avoiding cyberbullying and remaining safe online. While these are important considerations, they only address a small aspect of digital technologies’ influence over our lives. Learners’ education has to be more than that if it is going to prepare them to think and be in a world with digital technologies.
Postdigital theory: There are no longer boundaries between digital and non-digital
My research looks at how postdigital theory can enrich digital citizenship education by focusing on the ways digital technologies impact the way we, and our students, act as citizens. Most simply put, the postdigital suggests there are no clear boundaries between digital and non-digital. This is the result of digital technologies being deeply entwined into our public and private lives. As a theory, or a way of looking, the postdigital suggests that the digital is no longer a tool separate from us but an intricate part of the way we see, think about, belong and act in the world. In this sense, postdigital theory promotes further critical dialogue and inquiry about the impact of digital technologies and also what assumptions we have about digital technologies and their role in society.
From a postdigital perspective, digital technologies are not just mediums that we act through as citizens; digital technologies influence our citizenship, the way we see the world and interact with it. Digital platforms determine what issues are viewed as important, the types of voices and perspectives discussing issues, and the values promoted to understand and address issues in the world. Students need to be able to navigate an environment in which digital devices, spaces and networks frame ways of seeing, thinking and being. A postdigital form of digital citizenship education questions and scrutinises the impact digital technologies have on individuals and society at large.
The state of digital citizenship education in Aotearoa New Zealand
I examined the literature on digital citizenship education in Aotearoa New Zealand to understand what it looks like, why that might be and how to integrate more postdigital considerations for a better approach. Analysis of Ministry of Education documents and Ministry supported online digital citizenship modules suggested that the overall aims are not obviously problematic. The stated aim “to nurture and teach young people to become discerning, responsible digital citizens” (Ministry of Education, 2023, para. 3) seems to indicate a critical approach to using digital technologies and developing the skills and awareness to use digital technologies appropriately. However, this sentiment does not clearly examine the impact of digital technologies on individuals and societies. Overall, there is a greater emphasis on digital technologies as enhancing society and a fear of falling behind as a result of a lack of digital access or innovation. In a society where there is widespread concern and uncertainty over digital technology developments, such as AI, digital citizenship education has to examine the potential uses, limitations and impact of digital technologies on individuals’ lives.
Revisiting digital citizenship education: Changes to consider
Applying postdigital theory to the Ministry of Education’s vision, I identified three key considerations:
1. There is an awareness of the risks associated with advances in digital technologies and that they might – or probably will – change society, but there’s very little understanding of how or why that is. Algorithmic decision making, AI and biotechnology all have an influence over people’s lives in subtle or more obvious ways.
- Empowering students with the understanding and confidence to be able to discern what changes are occurring, why that is, and what possible issues there might be is crucial for them to develop as critically informed citizens.
2. Place greater emphasis on digital citizens’ agency as being co-constituted between humans and digital technologies. For instance, the boundaries between democracy and digital technologies are so interconnected that it is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.
- In order to help students navigate postdigital societies where traditional boundaries of social life are blurred, look for opportunities to acknowledge the impact of digital technologies on the way we see and interact with the world and increase awareness of how and why this occurs.
3. Move away from normative ideas or simple guidelines for “success” with digital technologies. Policies such as banning mobile phones simply suggest that that phones, or more specifically, students’ uses of phones, are bad. This approach doesn’t actually help students’ capacity to use or reflect on their use of digital technologies.
- Greater emphasis on discussing, questioning and reflecting rather than adhering to guidelines or rules can create conditions for students to understand how to navigate a world with digital technologies.
My analysis of digital citizenship education for a postdigital society led to several key questions for teachers to consider integrating into their practice. These questions are designed to encourage deeper reflection from students on the impact of digital technologies over their ways of seeing, thinking and being. Example questions include (see the full set of questions here):
- How are digital technologies implicated in political or economic agendas, or in specific cultural contexts, or in environmental or biological concerns?
- What is the impact of digital technologies on me or a group or wider society?
- What is the benefit of using digital technologies in this instance?
- Is meaning confined or different in digital spaces compared to physical spaces?
In an ever-evolving digital environment, introducing questions that encourage students to reflect on their uses and experiences with digital technologies encourages a negotiation of their relationship with them. Putting these sort of questions into curriculum documents or education initiatives would ultimately support schools’ and teachers’ ability, awareness and confidence to integrate these discussions into their practice.
Jack Webster is a doctoral student at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Education and Social Work. Originally from the UK, he spent seven years teaching history and social studies in Shanghai. He holds an MA in Development Education and Global Learning from University College London where he investigated the effectiveness of international focused high school programmes to prepare students to succeed in a 21st century societies. His current research interests focus on schools’ response to the complex relational space between humans and digital technologies.
Ipu Kererū 