Person:

Cortesi, Sandra

Reflecting on the 25th anniversaries of the invention of the World Wide Web by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and the adoption of the Convention on Rights of the Child by the US General Assembly, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and UNICEF co-hosted in April 2014 — in collaboration with PEW Internet, EU Kids Online, the Internet Society (ISOC), Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), and YouthPolicy.org — a first of its kind international symposium on children, youth, and digital media to map and explore the global state of relevant research and practice, share and discuss insights and ideas from the developing and industrialized world, and encourage collaboration between participants across regions and continents.

With a particular focus on voices and issues from the Global South, the symposium addressed topics such as inequitable access, risks to safety and privacy, skills and digital literacy, and spaces for participation, and civic engagement and innovation. The event also marked the launch of Digitally Connected — an initiative that brings together academics, practitioners, young people, activists, philanthropists, government officials, and representatives of technology companies from around the world who, together, are addressing the challenges and opportunities children and youth encounter in the digital environment. More information about the network (as well as the launch symposium) is available.

This book is one contribution by this growing, global network of collaborators and consists of two parts. The first part brings together a series of reflection pieces in form of short essays written by friends and colleagues who attended the Digitally Connected symposium at Harvard University. The second part consists of a collection of stories, art, and digital media by youth about their experiences online. These creative pieces were submitted through an open call, which consisted of 10 prompts youth could reflect upon.

The contributions in this book reflect the diversity of ideas and perspectives that form the core and spirit of Digitally Connected. Some of the reflection pieces are closely connected to issues discussed at the symposium, others reflect more generally on personal observations and/or opinions, or highlight and discuss insights and learnings from specific studies or concrete projects. By making these reflection pieces and the youth work available to the expanding Digitally Connected network as well as the public at large, we hope to continue and further stimulate the global conversation about both the challenges and opportunities children and youth encounter in the digital environment.

This publication includes a series of short essays that offer interesting, alternative, exciting, sobering, unusual, out-of-the box perspectives, observations, or reflections at the intersection of news, digital media, and youth - broadly defined.

The contributions in this publication reflect the diversity of ideas and perspectives that form the core and spirit of the Berkman community. Some of the essays are closely connected to specific research and publications conducted by the Youth and Media team (www.youthandmedia.org) at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, others reflect more generally on personal observations and/or opinions, or highlight and discuss insights and learnings from other studies or concrete projects.

Leaders in both the public and private sectors have increasingly acknowledged that society has an obligation to include the next generation in the decision-making processes that will shape their future. Young people (ages 12-18) seem to agree, and they have expressed a growing desire to be actively consulted on issues that matter to them. From environmental protection and climate change to social justice and mental health, youth are increasingly voicing their questions, concerns, and hopes about the future. Input from the next generation is particularly crucial when it comes to navigating the challenges of new technologies.

Digital citizenship has become a topic of growing importance among academics and policymakers alike, at the center of debate and theorization around the skills youth need to navigate and actively participate in our digital world. On a global level, a variety of stakeholders — including government, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and academia — have adopted the term to develop and shape formal and informal learning programs that aim to help youth address the challenges and embrace the opportunities the digital environment may present. Yet, there is little consensus as to the broad areas (e.g., safety and well-being, civic and political engagement, identity exploration), and skills within them, digital citizenship should encompass. In this spotlight, Youth and Media explores the concept of digital citizenship, providing an overview of the current dialogue surrounding the term, with a focus on several key questions. Why does digital citizenship matter? Why has the concept become central in discussions about youth (ages 12-18), education, and learning in the 21st century? In a world where the online and offline are increasingly blending, to what extent should we emphasize the role of the “digital” in “digital citizenship”? To what degree do youth feel connected to the term “citizen?” How is the concept of digital citizenship similar to or different from other concepts, such as digital literacy or 21st century skills? How should we approach these concepts to more effectively foster the skills youth need to thrive in today’s society? And to what extent have we as decision-makers, academics, and educators been successful at incorporating youth voices in the development, implementation, and evaluation of digital citizenship initiatives?

Young people’s lives are increasingly shaped by digital technologies. While significant digital divides and participation gaps remain, an increasing number of young people around the globe participate in and contribute to the digitally networked environment in many forms, ranging from creative expression on social media to interactive gaming and collaboration. This spotlight explores young people’s digital engagement through the lens of the digital economy and seeks to gain an initial understanding of youth’s practices, motivations, skills, pathways, and modes of value creation as they interact with a digital environment in which the boundaries between the commercial and personal spheres, between work and play, are often blurring. The spotlight summarizes key insights from a trans-Atlantic exploratory research collaboration between Youth and Media at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the Nordic Centre for Internet and Society at BI Norwegian Business School. In addition to sketching building blocks toward a framework, the paper brings together three essays that explore in different application contexts both the opportunities and challenges that surface when young people engage with and participate in the digital economy.

This spotlight seeks to share Youth and Media’s initial insights around ways different stakeholders — such as international organizations, companies, researchers, and educators — can build participation models (e.g., spaces, programs, and methodologies) that enable meaningful youth (ages 12-18) engagement in our digital world. The paper, inspired by results from a 2020 global online youth consultation and informed by different implementation pilots, highlights four specific models of youth participation: youth labs, learning and co-design spaces, youth boards, and participatory research. The spotlight describes, for each model, the overall goal, what adult and youth participation might look like, potential challenges and barriers within and across models, possible first steps in designing such models, and existing examples of these forms of engagement.

Building off several prior working meetings which mapped and considered the implications of the new and rapidly evolving ecosystem of networked technology being used with education (“ed tech”), the Berkman Center for Internet & Society’s Student Privacy Initiative convened a conversation in May 2015 among multiple stakeholders, including, but not limited to, K-12 educators, district administrators, academics, policy makers, and industry representatives. This working meeting was envisioned as one in a series of conversations which deepens our understanding of emerging and future privacy issues in K-12 learning environments, both formal and informal. Future conversations may focus on specific topics within the broader spectrum of issues relating to student privacy; this particular working meeting prioritized practicality over theoretical discussion, emphasizing the evolving experiences of K-12 administrators, educators, and students.

In order to evaluate the challenges and opportunities fostered by the next generation of ed tech, participants were asked to consider the following four layers of the ed tech ecosystem, each of which informs the others in myriad ways: Technological Infrastructure: What kind of technology can be considered “ed tech”? This layer encompasses cloud infrastructure, the Internet of Things, sensor networks, and other new technologies that facilitate connected learning environments (which transcend the traditional classroom set-up, disturb hierarchies, and foster peer-to-peer interactions) and other educational innovations within brick and mortar classrooms, thereby shaping the collection and use of student/educational data. Data: What kinds of data are being collected, and how/by whom are they being used? This layer includes the opportunities afforded by learning analytics (the aggregation of data about learners, offering the potential benefit of individualized learning trajectories and the potential challenge of limiting or discriminatory “tracking”), as well as other uses by educators, administrators, and other stakeholders of individual and cohort-wide student data previously unimaginable in both its breadth and depth. Organizational Structures: Where does learning take place today? This layer maps the institutional forms of current and future educational institutions, from traditional schoolhouses to informal learning environments, which can be situated within the context of schools, cities, libraries, and elsewhere -- and are perhaps best understood as part of the connected learning ecosystem. Norms and values: How do we want ed tech to be used in the classroom, and what are our expectations for/desires of privacy? This layer reflects those principles, policies, pedagogies, and practices that do or should animate the goals, implementation, and stakeholder experiences of twenty-first century digital education in its various iterations.

Keeping these layers in mind, discussion ranged widely across numerous themes, reflecting the participants’ diverse backgrounds and perspectives. This report seeks to summarize the conversation’s main themes and highlight suggestions for future action. In the following section, the main themes and observations are considered, including issues dealt with explicitly and at length, in addition to those that more quietly (and perhaps implicitly) surfaced at multiple points during the day. And although the third section concerns suggested areas for moving forward, these are meant to be understood as key highlights, and not a comprehensive summary.