UOC publishes a white paper on competencies in digital education to reduce inequalities

You get a job working for a digital home delivery platform, but do you know what their business model is, what your rights are, or how they use your data? You create a profile on a new social network where there are more and more people like you, but do you know where the line between what is private and what is public lies, or what information about your habits and your tastes the platform collects? Digitization dominates a large part of our everyday lives and our social settings, but the vast majority of social and educational policies still do not address this issue critically.

With this in mind, the white paper Competencias en educación social digital orientadas a una ciudadanía digital y la participación juvenil [Digital social education competencies for digital citizenship and youth participation] produced by the GAME research group of the Faculty of Information and Communication Sciences at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), calls for critical digital literacy, focusing on the promotion of values including political intervention, care, critical awareness and emancipation, and increasing the civic and social impact of literacy initiatives.

"Media education has traditionally focused primarily on issues aimed at the users' employability," explained Daniel Aranda, principal investigator of the GAME group. "However, the main objective of education is to foster critical awareness. If all we do is to educate in values or in the use of digital media aimed solely and exclusively at employability, we won't create critical citizens."

In order to bring about this change in digital education, the white paper proposes a roadmap for addressing a new approach to digital competencies, which is divided into three areas: inequalities, skills and knowledge.

The inequalities of digitization

The process of digitization has been accompanied by promises of democratization and openness since its inception. However, the direction in which it has progressed has instead contributed to social exclusion and reinforced power structures and relations in terms of ethnic, class and gender inequalities. Tools such as artificial intelligence, big data analysis and social media, which all have great disruptive power, have simply perpetuated existing biases in our societies.

In order to address the inequalities and exclusions arising from digitization, the white paper calls for the inclusion of the following competencies in digital social education:

• Understanding of the various dimensions of the digital divide and its links to the concepts of inclusion and exclusion.

• Development of an approach that includes the power structures and relations that influence socio-digital inclusion and exclusion.

• Awareness of the limitations and potential of digital technologies for empowerment.

• Understanding of the importance of the net neutrality principle in creating a digital environment that is considered a public good.

• Understanding of digital identity and its different expressions.

• Development of strategies to identify and combat hate speech on digital platforms.

• Implementation of strategies to identify and combat cyberbullying.

• Understanding of the application of public policies on digital environments.

Skills for critical digitization

The acquisition of digital skills has traditionally been one of the cornerstones of digital education. The use of browsers, office software and email are basic skills for operating in an increasingly digitized world. "In this area, we provide a space where citizens can enter the digital world using various tools that are safe and open – tools that respect data and that allow people to use them freely," said Aranda. As a result, they recommend tools and software including:

• Firefox, for browsing the internet.

• DuckDuckGo, Startpage and Searx for searching for content.

• Proton and Autistici for creating email accounts.

• LibreOffice and OpenOffice for office software.

• Jitsi Meet for video calls and remote meetings.

• Signal and Telegram for messaging.

• Tactical Tech's Data Detox Kit for dealing with misinformation.

• Decidim for participating in digital decision-making processes.

Knowledge for understanding the digital reality

"Educational institutions have to step up and explain what digital culture means, the historical-political context in which technology companies are founded, how intellectual property, freedom of information and platform and data economies work, and the environmental impact of digitization, ranging from the materials used to make a smartphone to the carbon footprint involved in sending an email," said Aranda.

Among other issues, the white paper highlights the importance of addressing the historical and political context of the internet and digital technologies, understanding the concept of technological sovereignty, developing a critical perspective on privacy and anonymity on the internet, understanding the impact of the digital environment on culture, and particularly initiatives that contribute to free culture, understanding the impact of digital technologies in the political sphere, analysing the impact of digitization on the economy and particularly on employment, and in-depth consideration of the ecological impact of digital technologies.

"From the perspective of social education, based on the social contexts in which the people to whom we are offering any kind of socio-cultural dynamic live, activities are undertaken that make their emancipation possible," said Aranda. "Since these people obviously also live in an increasingly digitized context, the digital sphere must be much more present in social education."

This publication contributes to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 4, Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, and 10, Reduce inequality.

 

Reference

Aranda, D., Fernández-de-Castro, P , Martínez, S. (2022). White Paper: digital skills on social education aimed at digital citizenship and youth. participation. http://hdl.handle.net/10609/147080

UOC R&I

The UOC's research and innovation (R&I) is helping overcome pressing challenges faced by global societies in the 21st century by studying interactions between technology and human & social sciences with a specific focus on the network society, e-learning and e-health.

Over 500 researchers and more than 50 research groups work in the UOC's seven faculties, its eLearning Research programme and its two research centres: the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) and the eHealth Center (eHC).

The university also develops online learning innovations at its eLearning Innovation Center (eLinC), as well as UOC community entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer via the Hubbik platform.

Open knowledge and the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development serve as strategic pillars for the UOC's teaching, research and innovation. More information: research.uoc.edu.