Lit Review 2: Teaching Responsible Citizenship in the Age of Digital Media

Modern media technologies, the Internet in particular, have the power to create a vast civic domain that fosters debate and discussion about critical social issues, and to be a source of new information that can allow individual citizens to developed informed opinions based upon electronically disseminated information. Using the internet, which is rife with bias and inaccuracies, to gather information can be a challenge, and requires sophisticated critical thinking skills. Moreover, as Vincent Gozalvez points out in his paper Education for Democratic Citizenship in a Digital Culture, published in the January 2011 issue of the "Scientific Journal of Media Literacy", there is a danger that technologies that allow individuals to filter and customize the news they receive through electronic media will create "inbred" or myopic digital citizens who do not open themselves to new ideas or alternate opinions that are necessary to informed and responsible democratic citizenship. Gozalvez cites a study done with 60 participants from a variety of US states. These participates, placed in groups of 5 or 6 like-minded individuals based on political affiliation, engaged in a blog based discussion group on several controversial topics. The trend was that the more extreme views came to dominate the discussion with little compromise, and real debate ended within 15 minutes. The study suggests that when individuals engage exclusively with individuals of a similar ideology,opinions are galvanized without any real critical assessment of the issue or the dominant viewpoint. Although electronic media and communication has the power to expand democratic citizenship, Gozalvez suggests that if users simply filter out any novel or potentially contradictory information, modern forms of media may serve to restrict responsible, informed citizenship rather than promote it.
        To avoid this potetial pitfall, Gozalvez 
argues that education, specifically k-12 education, needs to impart the skills and mindset in students that allows them to assess all information on an issue to develop an informed option that is not blinkered by individual or group bias. Gozalvez suggests some approaches that educators can use to help students become independent minded, critical, and civically responsible democratic citizens in a digital culture. These suggestions include using the internet to explore diverse civic issues, taking into account all available information that comes from credible sources; that is, making them active, critical participants in civic research. This should be done not only using text media, such as blogs and news groups, but video and audio sources as well. In short, students need to learn not only how to use technology, but also how to use it responsibly and critically. Educators need to be aware of the dangers electronic media has to produce a myopic and bias citizenry if the new generation of citizens is not well informed about how to use technology as an aid to responsible, democratic social engagement. 

EdTechTalk/Seedlings 5/12

This week’s topic on EdTechTalk.com’s seedlings was universal design for learning (UDL) and assistive technology (AT).  UDL is a concept in learning that comes out of the principle of universal design in architecture, which is the practice of making buildings accessible to all individuals, including those with disabilities.  A prime example of this is a wheelchair ramp; another is a drinking fountain with two spouts and basins, one shorter than the other to make the water fountain accessible to individuals who cannot reach the higher one.  UDL applies this same concept to the educational settings, where some students may require specially designed devices to access educational resources. This is where AT comes in. Devices such as keyboards with larger keys for students who have difficulty with visual impairments or fine motor control difficulties, auditory trainers for students with hearing impairments, or recording devices for students who have difficulty focusing in class, and who may benefit from being able to revisit what was said in class discussion, are examples of AT and UDL. 

This episode of Seedlings made it clear that these tools need not be limited to special education, but may benefit students of different learning styles as well. For instance, it was suggested in the podcast that it may be beneficial for auditory learners to use audio books or the text-to-speech function offered on many computers as ATs to help them engage with educational material in a more effective manner. Helping students gain an understanding of what type of learners they are (e.g. auditory, visual, kinesthetic, etc.) was an important side-note that arose during the discussion. This week’s guest, Chris Bugaj, co-author of The Practical and Fun Guide to Assistive Technology in Public Schools offers ideas and advice for advocates of AT to influence change in their schools as well as offering ideas to professionals wanting to use AT in the classroom.