Expanded education central to digital wellbeing, says practitioner

Digital education must be broader than hard digital skills and break free of the online-offline divide, those working in digital wellbeing have said. 

Building digital skills have become a core focus of EU policymakers in recent years, and much of this centres on equipping young people with the capabilities to navigate the digital age. 

However, some working in digital wellbeing have called for an expanded conceptualisation of the skills needed to operate online and for greater attention to the roles of both teachers and families in encouraging their development. 

Among them, a coalition of organisations has been calling for a more comprehensive look at digital citizenship. In a recently-published non-paper, the group – which includes Meta, the European Youth Forum, the Lisbon Council and some other research and civil society organisations – identifies five pillars on which the concept should be built, spanning digital foundations, wellbeing, engagement, empowerment and opportunities. 

“Digitalisation is now all pervasive in the life of families and children, with pros and cons”, Elizabeth Gosme, director of COFACE Families Europe, one of the members of the working group, told EURACTIV.

However, when it comes to tackling issues that have arisen as a result of digitalisation, she said, the involvement of a much broader set of actors than just families will be necessary to build resilience and digital skills.

Digital technologies have made caring for children all the more complicated, Gosme said, and ensuring that they are protected while also able to take full advantage of the opportunities provided by these technologies is a complex task, particularly when undertaken on top of existing caring responsibilities. 

Building a more rounded concept of digital citizenship can help to support people in avoiding online harms and seizing the benefits that the digital space can provide, the non-paper argues, while also addressing some of the key challenges to digital citizenship. 

One such obstacle, the coalition notes, is an online-offline separation, which treats the two spheres, and the citizenship skills required to operate in them successfully as wholly separate, jeopardizing the effectiveness of interventions. 

“The dichotomy of offline-online doesn’t make sense so much anymore because digital is just part of our life these days”, noted Gosme, adding that reducing it should be a core focus of digital education initiatives.

“You need to go back offline to actually address the complexities of the online world,” she said. “That means emotional intelligence, social support, mental health support, respecting diversity, all these kinds of offline skills that everybody needs in life just for human connections.”

While digital components are increasingly present in education, there is a need for this to become more formalised, Gosme also argued. 

“At some point,” she added, “digital technologies and digital citizenship need to enter the school curriculum more structurally and clearly because if you have the tools – such as software, internet connection and hardware – and you have the skills, that combination means you’re going to be less vulnerable online.”

“There is citizenship education anyway in most schools across Europe,” Gosme noted. “So it’s just about adding like a digital component, building on existing modules to make sure kids have the necessary skills before they enter the digital world.”

One such initiative to boost the teaching of digital capabilities came at EU-level last month with the Commission’s publication of a toolkit on digital literacy.

Developed by an expert group drawn from media, academia and civil society, the guidelines provide background, resources and best practices for educators in teaching skills, such as identifying mis- and disinformation and approaches to fact-checking. 

EU offers guidelines for schools to boost digital literacy

The European Commission has this week released its guidelines for educators on promoting digital skills and tackling disinformation for use in primary and secondary schools across the EU.

Building and strengthening digital citizenship should not just be seen as the responsibility of teachers or parents, warned Gosme, adding that platforms should also be taking steps to incorporate citizenship and user safety. 

“We’re very aware of how certain parts of internet services platforms function,” she said. “They are there to make money. They are not there for human rights. And so obviously, the business models are geared to ensure maximum presence online.” 

When it comes to combatting the risks of online services, therefore, she said, “It’s also in the hands of the digital providers in how they design these products to, of course, have good business, but also ensure safety, citizenship and empowerment of the users, whether they’re kids or older persons or indeed anybody.”

[Edited by Luca Bertuzzi/Nathalie Weatherald]