Youth Take Action: Digital Citizenship Day
2019, Summit Confronting the Disinformation Age, Media + Information, Democracy
Co-presented with Check Your Head
Digital citizenship is a new and evolving concept which grapples with the complex reality of new digital technologies that impact all aspects of our lives today. Youth Take Action: Digital Citizenship Day will bring together high school students for a full-day, in-person workshop that explores the following questions:
- What are the rights of youth digital citizens?
- What are their responsibilities, and what are those of governments and private companies?
- How can we ensure that new technologies do not deepen existing injustices or create new ones?
- How can we equip students with the skills to navigate online spaces that are dominated by “fake news” and misinformation?
- How can we use exponentially advancing technology to create a better future for all of us?
The day’s activities are designed by Check Your Head and will be led by youth peers trained in popular education and facilitation as well as adult allies, offering an experience that is quite different from a traditional classroom. Through a mix of engaging presentations and hands-on activities, youth will learn about some of the key challenges and possibilities offered by the digital age both from industry leaders and their peers. Additionally, participating classes will be equipped with supplemental pre and post-event classroom activities.
Learning Outcomes
Builds Awareness of Digital Citizenship
Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. By the end of the day, the student:
- Understands the concept of privacy as it relates to using the internet.
- Understands the ways websites and companies collect data online and utilize it to personalize content for their uses, and consider companies’ motives in doing so.
- Understands the concepts of ethical behaviour and online ethics.
- Understands public online presence known as a digital footprint.
- Is aware of the discourse on both the issues and opportunities involved in new media.
- Is aware of the general trends within new media even if they do not use them.
- Exhibits leadership as a digital citizen.
9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (PT)
Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre
181 Roundhouse Mews
Vancouver, B.C.
We respectfully acknowledge that this event takes place on the Unceded, Traditional, Ancestral Territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ, kʷikʷəƛ̓əm, and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm First Nations.
About Confronting the Disinformation Age
SFU Public Square’s 2019 Community Summit considered how the proliferation of disinformation is impacting society and challenging our capacity to make informed decisions about our economic, social, and political lives. Together, we co-created strategies to ensure stronger and healthier information ecosystems and stimulate more connected and resilient communities.
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The Disinformation Age
Information is fundamental to our existence. Without it, we cannot understand or effectively respond to the events that shape our world. Throughout history, campaigns to deliberately spread false information to influence public opinion or obscure the truth have been launched by individuals, organizations, and governments. But today, we’re living in a new age of information facilitated primarily by digital technology. These advancements offer us extraordinary access to facts and data but also allow for harmful, inaccurate, and manipulated information to be created and disseminated at an unprecedented speed, scope, and scale. Falsehoods are pitted against facts in competition for our attention and technology is used to exploit our cognitive functioning without repercussion. In what is being called the “post-truth” era, the distortion of our information landscape is eroding our trust in institutions, political systems, the media, and each other.
Read: Recap of Youth Take Action: Digital Citizenship Day — Check Your Head (May 7, 2019)
Toward a Youth Manifesto on Digital Rights and Responsibilities — Katie Hyslop, The Tyee (April 17, 2019)
Confronting the Disinformation Age | Resources
Books, articles, videos and other resources on disinformation.
Check Your Head: the Youth Global Education Network is a youth-driven not-for-profit organization founded in 1999 and based in Vancouver, British Columbia, on unceded Coast Salish territories. We provide education, resources, training and support for youth to live as engaged, independent and active citizens within our local and global communities. Our main activities include workshops, training, supporting youth-led actions, and engaging youth volunteers.
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