Three speakers came together from different backgrounds doing different tasks toward one common goal: improving the status of women through digital literacy.
The technological advancement and the increase of access have provided more opportunities in education and shifted the ways in which we look at communication.
The first presenter described global citizenship as a threshold concept which opens new ways of thinking and perceiving things. It is the acquisition of "troublesome, transformative, integrative, and irreversible" knowledge about the world. She presented a success story of a project in which student participants were from different parts of the world connecting with one another using online tools. They collaborated on research projects by reviewing journal articles and engaging in complex discussions about challenging topics related to injustice and inequality around the world. The project built community and compassion among participants.
Global citizenship is an arguable term, but a participant of the project said, "The right approach is perhaps not to pursue the real definition of global citizenship but to never stop looking."
Shifting the focus to digital literacy, the second presenter, who works at a university in New Zealand, provided a framework of conditions to become digital literate as stated below:
1. Sustainable energy
2. Digital transporter
3. Hardware
4. Software
It was stated that technology helps enhance women's participation in research and innovation. While women's participation in research has been improving, their status in innovation is still lagging behind. While providing some resources (listed at the end) as examples of how technology can be used to improve women's lives, the presenter also brought up the dangerous side of technology, especially the internet. She emphasized that women need protection to avoid the misuse technology which may lead to threats such as non-consensual pornography, cyber bullying, and identity fraud, just to name a few.
The last presenter, whose project is based in several West African countries, highlighted the importance of analyzing the context of where a project is based because that could unveil a number of underlying issues which need to be addressed as they prevent women from gaining access to technology education. Those problems may include the lack of affordability, the unfamiliarity of the usage, the gender barriers, and the lack of awareness of the benefits.
To sum up, the session provided a variety of ways to look at digital literacy, and how it looks like in different contexts for different groups of individuals. Even though, different approach is required in each context, what seems to be applicable in every situation is that education should be inclusive and technology in education should be introduced with caution.
Resources:
ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education): https://www.iste.org/
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses): http://mooc.org/
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