Underlying Philosophy

Underlying philosophy

Media Literacy- If media can be understood as an extension of man, then to be media literate is to understand ourselves the human.

Citizenship and how the citizen is defined is crucial to the development of any society. In an age where digital convergence seems to be changing the national landscape and reshaping the bounds of what we define as our society, it can be difficult to assess how we will identify citizenship and how we will teach it. Is citizenship a national, or international concept? Should we be preparing students to be not only citizens of a country, but citizens of a continental, or even a global society? How should the education of civics be approached?
From a digitally convergent perspective, one can observe that, where ethics are concerned there is a growing focus on placing responsibility into the hands of the user. If this is so then there is a need to educate digital citizens to be as capable and competent as possible, but also, to ensure that they are aware of their own power in creating the rules and systems that will eventually decide how they interact with technology. (That is to say that, a well informed and educated public will be able to act as a democratic body placing pressure as a collective on organizations and individuals in positions of power to make rules and policy.) A well function democracy hinges on the education of its people, how well informed they are of facts and how aware they are of their own ability to wield power and create change as individuals and as a collective. If the digital world is to maintain a status of democracy those using it- its citizens must be educated in order to ensure their participation.

The question this subsequently prompts is, how do we educate about responsible use of digital technology? The digital is not just changing how technology works, it is also changing how people think. It is non-linear, mutable and reaches across fields and disciplines, jobs and ideas and converges in strange and unexpected ways. It seems clear from this that an inter-disciplinary approach is necessary.

If education is to truly prepare its citizens for a digital world, it will need to create a space to understand and interact with what is digital. It seems clear that there is a need for a new educational philosophy to embrace this. This project is a micro model of what education could look like in the digital age; a model of student centered learning encouraging differentiated instruction, relevancy to life and new and creative ways of thinking about the world. In a democracy where responsibility is the citizen’s it seems important to encourage students to take as active a part in their own education as they would in their own democracy.

Perhaps the main difficulty is the lack of an over arching philosophy about digital education. Convergence puts the user in the center of a created world. This is not the view of the common classroom and thus the two sit at dissonance with one another. (a linear structure of seating, a predictable pattern of sequential day, a lesson dictated by the teacher instead of the student all contribute to a hidden curriculum which is at odds with a digital world and therefore fails to produce citizens who feel confident living in a digital society.)

To explore the ways in which one might approach digital civics, I explore different aspects of the human and how these aspects might be impacted by digital technology with a view to understanding how best to educate citizenry for the most ideal outcomes (where an ideal outcome is defined as a citizenry which is happy, highly developed both collectively and individually, and in which all citizens work toward achieving their personal best.)

The five aspects which have been included here are; the physical, emotional, spiritual, social and intellectual and the various ways in which they interact with digital technologies thereby affecting a citizens happiness and development provide an opportunity to examine the potential ways in which digital civic education may be approached.

The physical ways in which digital technology affects us- and therefore the things about which one may be concerned when educating about digital civics include such aspects as the physicality (or indeed lack of physicality) of the digital world. How do we appreciate the nature of digital products when it is not possible to hold them in our hands as existent objects? Is this one reason why digital piracy seems so acceptable? How does the technology react with or change our own physiology? As most digital technologies are accessible or communicated as forms of light media, we should examine light, and its interactions with the human body to fully understand our relationship to digital media. What effect does such light technology have on the pineal gland? How does it alter our brain function, and consequently, our happiness and long term productivity?

The emotional interactions between the human and technology are also important to consider- particularly if one recognises happiness as a key factor in citizenship. How is happiness to be achieved if we are not cogniscent of the implications of digital technology on our emotional well being? Both in terms of how it physiologically affects our brain chemistry and over all feelings of happiness and well-being due to its serotonin impact, but also the emotional attachments that are formed- such as in the case of mobile phones, where teenagers can become extremely dependent and attached to their technology.

The spiritual, or ethical ways in which digital technologies are viewed can perhaps best be summed up in the ways in which we view technology through our own personal philosophies: the questions that we pose about what it means to be human, and how our relationship with technology can be defined and understood. What is real? What is virtual? And how do we distinguish? Should we distinguish? It also encompasses the ways in which we practise our philosophies when we make decisions based on new situations. With new technologies presenting new ethical dilemmas and situations is it important for citizens to have the tools within themselves to know how they will best make these decisions.

The social aspects of a digital citizen can be shown best through the ways in which people put their personal philosophies into action in the real world. How do we interact with one another and what do we base this on? How do other people’s personal philosophies interact with our own? How do we decide how to use digital technology and live in a digital society? What do our interactions with the digital tell us about the ways in which we live and how do we best navigate these interactions, and not simply on a global scale, but in a microcosm of society as well such as cyber-bullying in schools.

Finally, the intellectual ways in which we interact with technology include the ways in which we understand technology based on all of the available evidence and data. It is where we truly become digitally media literate in that it is where we come to fully understand our own relationship with the digital; can form strong and well balanced opinions and views based on the knowledge of self and the knowledge of technology; and can communicate our ideas fully with others in society.