This post is part of a serialized collection of chapters composing my recently completed Master’s of Education degree at the University of Victoria. You can access the other chapters on this site here, and access a pdf of the completed paper on the University of Victoria library space here.
This project explores the intersection of citizenship and education in the digital age to produce a framework to support learning communities in process on the open web. Throughout, the intention is to cultivate opportunities for students to document the development of their own voice and agency within democratic contexts. Building on research conducted into youth voter engagement and their (lack of) participation in democratic processes, theoretical work around the cultivation of a ‘critical’ citizenship, and recent scholarship in open and digital pedagogy, the unit framework described here seeks to contribute to the creation of a vision for 21st century citizenship learning in the K12 school system. The assignments presented here have been conceived to promote learning that is of the age of the web, not merely on the web. Digital pedagogies are presented as lenses through which learners (students and teachers) can reflect and represent individual responses to existing curriculum generated through classroom activities. Drawing on the traditions of constructivism and an emergent view of knowledge, the project explores the possibilities offered by technology to create opportunities for 21st century citizenship learning.
The project reflects my own learning as a public and networked educator as documented in five years’ work online with a professional blog and social media presence, an experience which has helped form the approach guiding my use of technology to support student-learning. The unit framework shared here is intended to present a conception of teaching and learning for critical citizenship in the digital age on the open web.
Learning in public: The networked professional.
Six years and several thousand posts ago, I began documenting and publishing my life and learning on a public blog and across various social media: Twitter, Flickr, Youtube, Instagram, and others. Despite an undergraduate education in creative writing, and experience with “closed” social sites such as Facebook, I quickly discovered the empowering benefit of publishing my thinking and reflections on both professional and informal learning on the public web. By engaging with a global dialogue about matters educational (as well as political, personal, and otherwise), and gaining a familiarity with the diverse means that allow me to share my voice in these discussions, I have seen first hand the potential for open learning practices to transform one’s professional autonomy, as well as to amplify questions posed in the process of student-driven classroom inquiry. This project reflects my own learning and values about the process of transformation, and presents a praxis of student learning in the unit framework which follows. Additionally, it invites educators to consider their own digital citizenship and identity alongside those of their students.