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THE 2022 FESTIVAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
22 October - 13 November
FoSS and ESRC logos

How to engage young people with difficult digital literacy discussions

What’s on offer?

The event will take on an un-conference style, meaning that once we have funds approved to run the event we will open the schedule to be populated by participants wanting to contribute to the event in more active ways.  In our call to the un-conference event, we aim to encourage teachers, students, members of the public and researchers to work together to propose sessions they find fit to discuss their topics of interest. This can include the typical talks and symposia as well as fishbowl activities, workshops, idea fair, etc.  

What’s it about?

This event is designed to engage the audience in thinking about how to address the challenges young people currently face with regards to their own activities online (digital practices) and their cultural knowledge of digital environments/apps (digital literacies). The event proposes dialogical forms of exploring digital areas of concern with young people. These areas of concern include sexting, misinformation, and digital wellbeing. This format aims to move away from the ‘show and tell’ approaches that are often used as preventative and informative measures to instead place young people at the centre of the debate. This represents a step towards informing and/or transforming their perspectives of such activities.

The event draws on a Durham University, School Education ESRC IAA funded project on the Digital Literacy Clinic that has brought together university students with secondary school students. The Digital Literacy Clinic saw research-informed discussions, facilitated by carefully designed tasks, about difficult digital topics. Secondary school students created their own messages (often in a digital format, such as a meme) pertaining to difficult digital practices.

Who’s leading the event?

Dr Cristina Costa and Dr Michaela Oliver

Of particular interest to

Teachers, students and wider community