A contextual approach to digital citizenship, digital literacy, and student voice

Abstract

Reluctance to embrace the use of social media in the K-12 classroom means there is limited research on the extent to which a guided approach to using social media might support students in an educational context. This narrative inquiry study focuses on the Ontario Educational Student Chat (ONedSschat) to determine the extent to which students who were part of the organizing team developed proficiency with digital citizenship and digital literacies, as well as student voice and agency, in order to demonstrate digital leadership skills. Data examined includes student tweets, archived webinars, interviews with two adult mentors and one student, podcasts and webinars. With few exceptions, students on the ONedSschat team exhibited a high degree of digital citizenship, used tools and platforms with greater fluency, had full agency over the project, and demonstrated digital leadership as a result of teacher mentorship. The greatest gains in terms of digital citizenship, literacies, and student voice were made by younger students.