The voice of youth: Back2School as good digital citizens

Hearing the views and the voices of youth is an important part of the work we do in aiming to create a better internet for Kids. As part of our Back2School edition of the BIK bulletin, we asked three of our youth ambassadors how they plan to be good digital citizens as they embark on the start of a new academic year. Find out how they responded.

Date 2016-09-28 Author BIK youth
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Ľuboš (18) is from Slovakia and graduated from a high school in Austria. He will pursue his desire to acquire an in-depth understanding of our society studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics at UCL. He is also passionate about travelling, languages and skiing. Ľuboš has been a youth ambassador for five years, being particularly interested in positive content and online participation.

 

 

 

 

"During the last couple of years, it's become clear that technology is a part of our learning process. Teachers, parents and students have all acknowledged this, focusing more on questions such as to which extent should technology be used in the process of learning and how it should be used. The latter question about responsible use of technology has slowly grown to be an issue which needs to be tackled by all stakeholders involved. I, as a student, can offer my personal point of view to what ought to be done and how I plan to behave in digital space this school year.
 
"I believe that it's very important to start with some general principles. Respect is simple to explain. Basically, one should be open to all kinds of opinions, does not have to agree with them, but has to respect them. Yet, respect, no matter how easy it is to understand, is still not omnipresent. Especially not online. With growing social tensions everywhere in the world, I encourage everyone to put respect on the top of their priority list. I have already put it on mine.
 
"Once we all fulfil the precondition of being respectful online, we will enable everybody to benefit from the digital space in a positive way. With instant access to millions of valuable resources, powerful presentation software and task management apps, modern technology comes in handy when we prepare for school. Online resources can make learning both more efficient and more fun.
Nevertheless, it is not always the case. Sometimes, the old pen and paper is still the more reliable partner for our school day. Starting my first year at university, I plan to use a couple of useful apps. I could not do without my note taking app syncing all my remarks across my devices or without my calendar and task management app. However, I would equally suffer if I could not highlight the most important sentences in my textbook with a marker. I encourage everyone to find a balance between smartphones and the old chalkboard.
 
"I wish everyone a great school year full of discovering new interests and broadening horizons. Technology, if used wisely, responsibly and in a respectful manner will help you!"
 
Ida goes to school in Sweden where she works with the internet every day. In 2014, Ida represented her country in the youth panel at the Safer Internet Forum (SIF) in Brussels and, following that, became a youth ambassador. Ida thinks it's important to listen to what youth all over the world has to say about the internet, because it's such a big part of our lives. She feels that the opinions of young people are just as important as those of adults and that both parties working together will achieve the best results.
 
 
 
 
 
 
"The first thing that I came up with is to be a nice person online, because I think that it's really important. I believe that all people that use the internet, which is quite a lot of people, have a life online and offline. And that the online world gets bigger and bigger every day!
"Today we use the internet daily for lots of things: we search for information, we share our lives through social media, we use it in school and so on. But as the online world grows bigger, so does the responsibility for all digital citizens. We are the ones that are online, so we have a responsibility to make sure that the online environment is safe, nice and respectful.
 
"Something that I always have in my plan of being a good digital citizen is to always think before I post something online, especially when I write things to my friends, or send an email for example. When you express yourself via text there's always a chance to be misunderstood because you can't see any facial expressions etc. So, I always read the things I'm sending at least twice, depending on what it is. By doing that, I reduce the chance of unnecessary misunderstandings.
 
"The technology that I will use throughout my school year is a computer and programs like Google apps and Schoolity. One of the Google apps that I will use in school for assignments is Google Drive. I've used it before and it gives you an easy way to share your assignments with your teachers. The technology that I will use in school also makes it easier to do assignments from home. And, if you're sick one day, you can simply follow up what's been going on in school through the computer and relevant programs.
 
"To have the opportunity to use technology in school helps me a lot. For example, I can make my school work much more fun by making movies, creating presentations, and so on. I can also get so much more information by using the internet… and not only information but inspiration too. It also gives me the opportunity to bring my work with me, on the bus on the way to school and so on.
"The most important thing to remember, though, is that everyone has a responsibility online to be a good digital citizen."
 
João Pedro is a 19-year-old Computer Engineering student at Coimbra's University. He has been a youth ambassador for about five years.
 
Born in Portugal, he was one of the first members from outside Lisbon to join the youth panel of his national Safer Internet Centre (SIC). After attending a Safer Internet Forum (SIF) in Luxembourg in 2011 representing his country, he was invited to be a youth ambassador. Since then he has attended a number of seminars and, over the years, has had the opportunity both to share and learn about online safety issues, as well as to get to know a lot of interesting people from all around the world.
 
Young people's opinions are very important to him and he believes they should be taken into account by politicians and companies. That is why he is involved in several projects, most of them connected to youth participation in debates and decisions. In recent months, he has worked alongside his national SIC organising lectures in local schools and was involved in Safer Internet Day celebrations in Lisbon.
 
 
 
"There are things we do in real life that make us concerned citizens. When we are online, it is no different. Of course, for example, we cannot physically donate our blood through the internet (yet?), but there is so much we should do. And what matters the most is being active!
 
"Another school year is starting and it's a perfect time to reflect on what I want to do to continue my positive contribution to digital citizenship.
 
"Paying attention to local and global news might be the first thing to do. Being aware of what is going on around me and in foreign nations will help me do things that really make a difference, either through enrolling in online petitions or supporting humanitarian campaigns.
 
"Secondly, I intend to keep visiting young people in schools, both raising consciousness of digital safety as well as capturing first hand their problems and finding solutions for them.
 
"Everybody must report wrong and risky behaviours. This is the ultimate thing to do in order to play an active role in digital citizenship. If we are disapproving of the ones that fail to be correct and respectful, we instantly also promote and reward the ones that are an example to be followed. Moreover, we should not forget that we ourselves should be an example, always reflecting on what we say, post or share, and doing it before rather than later.
 
"The digital world offers endless information and a wide variety of tools and resources. It is up to us to make the most of them to learn in a more efficient, easier and fun way. Combined brain power overcomes any individual thinking mind and the internet offers many communicational possibilities. I use Facebook private groups to do just that: all students in my class have joined, and we can brainstorm on our homework, share solved exercises of exam preparation, leave messages and organise meetings. It works because it is embedded on a social network, and most people spend a significant amount of time on Facebook. We also have a formal university platform, but even the updates made there are posted on our Facebook group so that no one misses them.
 
"Something that caught my attention was online courses. Whether you want to deepen your knowledge about something you heard about in school, or perhaps try new things and learn new skills such as a language, an online course allows you to do it. As you can manage your own time and attend them from home, often for free, it is perfect for everybody. I recently took a Pixar animation course and it was very interesting and rewarding.
 
"In many countries you have to buy several books for school, and read many others, which can result in an expensive bill. How do I work around that? I use ebooks. Most of them have no costs associated, and the ones which do always end up being far cheaper than printed ones. They are portable and you can take digital notes without damaging anything. In real life you're always concerned if you can highlight that expression or not, because sometimes you have a borrowed book.
 
"All in all, you just need to take a few precautions. Take note that you should rest your eyes periodically if you are using a computer or tablet, pay attention to the payment methods and always keep track of your time. It's a fun and interactive way of learning, but don't forget to go jogging at the end of the day!"

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