Author Archives: scortesi

Digital Access

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[Last updated: May 2020]

Digital Access: The ability to connect to and access the Internet, individually or collectively (e.g., mesh technologies).

Although more young people around the world are connecting to the Internet due to increased access to mobile devices and computers in school and at home, disparities in participation persist for youth across factors such as gender, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. In addition to these demographics, other contextual factors of relevance, such as age, national origin, location, and skill and education level, can further impact youth access to and engagement with digital technologies, resulting in unequal exposure to opportunities that may promote skill development.

Flagship publication:

Key learning resources:

We are just starting to work on learning resources in this area. If you have created resources in this area or would be interested in exploring collaborative work, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

This learning resource is available in over 35 languages! To view the translations, please scroll down to “All Languages.” Additional languages will be added over time.

To learn about how to navigate our Digital Citizenship+ (Plus) Resource Platform — home to an evolving collection of 100+ educational tools (e.g., learning experiences, visualizations, podcasts) that can be used to learn and teach about youth’s digitally connected lives — please see the following slidedeck, presented at RightsCon Tunis 2019. The presentation also offers helpful tips in terms of adapting the tools to your context.

Other publications:

Data

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[Last updated: May 2020]

Data: The ability to be aware of, create, collect, represent, evaluate, interpret, and analyze data from digital and non-digital sources.

The area of life around data — which entails the technical ability and critical thinking skills needed to create, collect, represent, evaluate, interpret, and analyze data from digital and non-digital sources — is becoming increasingly important for youth in today’s data-driven society. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs 2018 report indicates that data analysts will be one of the most in-demand job areas over the next several years. Additionally, this report indicates that a vast majority of employers will expect skills around data science and analytics from prospective applicants by 2021. While the formal educational setting and informal learning environments are increasingly aiming to address digital skills around data, there is a need for more initiatives that involve youth themselves in the development of educational resources around data creation, collection, representation, and analysis.

Looking ahead, we hope to facilitate more opportunities to co-design with youth educational resources around environmental conservation in the context of data (literacy). By co-designing educational resources with young people, we seek to cultivate skills key to academic and career readiness around a critical global issue in an engaging manner.

This is a slightly nascent area for the YaM team. While we are currently not working on a concrete publication in this space, we have spoken about the importance of data at various events and have examined ways this area can be further integrated in initiatives that aim to help equip youth with the skills to thrive in our digital world.

Against this backdrop, we would be delighted to explore possible collaborations around data; please don’t hesitate to email us if you would be interested in exploring this space further together.

Flagship publication:

Key learning resources:

To learn about how to navigate our Digital Citizenship+ (Plus) Resource Platform — home to an evolving collection of 100+ educational tools (e.g., learning experiences, visualizations, podcasts) that can be used to learn and teach about youth’s digitally connected lives — please see the following slidedeck, presented at RightsCon Tunis 2019. The presentation also offers helpful tips in terms of adapting the tools to your context.

Context

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[Last updated: May 2020]

Context: The ability to be aware of, understand, and interpret the contextual factors of relevance (e.g., cultural, social, local/regional/global) in a given situation — with a particular emphasis on the experiences and perspectives of underrepresented groups, whether in terms of age, ethnicity, race, gender and sexual identity, religion, national origin, location, skill and educational level, and/or socioeconomic status — and effectively engage in the situation.

The manner in which youth engage with the digital world depends upon a variety of factors, including their access conditions, prior experiences with digital technologies, and contextual dimensions. Such contextual factors might include gender, age, ethnicity, race, sexual identity, physical availability, geography, religion, socioeconomic status, national origin, and educational attainment. At Yam, we are thus interested in better understanding the Internet and digital technologies access conditions youth are confronted with and further exploring questions such as:

  • What primary digital tools and platforms does a young person use (e.g., tools such as a desktop computer, laptop, or mobile device; platforms such as Twitter)?
  • Who is using these technologies (e.g., individual vs. shared family device)?
  • Where are the technologies being used (e.g., at school, at home, on the go)?
  • What underlying purpose are these technologies being used for (e.g., learning, social life, entertainment)?

Against the backdrop of the rapid pace of globalization, technological innovation, and changes in the workforce, our society is becoming increasingly interconnected. Thriving in today’s world requires a breadth of skills that not only include an understanding of how to use digital tools, but how to interact with others leveraging digital technologies. As skills such as communication, collaboration, and cross-cultural competency become increasingly important, it is also essential  that young people develop the capacity to be aware of, understand, and interpret the contextual factors of relevance when engaging with the digital world.

Flagship publication:

  • Youth and Digital Citizenship+ (Plus): Understanding Skills for a Digital World
    • [Pages 40-41] Discusses the importance of taking into account contextual factors (e.g., agre, ethnicity, race, etc.) in how youth engage with digital citizenship efforts.
    • [Page 48] Offers a brief overview of ways youth may be able to approach emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, in ways that take into account the impact of their actions online not only on an individual level, but the broader online community (e.g., taking into account cultural, social, and regional nuances).

Key learning resources:

We are just starting to work on learning resources in this area. If you have created resources in this area or would be interested in exploring collaborative work, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

These learning resources (with the exception of “Creating a Resume”) are available in over 35 languages! To view the translations, for each resource, please scroll down to “All Languages.” Additional languages will be added over time.

Other publications:

Selected presentations:

(For more information, please email Sandra Cortesi.)

February 2020: Keynote, “Well-being in a Digital Age”, Safer Internet Day, Sao Paulo, Brazil [minutes 11:43-14:47]

Content Production

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[Last updated: May 2020]

Content Production: The ability to produce (digital) content using (digital) tools.

Many young people use digital technologies to create and share content with others online. Some youth, for example, share status updates or post videos and pictures on their social media accounts. Other youth – those on the more active end of the spectrum who have the access to digital technologies and skills to use them – engage in podcasting, blogging, coding, or other forms of multimedia production. Such forms of content creation offer young people opportunities to express themselves, develop their creativity, and make their voices heard.

Main publication:

  • Born Digital: How Children Grow Up in a Digital Age (Chapter 6: Creators)

Key learning resources:

These learning resources (with the exception of “Metadata”) are available in over 35 languages! To view the translations, for each resource, please scroll down to “All Languages.” Additional languages will be added over time.

To learn about how to navigate our Digital Citizenship+ (Plus) Resource Platform — home to an evolving collection of 100+ educational tools (e.g., learning experiences, visualizations, podcasts) that can be used to learn and teach about youth’s digitally connected lives — please see the following slidedeck, presented at RightsCon Tunis 2019. The presentation also offers helpful tips in terms of adapting the tools to your context.

Other publications:

Gasser, U., & Cortesi, S. (2017). Children’s rights and digital technologies: Introduction to the discourse and some meta-observations. In M. D. Ruck, M. Peterson-Badali & M. Freeman (Eds.), Handbook of children’s rights: Global and multidisciplinary perspectives (417-436). New York: Routledge.

Computational Thinking

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[Last updated: May 2020]

Computational Thinking: The ability to understand and apply computational concepts, practices, and perspectives. Computational concepts include concepts individuals leverage as they program (e.g., “sequencing,” or identifying a set of steps for a task; “loops,” or running the same series of steps multiple times). Computational practices represent the practices individuals cultivate while they program (e.g., “experimenting and iterating;” “reusing and remixing,” or creating something by building upon current ideas or projects). Finally, computational perspectives refer to the perspectives individuals develop about themselves, their connections to others (such as  within the context of collaborative online communities), and the technological world more broadly (e.g., “connecting,” or understanding the power of developing content both with and for others) (Brennan & Resnick, 2012).

This is a relatively nascent area for the YaM team. While we are currently not working on a concrete publication in this space, we are interested in exploring possible collaborations. Please don’t hesitate to email us if you would be interested in discussing this area further together.

Flagship publication:

  • Youth and Digital Citizenship+ (Plus): Understanding Skills for a Digital World
    • [Page 46] Provides an overview of the ways the area of computational thinking can be further incorporated into digital citizenship efforts.
    • [Pages 54-57] “Addressing the Gender Gap in Computer Science” is a case study about how formal and informal learning settings can help youth develop the knowledge and skills necessary for careers in computer science, data science, and related fields.

Forthcoming learning resources:

  • Introduction to Computational Thinking
  • Computational Thinking and Social Good
  • Computational Thinking and Gender Equality

Civic and Political Engagement

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[Last updated: May 2020]

Civic and Political Engagement: The ability to participate in public matters (e.g., LGBTQ rights; peace building; addressing hate speech) and advocate for issues one cares about — using digital and non-digital tools — ideally to improve the quality of life in one’s community, from micro to macro levels (Levine, 2007).

Many youth today are shifting their social activities from the offline environment to the hybrid, online-offline world. For some, such social activities include civic and political engagement. This may be expressed through traditional political campaigns. More often, however, and more importantly, over the long term, this activism is expressed through a breadth of civic activities. These expressions may range from sharing political news on social media to using Twitter to rally others around a cause a young person cares about, to leveraging hashtags to raise awareness around an issue. Moreover, as many new political organizations have shown, such as Black Lives Matter, the online is a driver of engagement and can lead to offline engagement, and vice-versa.

Main publications:

Key learning resources:

These learning resources are available in over 35 languages! To view the translations, for each resource, please scroll down to “All Languages.” Additional languages will be added over time.

To learn about how to navigate our Digital Citizenship+ (Plus) Resource Platform — home to an evolving collection of 100+ educational tools (e.g., learning experiences, visualizations, podcasts) that can be used to learn and teach about youth’s digitally connected lives — please see the following slidedeck, presented at RightsCon Tunis 2019. The presentation also offers helpful tips in terms of adapting the tools to your context.

Other publications:

Selected presentations:

(For more information, please email Sandra Cortesi.)

  • November 2019: Presentation, “10 Things I Learned from Young People”, Festival of Technology, Polytechnic of Turin, Turin, Italy
  • October 2019: Panel Presentation, “Social Media and Democracy,” Cambridge Center for Adult Education, Cambridge, MA

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

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[Last updated: May 2020]

Artificial Intelligence (AI): The ability to understand the algorithms involved in the AI-based platforms one interacts with, and the ethical conversations happening around the development of these technologies.

Over the past several years, technologies based on AI have started changing our daily lives. Innovations are rolled out at an accelerated pace, not only in professional working environments but also at home and in schools. Thus far, there is less research on the beneficial impact of AI-based technologies specifically on adolescents. However, recent reports and studies indicate that AI is playing an increasingly important role in, for instance, the domains such as education and health and well-being.

Setting out to understand what we know and what we don’t know, the YaM team released in 2019 a flagship publication entitled Youth and Artificial Intelligence: Where We Stand. In the publication, the authors highlight some of the team’s initial learnings and exploratory questions around the ways young people may interact with and be impacted by AI technologies. The publication addresses five thematic areas: 1) Education, 2) Health and well-being, 3) Future of work, 4) Privacy and safety, and 5) Creativity and entertainment.

The publication encourages various stakeholders — including policymakers, educators, and parents and caregivers — to consider how we can empower young people to meaningfully interact with AI-based technologies to promote and bolster learning, creative expression, and well-being, while also addressing key challenges and concerns. The publication has been featured at major events like ITU’s AI for Good in Geneva and UNICEF’s Towards Global Guidance on AI and Child Rights workshop.

We have also been exploring how to translate our AI research into educational tools. We have developed several tools — co-designed with and for youth — that can be used to learn and teach about AI in group-based formal or informal learning settings. The tools focus on some of the fundamental aspects of AI systems (e.g., what is an algorithm?), while also considering the ethical considerations surrounding AI-based applications (e.g., how do algorithms shape the content one sees on their social media feed(s) and how does this impact the way one interacts with information on social media?).

Additionally, we have been developing methods to translate our insights around AI in creative and accessible ways. For example, we are working on an AI children’s book (for ages 5+) that aims to foster discussion around themes such as AI and autonomy, the interplay between gender and STEM education, and human-machine interaction. To develop this book, we brought together a multidisciplinary and diverse group of YaM team members, with individuals from backgrounds such as education, the social sciences, art, policy making, youth activism, and engineering.

We are also working on expanding our repertoire of illustrations around AI that explore various domains related to AI, such as the future of work, health and well-being, creativity, privacy and safety, and education.

Flagship publication:

Ongoing collaborations:

Key learning resources:

To learn about how to navigate our Digital Citizenship+ (Plus) Resource Platform — home to an evolving collection of 100+ educational tools (e.g., learning experiences, visualizations, podcasts) that can be used to learn and teach about youth’s digitally connected lives — please see the following slidedeck, presented at RightsCon Tunis 2019. The presentation also offers helpful tips in terms of adapting the tools to your context.

Other publications:

Videos and Podcasts:

In the media:

Selected presentations:

(For more information, please email Sandra Cortesi.)

  • December 2019: Presentation, “Artificial Intelligence and its Impact on Young People”, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France.
  • September 2019: Presentations, Youth and Artificial Intelligence in the context of Child Protection, Revision of the OECD Recommendation on the Protection of Children Online,OECD, Paris, France.
  • November 2019: Panel, “Developing Policy Guidelines for AI and Child Rights”, Co-Hosted with UNICEF, Internet Governance Forum, Berlin, Germany
  • November 2019: Presentations, “Youth and Media: Trends and Developments” and “Youth and Artificial Intelligence”, ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften, Zurich, Switzerland
  • September 2019: Keynote, “Youth and AI”, Symposium on Humane Artificial Intelligence, East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawai’i
  • May 2019: Keynote, “Youth and AI: Where We Stand”, AI for Good Global Summit 2018, organized by the ITU and sister United Nations agencies, Geneva, Switzerland
  • January 2019: Presentation, “Youth, Artificial Intelligence, & Psychology”, Asia Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAT* Asia 2019), Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • [Urs Gasser] October 2018: Presentation, “AI in Asia and the Global Context”, Conference on AI and Commercial Law: Reimagining Trust, Governance, and Private Law Rules, Singapore Management University, Centre for AI and Data Governance, Singapore
  • November 2017: Presentation, “Artificial Intelligence and Education”, (Un)Colloquium, MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, USA
  • October 2017: Presentation, “Youth and Artificial Intelligence”, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
  • November 2017: Presentation, Youth and the Lives of Tomorrow, Global Symposium on Artificial Intelligence & Inclusion, Rio, Brazil.

 

Digital Citizenship +

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[Last updated: May 2020]

Digital citizenship (and related concepts such as digital literacy, media literacy, new media literacies, 21st century skills, or digital competence) has become a topic of growing importance among academics and policymakers alike, at the center of debate and theorization around the skills youth need to navigate and actively participate in our digital world. On a global level, a variety of stakeholders — including government, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and academia — have adopted the term to develop and shape formal and informal learning programs that aim to help youth address the challenges and embrace the opportunities the digital environment may present.

Since 2016, the YaM team has been studying the concept of digital citizenship, aiming to answer several key questions, including:

  • Why has the concept of digital citizenship become central in discussions about youth, education, and learning in the 21st century?
  • How is the concept of digital citizenship similar to or different from other concepts, such as digital literacy, media literacy, new media literacies, 21st century skills, or digital competence?
  • Based on a mapping of 35 frameworks, what does the current digital citizenship landscape address, and to what extent are youth’s voices included in the development, implementation, and evaluation of digital citizenship initiatives?
  • What are key considerations for learning spaces and meaningful youth engagement?
  • How can we address underexplored areas, such as artificial intelligence and data?

Read Youth and Digital Citizenship+ (Plus): Understanding Skills for a Digital World to explore this topic.

Flagship publication:

Ongoing collaborations:

Key learning resources:

  • Our Digital Citizenship+ (Plus) Resource Platform (DCPR) hosts an evolving collection of free learning experiences, visualizations, and other educational resources designed and maintained by us. Many of these learning resources are available in over 35 languages! To view the translations, for each resource, please scroll down to “All Languages.” Additional languages will be added over time. To learn about how to navigate our Digital Citizenship+ (Plus) Resource Platform — home to an evolving collection of 100+ educational tools (e.g., learning experiences, visualizations, podcasts) that can be used to learn and teach about youth’s digitally connected lives — please see the following slidedeck, presented at RightsCon Tunis 2019. The presentation also offers helpful tips in terms of adapting the tools to your context.

Other publications:

Selected presentations:

(For more information, please email Sandra Cortesi.)

  • [Urs Gasser] November 2019: Presentation,“The Evolving Children’s Digital Rights Discourse”, Digital Lives: Families in the Age of the Internet Conference, Swiss Institute of Comparative Law and University of Geneva, Lausanne
  • November 2019: Presentation, “The Next Generation and Digital Media”, Schmidheiny Foundation, Interlaken, Switzerland.
  • November 2019: Panel, “Youth, Education, and Digital Technology”, Festival of Technology, Polytechnic of Turin, Turin, Italy
  • September 2019: Presentation, “Youth and Digital Citizenship” in the context of Child Protection, Revision of the OECD Recommendation on the Protection of Children Online, OECD, Paris, France.
  • October 2018: Keynote, “How Children Grow Up in a Digital Environment”, Expert Consultation by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), workshop “Protection of Children in a Connected World” hosted by the University of Zurich Digital Society Initiative, with the support of the Swiss Government and co-sponsored by the Korean Government, Zurich, Switzerland
  • January 2018: Presentation, “Digital Citizenship”, University of Costa Rica, San Jose, Costa Rica