More than 85 ESO students participated in the sessions of the project ‘To be and to participate in the digital era’.
The promotion of online participatory democracy has entered the classroom this year with the project ‘To be and to participate in the digital era’ designed and developed by the organisation Opciónate. The initiative was based on teaching sessions in four secondary schools on the island on ethics and citizen participation in digital environments.
More than 85 students in the first year of ESO and their teachers have received advice and have also contributed to the creation of a didactic reference guide to deal with the ethical management of the digital space within the framework of the subject ‘Education in civic and ethical values’, at the island and regional level.
‘To be and to participate in the digital era’ is an initiative of the organisation Opciónate financed by the Presidency Council of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, directed by Teodoro Sosa, through the eighth edition of the Call for Subsidies for the promotion of citizen participation and the strengthening of associations, promoted by the Island Directorate of Citizen Participation.
The project was presented at a press conference on Thursday 25 April with the participation of the Cabildo’s Director of Citizen Participation, Jorge Artiles, and the director of Opciónate, Ana Lidia Fernández-Layos, an event which also included the participation of teachers, as well as the screening of videos and materials developed within the framework of the project ‘To be and to participate in the digital age’.
The four sessions programmed in each of the educational centres have addressed the introduction to ethics and digital citizenship, positive influence, and citizen participation, as well as the identification and action in the face of cyber-violence. Moreover, it has worked on the implementation of what has been learned through the creation of coexistence agreements for the WhatsApp group of each class.
The project has been developed during the academic year 2023-2024 with four groups, four high schools, within the framework of the subject ‘Ethical and civic values’ to highlight in this case aspects closely linked to ethics and citizenship in digital environments. The participating schools were IES Ana Luisa Benítez in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, IES José Frugoni in Telde, IES José Zerpa in Vecindario, and IES Santiago Santana Díaz in Arucas.
For Jorge Pérez Artiles, Island Director of Citizen Participation, “citizen participation in digital environments and digital democracy especially to facilitate the active involvement of young people, continues to be a relevant commitment of this island government, even considering the challenges and risks involved in the use of digital technologies and the internet for the future of democracy”.
For their part, students from 3 of the schools expressed through various videos what they have learned in the course of the workshops, and Opciónate presented some of the stories collected anonymously during the training process, referring to cyber-violence and how they dealt with it, as well as projecting photographs of the workshops, the materials produced and other stories.
A relevant result of the work carried out in coordination with teachers and students has been the final publication, which aims to become a didactic reference guide for the approach to the subject of ‘Education in civic and ethical values’ at an insular and regional level, taking into account the digital reality that is currently key in the daily lives of the youngest members of society. The publication includes theoretical foundations, practical exercises and information on learning and experiences, including proposals for improving the local and global environment.
Likewise, all the actions and contents developed by the project have been disseminated through the Opciónate website and social networks to promote greater knowledge about responsible ‘cybercitizenship’, as well as the acquisition of tools to put it into practice through Relationship, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).
The project ‘To be and to participate in the digital era’ once again confirms the importance of the digital space to facilitate the participation of young people, and the relevance of addressing the digital era in the first year of secondary school from the perspective of care, rights, responsibility and social participation.
