DIGITAL MINDSET in Education. Security Education

Abstract

Safety and the protection of freedoms constitute key challenges the education system is currently facing in the context of digitalization, challenges that require the promotion of a more elaborate definition of digital democracy correlated with concerns related to human rights, development inequality depending on access to education, responsibility and, last but not least, building consensus in highly diverse environments. Therefore, security as a fundamental value of democratic societies requires a reassessment in relation to the principles promoted by political institutions – inclusion, responsibility and transparency –, debatable against the background of political polarization and the emergence of new digital technologies. The present article is not intended to formulate a general theory on how the digitalization of education and democracy relate or are mutually exclusive. It deals with more or less contingent situations and raises additional – including empirical – questions about the role that digitalization in the education system can have for the state of democracy, regardless of the level of understanding. The intent is directed to the concrete mode in which digitalization can be beneficial or inadequate for democracy, contributing to a better understanding of the challenges. The reader can translate it into own environment, linking personal reading to specific democratic processes, including the level and type of digital activity.