Empowering children to make and shape our digital futures – from adults creating technologies to children transforming cultures

Netta Iivari

doi:10.1108/ijilt-03-2020-0023

Abstract

PurposeDigital technology education of children needs to be reconsidered. The purpose of this paper is to focus on empowering the young generation as regards digital technology. Digital technology education should reap the benefits of recent developments brought in by extensive, ongoing digitalization and prepare the young generation to manage and master in their technology rich future. The recent COVID 19 pandemic has made this particularly relevant and visible in the society. The young generation should adopt a proactive and critical stance toward digital technology and consider how design and technology can be used for making the world a better place.Design/methodology/approachThis commentary reviews literature on the complex concept of empowerment and suggests a model on the aspects to be considered when aiming at empowering the young generation as regards digital technology in the context of digital technology education.FindingsA model is proposed that comprehensively addresses empowerment of children as regards digital technology both at individual and collective levels and in mainstream sense as a relational and motivational construct as well as in critical sense in terms of collective empowerment, social responsibility and liberation of the oppressed.Research limitations/implicationsRadical renewal in the children's education is needed in the digital age. This model outlines aspects to be considered in such a transformation. The insights should be valuable for research communities addressing the topic of children's education in the digital age in general or the topic of children's digital technology education in particular.Practical implicationsThe model should also be of help for practitioners, i.e. teachers and facilitators working in informal learning spaces for developing children's digital education in practice.Social implicationsThe commentary addresses significant societal issues. It is actually not only children who should be empowered to engage in making and shaping our digital futures, but people in general. The model provides novel and valuable insights on what aspects to consider in such a significant endeavor.Originality/valueThe model proposed is novel and clearly needed in the research addressing this topic.

Highlights

The extensive and continuous digitalization of our everyday life poses numerous challenges for the society, including education of the young generation
This commentary concentrated on digital technology education of children, maintaining that children to make the young generation needs to be empowered as regards digital technology
Such education should reap the benefits of recent developments brought in by extensive and on-going digitalization and prepare the young generation to manage and master in their technology and shape our digital futures rich future life

Summary

Introduction

The extensive and continuous digitalization of our everyday life poses numerous challenges for the society, including education of the young generation. The model addresses empowerment very comprehensively: both at individual and collective levels and in mainstream sense as a relational and motivational construct (Conger and Kanungo, 1988; Thomas and Velthouse, 1990; Deng et al, 2016) as well as in critical sense in terms of a collective empowerment, social responsibility and liberation of the oppressed (Fulton, 1997; Hardy and Leiba-O’Sullivan, 1998; Jennings et al, 2006). They should work in a participatory manner with the target group: they should invite the less privileged or marginalized groups or communities to participate in making a change through design and technology Addressing these aspects of empowerment in the education of children enables raising future protagonists, activists and agents of change, who look at the world critically, take social responsibility seriously and take action with design and technology for making the world a better place. They should be able to experience the actual impact of their activities, for example by being able to experiment with the new digital tools they have developed in practice (continued )

Empowering children to make and shape our digital futures

Conclusions