In our increasingly connected world whereas the use of technology is becoming even more prevalent in students’ lives it is essential to promote digital citizenship in school education. Digital citizenship includes analyzing, locating, organizing, evaluating, creating and using information with the aid of digital technology (Wilson, et al. 2013). The particular Strategic Partnership between Cyprus, Ireland, Greece and Italy, is considered as the most appropriate since these countries are portrayed as having the highest rates of no digital skills in 2015 (EC, 2016). The DRC project aims to infuse contemporary pedagogical practices in quality lifelong learning for students and teaching professions including teachers, school leaders and teacher educators across Europe. Specifically, the project seeks to improve students and teachers digital citizenship and competency by fostering the development of digital literacy skills through education. Digital citizenship is defined as “the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with regard to technology use” (Ribble, 2011, p. 10). Digital competence consists one of the eight key competences for Lifelong Learning recommended by the European Parliament and the Council (2006) and has been confirmed as a relevant priority for the European Commission (EC) (EC, 2010a, 2010b). In Europe, only 30% of students population can be considered as digitally competent (EC, 2013a). Many people are considered unprepared for the 90% of jobs that are expected to require ICT skills in the near future (EC, 2013b). Henceforth, it is important that children learn how to use technology appropriately to ensure a secure online environment keeping their personal and digital identities safe. The DRC project will focus on the five competences which are the hallmarks of digital citizenship needed by citizens today for full social inclusion within a digital ecology of the Internet and could serve as an umbrella or meta-framework for current frameworks, initiatives, curricula, and programmes. The primary objective of the DRC is to equip EU citizens (students and teaching professions) with transversal skills (digital skills and media literacy) and especially give opportunities to vulnerable learners to become active citizens in a digital highly connected world. Thereby, in this project, primary school students on the one hand will engage as designers, researchers, and evaluators for the development of their digital skills, and on the other hand, teachers, together with ICT- related experts will engage as allies and facilitators for accomplishing this goal. All partners in collaboration with schools community will initially identify how to approach students’ digital literacy as a medium to help them move from a good citizen to a good digital citizen in an emergent digital ecology. The project comprises five phases for targeting digital literacy through the five key areas of digital competence. These areas include: (1) Information and data literacy, (2) Communication and collaboration, (3) Digital content creation, (4) Safety, and (5) Problem solving (Ferrari , 2013). The first phase of the DRC will engage students and teachers as evaluators of the school digital environment settings for the creation of the Digital Citizenship identity. The school profiling will be created on the basis of the European Digital Competence Framework for Citizens known as DigComp (Ferrari, 2013). DigComp was selected as the most appropriate framework to support digital skills initiatives, enabling people to participate in our digital society and economy (Vuorikari, et al., 2016). The second phase will engage students as educational designers in co-developing and reforming the school programme by introducing digital citizenship as a new momentum topic and with respect to the five digital citizenship topics (Internet Safety, Relationships & Communication, Cyberbullying & Digital Drama, Digital Footprints, Self-Image & Identity, Information Literacy and Creative Credit & Copyright). The third phase will engage students and educators in a co-design process for the development of the new curriculum portraying digital citizenship as a new-added concept. The fourth phase will engage students and teachers in the school Digital Citizenship programme. The active engagement in educational activities aims to promote students’ digital literacy skills through a mixture of methodologies such as Authentic learning, Project-based learning, and Gamified learning. The fifth and last phase will actively engage teachers in digital learning environments by delivering training via a MOOC on topics that include but are not limited to cyberbullying, internet safety, and other digital issues. All partners will contribute to students and teacher training sessions, curriculum evaluation, e-platform testing, implementation and dissemination of the outputs.
In our increasingly connected world, whereas the use of technology is becoming even more prevalent in students’ lives, it is essential to promote digital citizenship in school education. Digital citizenship is defined as “the norms of appropriate, responsible behaviour with regard to technology use” (Ribble, 2011, p. 10). Digital competence consists one of the eight key competences for Lifelong Learning recommended by the European Parliament and the Council (2006) and has been confirmed as a relevant priority for the European Commission (EC) (EC, 2010a, 2010b). In Europe, only 30% of the students’ population can be considered as digitally competent (EC, 2013a). Digital, Responsible Citizenship in a Connected World (DRC) is an Erasmus+ project, implemented between November 2017 and October 2019. The overall aim of the DRC project was to infuse contemporary pedagogical practices in quality lifelong learning for students and teaching professionals including teachers, school leaders and teacher educators across Europe. The project worked towards achieving the following specific objectives, over the past two years: -To teach students and teachers digital citizenship skills -To integrate digital literacy and citizenship as part of school curricula -To promote synergies and cross-fertilisation throughout school education -To support teachers develop a positive attitude towards digital citizenship -To cultivate responsible, ethical, global citizens for a digital world -To establish the foundation of a digital citizenship program for school education -To adopt the DigComp Framework The DRC project has been developed and implemented by a consortium of five partners from four European countries: Cyprus, Greece, Ireland and Italy. Throughout the lifecycle of the project, DRC partners have been collaborating to develop and deliver seven (7) intellectual outputs (IO) foreseen by the project. These were developed based on the European Digital Competence Framework for Citizens known as DIGComp (Ferrari, 2013; Vuorikari, et al., 2016). DIGComp consists of five digital citizenship areas, and these include (1) Information and data literacy, (2) Communication and collaboration, (3) Digital content creation, (4) Safety, and (5) Problem solving (Ferrari, 2013). The highly demanding work of completing these IOs has been distributed across the two years of the project; the responsibility for developing the IOs has been allocated evenly among partners. Throughout the lifecycle of the project, partners have undertaken the following activities, with some partners taking the lead in managing key project outputs, as follows: 1. Project Management - CARDET 2. Quality Assurance of Outputs – FIPL 3. 4 Project F2F Meetings - TAMAT, FIPL, Rafina, CARDET 4. 4 Project Online Meetings – CARDET, with support from all partners 5. Dissemination, multiplication, sustainability - INNOVADE 6. O1. Create the 'Digital Citizenship profile/identity' of schools-wide – Led by The Primary School of Rafina, with the support of CARDET 7. O2. Design Pedagogical Framework for the development of e-Toolkit on Digital Citizenship – Led by TAMAT 8. O3. Create the Digital Literacy and Citizenship Guide for teachers – Led by FIPL 9. O4. Development and Evaluation of the Digital Citizenship Programme and Curricula on digital literacy – Led by CARDET 10. O5. Development of Digital Citizenship App – Led by INNOVADE 11. O6. Deliver workshops to students – Led by FIPL 12. O7. Offer certified training MOOC to teachers – Led by CARDET All partners completed all foreseen implementation activities, and the activities were positively evaluated by local target group members who expressed that the project could have a real impact on their local school communities. These activities have led to the development of skills and competences of teachers, educators, parents and students in the area of digital literacy, raising the awareness of these target groups of the 5 digital competence areas of the DIGComp Framework. Through the curriculum materials developed, the project has also supported the application of the DIGComp Framework in primary schools in all partner countries, by providing teachers and parents with access to tangible education materials that can support them to engage with this framework through practical and engaging education activities such as the DRC e-Toolkit on Digital Citizenship (IO2), the Teacher’s Guide (IO3), the Digital Citizenship Programme (IO4), the DRC - Digital Heroes App (IO5) and the certified Digital Citizenship MOOC for teachers (IO7). Dissemination of outputs resulted in the development of synergies and cross-fertilisation throughout school education.