(by Giovanbattista Trebisacce, Professor of General Pedagogy at the University of Catania and AIDR Member)
By education John Dewey means a socialization process that concerns each individual, understood not as a separate autonomous entity, but as an individual in relation to all other individuals. The American philosopher and pedagogist also argues that the subject's education derives from his participation in the life of the community through a process that begins almost from birth and that continuously develops his potential "by impregnating his conscience, building his habits, training his ideas and awakening his feelings and emotions ". In essence, it is a process of active citizenship, a concept that has been very reconsidered in recent months, even if declined in terms of “digital active citizenship”.
The transition from the analogue to the digital world has represented, and the pandemic has inevitably accelerated this transition process, an epochal change, like the Industrial Revolution. Talking about active citizenship today means referring to a digital civic education process, whereby each subject is able to use digital technologies as an aid for active citizenship and social inclusion, collaboration with others and creativity in the pursuit of one's personal or social objectives of the community. This means the ability to use, access, filter, evaluate, create, program and share digital content, and also to manage and protect information, content, data and digital identities, as well as to recognize software, devices, artificial intelligence or robots, and to interact effectively with them. Interacting with technologies and digital content presupposes a reflective and critical attitude, marked by curiosity, open and interested in the future of their evolution and also requires an ethical, safe and responsible approach in the use of these tools.
The current situation strongly highlights the need for young people to be enabled to build a strong critical spirit, an ability to choose in full awareness and a clear and determined horizon of reference on a social, ethical, moral and value level. Critical spirit, ability to choose and horizon of values which, today more than ever, are crucial for orienting oneself in a world that must also deal with the virtual one. Digital citizenship therefore means the ability that an individual must have to consciously participate in online society. Like any member of a society, the digital citizen becomes the bearer of rights and duties, including those relating to the use of digital administration services.
The task of educational institutions is, therefore, to promote this process of acquiring digital skills. Knowing how to research, interpret, transform and dominate digital data is a fundamental part of citizenship which, if it wants to be active, must necessarily also be digital: an active DIGITAL citizenship, which not only must know in order to orient itself and dominate the many hidden risks (cyber bullying, pedophilia, viruses, etc.) but must EDUCATE, in the etymological sense of the term "take care", to respect and consolidate Democracy, to live together responsibly and to care for the planet.