Essays on the challenges and risks of designing algorithms and platforms for children, with an emphasis on algorithmic justice, learning, and equity. One in three Internet users worldwide is a child, and what children see and experience online is increasingly shaped by algorithms. Though children’s rights and protections are at the center of debates on digital privacy, safety, and Internet governance, the dominant online platforms have not been constructed with the needs and interests of children in mind. The editors of this volume, Mizuko Ito, Remy Cross, Karthik Dinakar, and Candice Odgers, focus on understanding diverse children’s evolving relationships with algorithms, digital data, and platforms and offer guidance on how stakeholders can shape these relationships in ways that support children’s agency and protect them from harm. This book includes essays reporting original research on educational programs in AI relational robots and Scratch programming, on children’s views on digital privacy and artificial intelligence, and on discourses around educational technologies. Shorter opinion pieces add the perspectives of an instructional designer, a social worker, and parents. The contributing social, behavioral, and computer scientists represent perspectives and contexts that span education, commercial tech platforms, and home settings. They analyze problems and offer solutions that elevate the voices and agency of parents and children. Their essays also build on recent research examining how social media, digital games, and learning technologies reflect and reinforce unequal childhoods. Contributors: Paulo Blikstein, Izidoro Blikstein, Marion Boulicault, Cynthia Breazeal, Michelle Ciccone, Sayamindu Dasgupta, Devin Dillon, Stefania Druga, Jacqueline M. Kory-Westlund, Aviv Y. Landau, Benjamin Mako Hill, Adriana Manago, Siva Mathiyazhagan, Maureen Mauk, Stephanie Nguyen, W. Ian O’Byrne, Kathleen A. Paciga, Milo Phillips-Brown, Michael Preston, Stephanie M. Reich, Nicholas D. Santer, Allison Stark, Elizabeth Stevens, Kristen Turner, Desmond Upton Patton, Veena Vasudevan, Jason Yip

This edited volume recognises the need to cultivate a critical and acute understanding of AI technologies amongst primary and elementary school children, enabling them to meet the challenge of a human- and ethically oriented management of AI technologies. Focusing on school settings from both the national and international level to form comparative case studies, chapters present a robust conceptual and foundational framework within a global context as the idea of AI and our relationship to it advances apace. The book uses research garnered from interviews and observational data, qualitative and quantitative research, and theoretical findings gathered from single schools or institutions across the world. Providing an innovative perspective in promoting the importance of a critical, creative and ethical orientation based on aesthetic experiences, the book focuses on development in areas like visual arts, literature, environmental education, robotics, photography and screen education, movement and play. Ultimately, the book responds to an urgent and time-sensitive call to provide guidance on AI to primary education researchers and will be of interest to academics, scholars and researchers in the fields of primary and elementary education, technology in education, children's rights education, and moral and values education more broadly.

This book addresses both the potential negative effects and the positive effects of various forms of media, leading to the need for media literacy across all demographics. Written for psychologists, educators, researchers, and parents, this book discusses the impact of video games, popular music, television, social media and screen addiction, fake news and misinformation, representation in media, as well as the role of big tech in the lives of consumers. The text emphasises the need for a healthy media diet and focuses on the need for media literacy in all societal groups, providing empirically based approaches to teaching media literacy as well as sample media literacy lesson plans.

Childhood is changing in ways that we are still unpacking, affected by digitalization, globalization and climate change, as well as shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In many OECD education systems, child empowerment is increasingly an explicit aim of policies and practices. But it is often poorly defined, which risks turning it into a mere slogan. With the advancement of children’s rights, children are increasingly being included as stakeholders in decision-making processes. This report gives examples of how children in OECD countries can and do participate in making decisions about issues that affect them. The report examines children's emotional well-being and physical activity, and the role of schools as a physical space to create and support relationships. It also underlines the untapped potential of media education when it comes to seizing opportunities in childhood. Empowering all children to make the most of digital opportunities starts with further narrowing the gap in terms of access to digital tools and the Internet, where inequalities are persistent and pervasive. So, what does child empowerment mean today? Empowered children have the opportunity and ability to act on issues important and relevant to them, can learn by making mistakes, and are key contributors to democracy.

The topic of urban life and the ambient in smart cities, learning cities, and future cities is a timely one, fitting as it does in the world today by responding in an interdisciplinary way across many areas of research and practice. It is essential for researchers to think about and engage with the notion of flourishing in increasingly challenging environments in smarter ways. Urban Life and the Ambient in Smart Cities, Learning Cities, and Future Cities expands upon explorations of urban life to the ambient. As such, perspectives are offered in this work on urban life in the context of smart cities, learning cities, and future cities, enriched by understandings of the ambient, infusing the interactions of people and technologies in 21st-century environments with increased awareness, at the moment. Covering topics such as ambient learning, smart homes, and extended realities, this premier reference work is an essential resource for students and educators of higher education, architects, urban planners, instructional designers, sociologists, city officials, community leaders, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

This edited volume seeks to answer the question, “What does it mean to be a critical multimodal scholar in educational spaces?” Toward Critical Multimodality highlights how choices made throughout multimodal design and research processes are critically-oriented and inextricably linked to power. We show how social semiotics and multimodality inform engagement with criticality in educational spaces through questioning dominant narratives (e.g., white, cisheteropatriarchal, ableist, classist perspectives), exploring relationships between selves and space, problematizing and reimagining educational practices, and dreaming of educational futures that are just, anti-oppressive, and with room for all to thrive while learning. These chapters demonstrate how studying multiple modalities in interaction (e.g., image, writing, color, spatial layout, gaze, proxemics, gestures) can reveal how power operates, provide students with opportunities to explore themselves and their identities with respect to power, and provide a vehicle for scholars to disrupt and transform oppressive educational practices. Furthermore, multiple chapters show alternative ways to display, construct and share knowledge as transformative pedagogical practice in learning environments. We reframe social semiotics and multimodality as an integral part of decentering dominant ideas of power and what “counts” as purposeful meaning making by highlighting how criticality and multimodality integrate theoretically and methodologically.

This open access textbook introduces and defines digital humanism from a diverse range of disciplines. Following the 2019 Vienna Manifesto, the book calls for a digital humanism that describes, analyzes, and, most importantly, influences the complex interplay of technology and humankind, for a better society and life, fully respecting universal human rights. The book is organized in three parts: Part I “Background” provides the multidisciplinary background needed to understand digital humanism in its philosophical, cultural, technological, historical, social, and economic dimensions. The goal is to present the necessary knowledge upon which an effective interdisciplinary discourse on digital humanism can be founded. Part II “Digital Humanism – a System’s View” focuses on an in-depth presentation and discussion of the main digital humanism concerns arising in current digital systems. The goal of this part is to make readers aware and sensitive to these issues, including e.g. the control and autonomy of AI systems, privacy and security, and the role of governance. Part III “Critical and Societal Issues of Digital Systems” delves into critical societal issues raised by advances of digital technologies. While the public debate in the past has often focused on them separately, especially when they became visible through sensational events the aim here is to shed light on the entire landscape and show their interconnected relationships. This includes issues such as AI and ethics, fairness and bias, privacy and surveillance, platform power and democracy. This textbook is intended for students, teachers, and policy makers interested in digital humanism. It is designed for stand-alone and for complementary courses in computer science, or curricula in science, engineering, humanities and social sciences. Each chapter includes questions for students and an annotated reading list to dive deeper into the associated chapter material. The book aims to provide readers with as wide an exposure as possible to digital advances and their consequences for humanity. It includes constructive ideas and approaches that seek to ensure that our collective digital future is determined through human agency.

The digital age has brought about significant changes to our society, creating a complex and ever-evolving digital landscape. To navigate this landscape effectively, it is crucial to foster a deep understanding of ethics and citizenship in all domains of life. This imperative holds true at every level of education, and it is equally important to explore the historical origins of these concepts. Critical Roles of Digital Citizenship and Digital Ethics delves into the multifaceted realm of digital ethics and citizenship, shedding light on the latest research studies conducted in the educational field, as well as insights from the humanities, history, social sciences, sociology, and civics. This comprehensive research handbook provides a platform for in-depth discussions and empirical investigations into the philosophical foundations and practical implications of digital citizenship. By examining how digital ethics have been and continue to be shaped, the book offers valuable insights into the ways in which educators and researchers can approach these topics in the realm of education. Designed for researchers in humanities, sociology, and educational fields, as well as students seeking a deeper understanding of the historical and contemporary dimensions of digital ethics and digital citizenship, this book offers a rich exploration of their roots and current implications. It explores the historical underpinnings of these concepts, advocates for asset-based approaches to digital citizenship, and examines the current educational strategies implemented at both the K-12 and post-secondary levels. Additionally, it delves into the theoretical foundations of digital ethics and citizenship, considering the impact of digital landscapes on young learners, adolescents, and adults. The book also presents insightful reports on the latest studies pertaining to digital ethics and digital citizenship.

Social institutions emerge from social practices which coordinate activities by the explicit statement of rules, goals, and values. When artificial social actors are introduced into the physical and symbolic space of institutions, will this affect or transform institutional structures and practices, and how can social robotics as an interdisciplinary endeavor contribute to the ability of our institutions to perform their functions in society? This book presents the proceedings of Robophilosophy 2022, the 5th in the biennial Robophilosophy conference series, held in Helsinki, Finland, from 16 to 19 August 2022. The theme of this edition of the conference was Social Robots in Social Institutions, and it featured international multidisciplinary research from the humanities and social sciences concerning social robotics. The 63 papers, 41 workshop papers and 5 posters included in this book are divided into 4 sections: plenaries, sessions, workshops and posters, with the 41 papers in the ‘Sessions’ section grouped into 13 subdivisions including elderly care, healthcare, law, education and art, as well as ethics and religion. These papers explore the anticipated conceptual and practical changes which will come about from the introduction of social robotics into public and private institutions, such as public services, legal systems, social and healthcare services or educational institutions. Offering an exploration of the societal significance of social robots for the future of social institutions, the book will be of interest to both researchers in robotics and to those working in social institutions and enterprises.

Providing a comprehensive, global overview of the digitalisation of education, the World Yearbook of Education 2024 examines the ways advanced digital technologies are transforming educational practices, institutions and policy processes. Establishing a critical research agenda for analysing the digitalisation of education, the carefully selected chapters in this collection interrogate the current impacts of new digital technologies, emerging controversies over emerging data practices and future implications of algorithmic systems, automated decision-making and AI in education. Organised into four sections, the contributions in the collection examine the following: The historical, scientific and technical foundations of contemporary digitalisation in education The political and economic dynamics that underpin the education technology industry and new platform models of education How algorithms, automation and AI support new modes of data-driven governance and control of education systems Controversies over the inequitable effects of digitalisation in education, and proposals for data justice, ethics and regulation This resource is ideal reading for researchers, students, educational practitioners and policy officials interested in understanding the future of digital technologies in education.