Critical Digital Literacy
Critical Digital Literacy develops key competencies and awareness to help citizens move beyond passive adoption of emerging technologies, enabling them to engage in shaping its just, inclusive development and fostering digital sovereignty.
Factsheet
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Schools involved
School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences
Bern Academy of the Arts
Business School - Institute(s) Institute of Design Research
- Research unit(s) Social Design
- Strategic thematic field Thematic field "Humane Digital Transformation"
- Funding organisation BFH
- Duration (planned) 01.02.2025 - 31.12.2025
- Head of project Prof. Dr. Paola Pierri
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Project staff
Roger Robyr
Prof. Dr. Nada Endrissat
Dr. Anna Antonakis
Situation
As new technologies are developed and introduced in our lives at an incredible pace, it is increasingly difficult to fully understand their impact and to reflect on the consequences of their use (e.g. misinformation, algorithmic bias and digital inequalities, as well as the impact on our environmental resources and on democracy at large). Young professionals among others, are likely to be early adopter of these technologies but might struggle to develop critical questions about how these technologies work, their logic and impact. Critical Digital Literacy is an approach that aims at developing key competencies and awareness for citizens to ensure they are not only passive recipients and adopters of emerging technologies, but that they can understand and participate in promoting a more just and inclusive technology's development and use, that can contribute to foster digital sovereignty.
Result
1) Cooperation and co-creation between departments by fostering cross-departmental skills exchange and with the aim of promoting a better understanding of the different perspectives that can contribute to critical data literacy. This benefits both teachers and students. 2) New teaching methods and formats, by using digital tools and methods for data analysis also in a social and economic context. This promotes future-oriented, innovative teaching at BFH that appeals to all students, regardless of their subject. 3) Real world impact: the project also promotes critical reflection and ethical awareness, by encouraging students to engage with real world issues and enabling them to make responsible decisions in their future professional practice and to work as reflective practitioners that better understand and are equipped to operate in a society in transformation. Our project is strongly anchored in the HDT Themenfeld as we aim to advance digital sovereignty of students by increasing their critical digital literacy.
Looking ahead
Digital issues like misinformation, algorithmic bias, and digital inequality are multifaceted and require interdisciplinary approaches to resolve. A critical digital literacy curriculum needs to draw from various disciplines to equip students with the skills to tackle these complex problems effectively in their professional and personal lives. The integration of theory from several fields (such as hermeneutic, business, gender and cultural studies) with practical skills from design, information technology and data visualisation, will allow students to understand how abstract concepts like power, inequality, and democracy play out in real-world digital practices, such as social media use and algorithmic decision-making and how individual-level digital literacy is key for a caring society on the macro-level and for creating a 'caring digital space'.
