What is the digital literacy curriculum we need? Let's design it now!

Discussions about the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), machine learning algorithms, generative AI (ChatGPT, DALL-E), surveillance capitalism, deep fakes, and cyberbullying are just some high-connectivity centers of a rapidly evolving landscape. We know that digital literacy is not a set of tools we can learn and teach in one session, course, or age group but a lifelong learning core competency that we must develop urgently and strategically. Our ability to shape and adapt to digital reality will depend on how effectively we build digital literacy at scale.

What do learners need to know and understand to practice digital literacy? What connections must they be able to make? What contexts, themes, and narratives should they become familiar with and evaluate? Which use- and problem cases should they work on to apply their skills, evaluate products and processes, and create systems that shift us toward peace and sustainability? Which platforms can inclusively facilitate this learning? And how can we effectively teach all of this?

Education shapes how we understand our world and learn to act in it. Thus, every attempt to change the world “for the better” starts and ends with education. We must collaborate more strategically and radically to redesign it for technological disruption. Diverse teams are innovative because they can join perspectives into 360-degree assessments, reduce biases and blind spots, and combine resources. This session sets the stage for an open discussion among students, teachers, researchers, developers, psychologists, parents, and those already engaged in trailblazer initiatives like “Jugend hackt” or “Chaos macht Schule” to imagine curricular pathways that are relevant, meaningful, and accessible for all learners.

While my talk will suggest inclusive strategies currently practiced in pre-college and higher education environments, I invite informal education and unlearning/unschooling approaches to push us “out of the box" in our discussion!