Conference Program

In today’s increasingly digitized world, digital literacy has emerged as a critical skill set, essential for navigating the complexities of the modern age. Digital literacy encompasses both linguistic and technological knowledge, empowering individuals to engage meaningfully in education, society, and the pursuit of justice.

Humanity inhabits a landscape reshaped by digital media. Yet, there is a general lack comprehension of their impact, resulting in a mass of individuals engulfed in a collective and depersonalizing realm. In such a world, the challenge lies in cultivating a critical awareness of the role that digital media play in shaping our lives and society, as well as fostering meaningful connections transcending the superficiality of online interactions. By fostering a sense of digital literacy and promoting ethical uses of technology, it may be possible to mitigate some of the depersonalizing effects of digital media and reclaim a sense of agency and authenticity in an increasingly digitized world.

In Manzoni’s masterpiece, I promessi sposi, the theme of education intertwines deeply with the notion of justice. The character Renzo embodies the consequences of illiteracy in a society where knowledge is power, and injustice often thrives in its absence. Renzo’s journey underscores the urgent need for equitable educational opportunities as a fundamental pillar of justice.

Fast forward to the digital age, when the landscape of education and justice has evolved significantly. The advent of the internet and digital technologies has revolutionized how we access information and communicate. However, this digital revolution has also widened the gap between the digitally literate and the digitally excluded.

Just as literacy empowered individuals in Manzoni’s time, digital literacy is now a prerequisite for full participation in modern society. The ability to navigate the digital realm equips individuals with the tools to access information, engage in critical thinking, and advocate for their rights.

Moreover, digital literacy fosters active citizenship by enabling individuals to participate meaningfully in civic life. Therefore, the term “literacy” suggests a more comprehensive approach to educating about media, that is not restricted to mechanical skills or narrow forms of functional competence. It implies a more humanistic conception that is close to the German “Bildung”. Furthermore, by equipping individuals with these skills, we can counter misinformation, combat digital threats, and uphold the principles of justice and democracy.

Addressing the digital divide requires concerted efforts to ensure equitable access to digital tools and resources. In line with the 17^th Sustainable Development Goal, Governments and educational institutions must collaborate to bridge this gap and empower individuals with the skills needed to thrive in the digital age. Digital Literacy, thus, is also a fundamental condition to achieve SDG 4 (Quality Education).

Overall, its self-evident that education and justice are intrinsically linked, both in Manzoni’s narrative and in the digital age. Just as Renzo’s journey underscores the importance of literacy for justice, digital literacy is now indispensable for fostering equitable participation and empowering citizens. By investing in education we can build a more just and inclusive society where knowledge is truly empowering for all.

There is a heated debate both among scholars and in the media about early access to digital media by children and adolescents: parents and educators seem disoriented and ask if anticipating access to the Internet is a good or a bad thing (Livingstone&Blum-Ross 2020). In the meantime, early access to the Internet is more and more common: for example, the moment of arrival of smartphones is constantly anticipated among early adolescents, and the covid-19 pandemic has further accelerated this trend (Mascheroni & Siibak 2021).

Simultaneously, evidence is emerging that digital media practices during childhood and early adolescence constitute a new dimension of social inequality. Smartphones, video gaming consoles and other forms of autonomous access to the Internet seem to be anticipated - somehow paradoxically - especially among deprived families in terms of socio-economic background (Gui et al. 2020). Research is also highlighting that problematic digital media use is more likely to manifest in families where socio-economic conditions are more deprived (Gerosa et al. 2021). However, the empirical results obtained on the relationship between early digital media use and wellbeing in the long-run are scarce (see Gerosa et al. 2024). In particular, the negative impact of early digital use on learning outcomes that have been highlighted are often reproached for not being solid from a methodological point of view, as they are based on correlational or short-term longitudinal data (Amez & Baert 2020). Also, there is a very urgent need to gather robust empirical evidence about why and how online problems can be largely predicted by young people’s vulnerabilities offline (Odgers & Jensen 2022), that is how early access to permanent connection interacts with social inequality in the lives of youths.

To fill these gaps, we aim to provide the most rigorous estimation so far of the impact of an early autonomous access to smartphones, videogames and social media on the learning outcomes of high school students, and its interaction with gender, migratory background and parental education. This becomes possible as - for the first time since INVALSI (the Italian National Institute for the Assessment of the School and Training system) started to collect data on students’ outcomes - it is possible to follow the entire school careers of current 10th and 11th graders. Exploiting this possibility, we merge an ad-hoc retrospective survey data about screen use during childhood and early adolescence with students’ longitudinal learning outcomes at grades 2nd, 5th, 8th and 10th. A dataset with about 6700 high school students in northern Italy, representative by school type, is analyzed to answer the questions above by means of longitudinal analysis. Preliminary results confirm that early digital use is more likely in socio-economically deprived families and that age of smartphone ownership has a negative impact on learning outcomes in low and high school for those with pre-existing habits of intensive media use during childhood. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for communication and education theory, in particular for what concerns digital inequality in technologically mature contexts.

Sociomaterial research on education has shown how school life do not exist as an isolated sphere, separated from society. Instead, studies have shown, the actual boundaries of schools are fluid and porous (Nespor, 1997, 2000). School spaces and events are extended, connected to and calibrated by events and spaces elsewhere. A central argument for sociomaterial studies is that the material relationality ‘within’ the classroom is a key source of ‘authority’ (Fenwick, 2015)

In my own research, practices of friendship are argued to constitute an important spatial and temporal order at ‘work’ in the classroom (Klykken, 2023a). Furthermore, the practice of friendship is a force that permeates the boundaries of the classroom and connects school activities to spaces beyond the school. Sometimes, schoolwork provided opportunities for the students to make friendly connections; Sometimes, friendly engagements appeared to amplify students capacity to carry out their school work in class (Klykken, 2023b). Whilst going to school to learn, young people in education emphases peers and social connections highly (Forsberg, 2023; Sellar, 2012; Yoon, 2019).

The same principle counts for when applying sociomaterial understanding of the digital world. The online activities in schools are complex and intricately connected to the students’ digitised practices that takes place after and outside school (Alirezabeigi et al., 2022; Valasmo et al., 2023). The everyday relationships emerging in school situations are opaque and untidy, and both students and teachers continuously creatively employ and combine the social and material resources that are available (Klykken, 2022).

Playful learning is one approach that emphasises social connections and the potential for creating a safe learning environment where failure is a natural and expected element (Upton, 2015; Whitton, 2018). Can supporting social connectivity through game-based learning be one way to support teachers and students in their responsible engagement with digital tools? In this paper, I will inquire into how social inclusion and friendly connections can play an important role in developing digital competences among students. The paper will discuss preliminary findings of a small experimental case study with secondary school teachers about their practice and experiences using card and board games designed for developing digital literacy (Castañeda et al., Forthcoming; Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). The paper will discuss challenges and possibilities with the use of non-digital games (for instance, card and board games). Using a sociomaterial framework the paper will inquire into how a playful approach can be used to support the development of digital competences as well as amplifying friendly connections in classrooms, which both are vital for active citizenship and participation in a digitised society.

Hate is a feeling that has accompanied human life since ancient times, leading to a lack of authentic thinking, and hindering the promotion and development of one's own and others' humanity. This feeling leads individuals to perceive diversity as something to distance, denigrate, and in extreme cases, desire to annihilate. Hate "speaks" through what are defined as "Hate Speech" (Ferrini and Paris, 2019), which are speeches aimed at fomenting or encouraging any form of denigration, hatred, and defamation towards individuals or groups, subjecting them to verbal - more or less explicitly - and non-verbal violence based on ethnic, physical, cultural, sexual, or religious diversity (European Commission, 2015). It is well known how the introduction of Social Media platforms - such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X - has increasingly contributed to the spread of this phenomenon, extending it beyond real life (Ferrini and Paris, 2019). “Online Hate Speech" show specificities given by the communicative tools and the environments in which they arise: they are able to quickly reach an increasingly vast audience, regardless of age, remain visible to all for a long time, can be advertised and shared worldwide by anyone, providing greater freedom to do so as one is hidden behind a monitor and one's identity remains a mystery. In times of the Covid-19 Pandemic – which Adriano Prosperi (2021) calls "plague time" – Amnesty International has constructed the "Hate Barometer", through which it is possible to realize the increase of online "Hate Speech", directed towards increasingly specific "diversities", featured in comments or posts on various Social Media platforms. Supporting the pedagogical position according to every man and every woman, by nature, is educable (Kaiser, 2013), this abstract aims to argue how one of the promoting factors of "Hate Speech" can be a miseducation in critical thinking, and how, therefore, a re-education towards assuming a critical and deep stance towards reality and the discernment of one's own truth (Modugno, 2023) and relationship with others is not only possible but necessary to counter this fact. Starting from the idea that institutions of all levels - including Higher Education - can and should be a fertile ground for educating future citizens to critically think about the world we live in (Chomsky, 2004), the objective is to present educational and learning activities that can promote this need and in which students can acquire Soft Skills useful for the purpose, experimenting with active and participative teaching methodologies (Bonaiuti, 2014): for example Cooperative Learning, Case study, the analysis of texts, fake news, Social Media, and videos in which to recognize “hate words”, make questions, and together find solutions to foster social change. An important aspect to further reflect on corresponds to Faculty Development activities, which can be an extremely relevant resource for ensuring that teachers are consciously trained in methodologies that can make their teaching a path of critical development for the life of each of their students (Silva, 2022).