By Julian Culp
Abstract:For many years by now Big Tech companies like Google have been running ads to promote the teaching of digital skills such as creating websites or sharing documents. These skills, these ads emphasize, contribute to economic flourishing: they enable the digitally educated to tap into economic potentials afforded by mastering “digital technologies,” including the improvement of client service, visibility, or workflow. Likewise, several educational scholars and political theorists have started defending the importance of teaching digital skills. Yet different from Big Tech’s emphasis on economic gains, these scholars have been highlighting the democracy-enhancing benefits of equipping citizens with digital skills like crafting persuasive social media posts or fact-checking information online. I appreciate my colleagues’ efforts in thinking through these issues of Digital Citizenship Education, by which I mean democratic citizenship education in liberal democratic Western societies that are deeply affected by the widespread use of digital technologies. By highlighting the possible democratic gains of learning digital skills, they have generated a valuable narrative on digital education which counters that of the Big Tech companies. In this article I will argue, however, that Digital Citizenship Education must not focus exclusively on the transmission of digital skills or techniques but should also concentrate on contributing to a more democratic political culture.