ERIC Number: EJ870529
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Nov
Pages: 7
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1038-2046
EISSN: N/A
Young "Netizens" Creating Public Citizenship in Cyberspace
Robertson, Margaret
International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, v18 n4 p287-293 Nov 2009
Collaborating with universities in Hong Kong, Finland, the United Kingdom and Australia the research project outlined in this paper takes up one of the key initial findings related to the importance of children's online spaces away from school. The project brings together complementary strengths from each partner nation to assist our mutual need to understand the worlds of our young "netizens"--the new public citizens of cyberspace. Differing in social and cultural context, each setting is recognised as a strong contributor to understanding the competencies of young people's digital expertise. We work from the shared view that the arrival of Web 2.0 and 3.0 social networking tools is educationally challenging and demands futuristic thinking for sustainable education and social connectivity globally. Our research aim is to use a common research design to discover how young people are behaving in the new online spaces; what guides their decision-making; and what, if any, common values appear to emerge when results between countries are compared. Locally derived knowledge gained from samples of 12-year-olds will be subjected to cross-cultural comparisons and validation. In doing so, we make some assumptions about the homogenising process that shared global networks may be fostering. Bringing together these contributions will strengthen the decision-making process and provide new knowledge about meaning making, agency and citizenship for the twenty-first-century e-democracy. This paper reports on the conceptual process underlying the research and the research design. (Contains 2 figures and 4 notes.)
Descriptors: Research Design, Citizenship, Democracy, Young Adults, Foreign Countries, Cultural Context, Internet, Social Environment, Social Networks, Computer Mediated Communication, Sustainable Development, Futures (of Society), Decision Making
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia; Finland; Hong Kong; United Kingdom
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A