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# 5-4 Digital Citizenship Literacy Practices Around the World
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The information in this section primarily comes from g0v sch001’s event at the g0v Summit on May 4, 2024: “Youth-Led Innovation: Shaping the Future through Civic Tech.” The event agenda is jointly created by Tiff Lin, contributor, g0v Sch001, Saya Kubota, international coordinator, Code for Japan, and Sonja Fischbaue, organization development specialist and community strategist, Open Knowledge Foundation Germany; representative, Code for Germany. The sources of this information are attached to the end of each sub-section.
> Find the agenda video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ3FpZl9zfQ
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## 5-4-1 Japan
### I. The Japanese Government’s Practices
Digital citizenship literacy is an indispensable aspect of modern society that needs to be addressed urgently. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in Japan defines it as the ability to actively participate in society through digital technologies. It emphasizes cultivating safety awareness, a sense of responsibility, mutual respect, and ethical behavior for digital engagement through practical experiences and dialogue. Furthermore, digital citizenship is essential for individuals of all age groups.
The Japanese government offers relevant teaching materials to foster digital citizenship literacy, including media balance and wellness, interpersonal relations and communication, press literacy, digital footprint, identity, safety and privacy, and online bullying and hate speech. Relevant teaching materials on IoT, information reading, and generative AI are mainly offered. The target audience covers students and the following four generations: preschoolers/parents, adolescents(under 18 years old), parents & teachers, and elders, with proper learning guidance on offer. Many educational institutions have adopted the Japanese government’s teaching materials on digital citizenship literacy.
Nowadays, schools are not the only place where children use digital media. Therefore, other than public education, adults need to build a common understanding of digital citizenship to answer children’s questions and concerns. Most importantly, family members and guardians should be children’s best listeners. Hence, the Japanese government encourages parents to talk to their children and understand their behaviors and challenges in the digital world. The principles of dialogue include tailoring the approach to children’s developmental stage and personality, performing a continuous “plan-execute-review” cycle, and fostering a safe conversational environment through empathy and objective analysis of their behavior.
The Japanese government calls for more funding and resources to be invested in digital citizenship education. To build a comprehensive network, more qualified, professional teachers and enhanced family education resources are needed.
> For more information, you can read: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan - Guidelines for Using the Internet Wisely: https://www.soumu.go.jp/use_the_internet_wisely/
### II. A Private-Sector Initiative – Code for Japan
As mentioned in the last paragraph, the Japanese government offers educational materials on digital citizenship literacy for different generations to build a robust network for digital citizenship education. However, to complete this network, the private sector must also participate. Code for Japan (CfJ), a prominent civic tech community, encourages students to foster digital citizenship literacy by designing tech-driven solutions for social issues through civic tech project competitions and school courses.
Code for Japan was established in 2013 with the vision of creating “a society where people think and create together” and has worked to expand this vision across Japan. CfJ has over 80 communities nationwide dedicated to using technology to solve various social issues. CfJ promotes civic technology through three main approaches:
- Community: Organizing hackathons and supporting non-profit organizations and startups in building civic tech communities.
- Government technology: Focusing on improving government transparency and providing information technology support
- Building our city: Using Decidim (an open-source system suitable for various participatory governance methods) and the Urban OS data linkage platform to promote citizen engagement in urban governance and decision-making, enhancing civic participation awareness.
In addition to the methods above, CfJ currently focuses on providing civic tech challenges for youth and organizing related activities in schools to promote digital citizenship education.
In 2020, CfJ launched the Civic Tech Challenge Cup U-22, inspired by an intern’s observation that COVID-19 had limited students’ mobility. The Challenge Cup became an alternative to students' domestic and international internships and extracurricular activities during COVID-19.
The Civic Tech Challenge Cup aims to raise students’ awareness and analysis of social issues and encourages them to think of solutions collaboratively. For instance, the 2023 Challenge Cup was divided into six stages to fulfill that aim: 1. event registration; 2. introductory project courses (including programming and design-related courses); 3. participant screening and team formation; 4. mid-term reports and various workshops; 5. final selection; 6. International exchange.
> Workflow of The Civic Tech Challenge Cup / Image from Code for Japan
During the process, participants will experience:
1. Awareness and analysis of social issues: This includes problem-based learning, exploring and understanding social issues in various fields, and collaborating with partners across Japan.
2. Solution prototype development: This involves using technology to develop prototypes, design mechanisms, and carry out continuous improvements.
3. Accumulating career development experience: In addition to gaining experience in team formation and prototype development, civic tech communities and large companies are invited to offer support. This includes cross-age and cross-domain development communities, student communities, civic tech communities, open-source communities, and companies such as Google, AWS, Yahoo! Japan, Salesforce, and Figma. As a result, students will have numerous opportunities to engage with external communities and professionals, building a support network for their career development.
4. Enhancing international exchange and English proficiency: The project occasionally collaborates with civic tech communities from various countries, such as g0v Sch001, to promote international student exchange. This also boosts students’ motivation to learn English and improves their language skills.
> The approach of the Civic Tech Challenge Cup / Image from Code for Japan
Over the years, the types of proposals from students have been diverse, addressing issues such as safe walking routes for older people, women, and children, disaster evacuation maps, assistance for people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ support, bus delay notifications, campus environment maintenance, textbook sharing, and campus feedback collection. As the Civictech Challenge Cup U-22 champion in 2023, BearTech developed a speech editing service for people with stuttering. The team, consisting of three Japanese students studying at Brown University in the United States, started the project because one of the team members’ brother had difficulty finding a job due to his stutter. This application allows users to upload their own voice recordings and generate an audio version without the stutter. Unlike other applications that use automatic pre-recorded audio, this one uses the individual’s voice.
From 2020 to 2023, over 500 students participated in the challenge. Some of these students went on to pursue higher education at universities in the United States or secured positions at renowned IT companies in Japan, continuing to shine and make an impact in various fields.
In addition to organizing the Civic Tech Challenge Cup U-22, CfJ collaborates with high schools and universities to cultivate students’ sense of responsibility, proactiveness, and ability to use technology to solve local social issues on campus. Through this collaborative process, CfJ hopes to help students incorporate more elements of social responsibility and inclusivity into technology.
> If you like to learn more, you can check:
> Code for Japan: https://www.code4japan.org/zh-TW
> 2023 Civictech Challenge Cup U-22: https://ccc.code4japan.org/
## 5-4-2 Germany
### I. The German Government’s Practices
In 2016, the German government proposed Digital Strategy 2025, a ten-year plan to promote digitalization in Germany and ensure its leadership in the quality and technology of products and services. Among the Strategy’s ten strategic pillars, the main goal of the digital pillar is that all students will have a basic understanding of computer science, algorithms, and programming by 2025. To achieve this, appropriate courses must be included in primary and secondary school curricula, as well as in teacher training and lifelong learning. In this way, Germany should become one of the leaders in digital infrastructure in the education sector. The workplace should also become the preferred place for acquiring the latest IT knowledge, and all publicly funded educational institutions should provide necessary teaching materials online. The plan has been conducted by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action of Germany in collaboration with other governmental agencies, businesses, academic institutions, the science community, and social partners, as funded by the federal government budget, EU funds, and private investments and collaboration.
In 2021, the German government introduced the Digital Education Initiative, aligning with Digital Strategy 2025. The initiative aims to provide people of all ages, regardless of their prior experience, with the opportunity to improve their digital literacy, thus promoting digital equality. It also seeks to cultivate digitally literate citizens confident in using digital technologies and can contribute to a digital society. The key points of this initiative include:
1. Enhancing data literacy: Emphasizing the skills to understand, securely use, and protect data.
2. Developing digital learning resources: Providing high-quality digital learning resources to make digital learning more accessible.
3. Establishing a national education platform (NEP): Integrating existing digital education platforms to offer teachers and staff high-quality digital teaching materials, teacher training resources, and best-practice examples.
4. Investing in school digitalization: The Digital Pact for Schools provides funding to improve school digital infrastructure. This includes supplying digital devices for teachers and students, training and supporting IT personnel, and developing new campus cloud platforms to assist schools lacking access to other digital resources.
According to the 2022 “Digital Education in Germany” status report published by the International University of Applied Sciences in Germany, the development of digital education in the country has gradually shown results in schools despite challenges. While Wi-Fi coverage has improved, only two-thirds of the schools report that their Wi-Fi covers all necessary areas. The availability of tablets and computers has increased, but 65.7% of the school leadership teams believe that providing sufficient digital devices to students is the biggest challenge when it comes to digitalization, followed by teachers’ digital skills. While teachers are confident in using the Internet, their abilities in areas such as data literacy and digital skills are limited, and this restricts their potential for using digital tools and AI. The use of digital media in classrooms has increased, but 43% of the school staff report that their schools have never or rarely carried out digital courses. More than half of the parents also support digitalization but are concerned about issues such as excessive screen time for children, data security and privacy, and immature teaching methods.
Although the German government does not directly use the term “digital citizenship education,” its digital education policy not only emphasizes improving digital skills, and data usage and protection literacy but also fostering citizens who can contribute to a digital society. Moreover, the policy targets all citizens. Implementation strategies include providing hardware and software infrastructure, developing diversified digital tools and resource platforms, and training teachers.
### II. Experience in Grassroot Initiatives: The Open Knowledge Foundation in Germany
Since 1980, the development of civic tech has been driven by strong political yearning, meaning that civic tech participants aim to encourage the German government to become more transparent and accountable by using and promoting open data and digital participation tools. To this day, a range of civic tech communities and organizations have been established in Germany. Sonja Fischbauer, a community strategy and organizational development expert at the well-known Open Knowledge Foundation Germany (OKF), a German civic tech organization, believes that digital civic education is not only about technology and career development but should also empower young people to know how to use digital tools to participate in politics and promote democracy, human rights, and all values that are important to society’s progress. To achieve this, the OKF promotes digital civic education through two projects: the “Code for Germany” civic tech community and “Jugend Hackt” for youth hackers.
Code for Germany was established in 2014 as a civic tech network comprising over 500 volunteers and various workspaces. Currently, around 30 open knowledge labs have been established across Germany. Participants emphasize transparency, open data, and civic participation and are committed to using their skills to create ideal cities and lives. In addition to utilizing existing open data for practical applications, the participants also take the initiative to build hardware, use technology, and collaborate to solve social issues. Furthermore, they aim to improve communication and collaboration between the public and government so that more people can benefit from open and free digitalization.
On the other hand, Jugend Hackt is a non-profit program launched in 2013 by Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland (OKF) and Mediale Pfade, the latter being an association for media education. Jugend Hackt provides a free platform for young people eager to use technology to improve the world. Through events such as hackathons, local workshops, online communities, and international exchange programs with Japan and South Korea through collaboration with the Goethe Institute, young participants, supported by volunteer mentors, develop digital tools and solution prototypes to address social, environmental, and political issues. Past projects have included irrigation systems with free Wi-Fi, wristbands to warn of surveillance cameras, and an audio computer game designed for visually impaired people to foster a sense of responsibility in young people for using technology.
> Different formats of Jugend Hackt / Image from Sonja Fischbauer
> The Open Knowledge Foundation Germany: https://okfn.de/en/
> Code for Germany: https://okfn.de/en/projekte/codeforde/ and https://codefor.de
> Jugend hackt: https://okfn.de/en/projekte/jugendhackt/ and https://jugendhackt.org/
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#### Sources
1. The Federal Government. "Boosting Digital Literacy for All Ages." Bundesregierung, 22 Feb. 2021, https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-en/service/archive/initiative-digitale-bildung-1860892. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.
2. Germany Trade & Invest. "National Education Platform to Meet Digital Learning Challenge." Germany Trade & Invest, 4 Nov. 2021, https://www.gtai.de/en/invest/industries/digital-economy/national-education-platform-to-meet-digital-learning-challenge-746636. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.
3. Digital Skills and Jobs Platform. "Germany - Digital Strategy 2025." Digital Skills and Jobs Platform, 13 May 2022, https://digital-skills-jobs.europa.eu/en/actions/national-initiatives/national-strategies/germany-digital-strategy-2025. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.
4. IU International University of Applied Sciences. (2022). “Digital education in Germany: A status report.” https://static.iu.de/studies/digital_education_study.pdf
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