From platform users to active citizens. Digital Citizenship Education. Handbook for Facilitators. GERMAN TEXT
Education for Democratic Citizenship empowers learners to participate and co-create democratic decision-making, to develop the competence to be a critical thinker in regards to the political and to contribute to democratic culture. In line with the perspective of the Council of Europe, it is clear that such a pedagogy addresses both the (analytical) ability to think and judge, as well as the (also practical) skills and attitudes needed to participate as an active citizen.
The developments in society are challenging education and media pedagogy. It is obvious that education that focuses on “the political” cannot be satisfied with a discourse on digitalisation that largely ignores the social, political, economic and cultural impacts of digital policy and digital development. In recent years, awareness has risen on the political character of developments such as platformisation, AI, structural decisions in the information ecosystem and competitive decisions in the digital market.
Education must take decisive action here. It must take learners seriously as citizens and address them as such, rather than merely as consumers or so-called “users”.
This is what we refer to in the title “More than going with the flow”. If one always goes with the flow, at some point one will no longer know what it means to swim against the tide. Maybe one would also like to learn more about water and the ecosystem or perhaps experiment with forms of coexistence, aquariums and swimming variations that are not traditionally envisaged.
We would therefore like to invite readers to consider digitalisation and the guidelines and models for strengthening digital skills that they encounter from a socio-political perspective. We firmly believe that young people should be given the opportunity to think critically about digitalisation, to learn how it all works behind the scenes in the realm of tracking and analytics, and to gain an understanding of their rights and opportunities.
This handbook is aimed at professionals as non-formal educators or youth workers, but is also intended to offer added value for teachers. It therefore has both theoretical and practical aims. That is why we have repeatedly tried to inspire readers with concrete suggestions for implementation.
From the Table of Content
- The socio-political in digitalisation (Nils-Eyk Zimmermann)
- Identity – Let’s rethink identity in a connected world (Elisa Rapetti)
- Enforce more democracy. Aspects of democratic governance of ‘the digital’
- Environment – Critically examining the impact of digitalisation (Markus Plasencia-Kanzler)
- Active citizenship – Engagement for democratic digital transformation (Nils-Eyk Zimmermann)
Zimmermann, N.; Plasencia-Kanzler, M.; Rapetti, E.(2026). More than Go with the Flow. From platform users to active citizens. Competendo Facilitator Handbook, Democracy and Human Rights Education in Europe, Brussels. https://competendo.net/en/More_than_Go_with_the_Flow
A handbook on Digital Citizenship Education, created in the frame of the project DIYW-ROAD/Competendo. Digital Youth Work – rights-sensitive, open, accessible, democratic by: Arbeitskreis deutscher Bildungsstätten e. V. AdB (DE), Sozialprofil – Verein zur Förderung individueller, institutioneller und gesellschaftlicher Entwicklung (AT), DARE – Democracy and Human Rights Education in Europe vzw. (BE), Partners Bulgaria Foundation (BG), Fundación CIVES (ES), Dinamo – Associação de Dinamização Sócio-cultural(PT).