An innovative platform to promote social media literacy in school contexts

Abstract

In spite of the impressive number of adolescents using social media, only a minority is aware of the risks associated with the use of the Internet. Hate speech, violation of personal rights, psychological attacks, deceiving people with fake accounts, as well as cyberbullying, harassment and insults are some examples of toxic content that can jeopardize adolescent well-being on the Web. Social Media literacy paths in school contexts provide students with the proper defence instruments to face these problems. Furthermore, it is important to underline the role of social media on both the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of adolescents which has short-and long-term influences when using these virtual environments. However, traditional teaching approaches are not enough to engage students, and the need for innovative learning activities and tools emerges. In this paper we present an online platform specifically designed to support the development of competences related to Information and Data Literacy, Communication and Collaboration and Digital Content Creation. These competences are connected to the most recent versions of the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens, and the Global framework of reference on digital literacy skills promoted by UNESCO. The platform is based on PixelFed, an open-source alternative to Instagram, so that adolescents can practice with an environment they are familiar with. Our platform extends the PixelFed environment with functionalities designed to implement use cases that make students aware of the mechanisms behind social media, such as the use of artificial intelligence algorithms to filter the content they have access to. This platform has been experimented during a pilot run with secondary school students, by proposing them educational activities based on our platform, aimed at educating and supporting students to increase their awareness and counteract the problems that arise within social media.