Co-Curricular Programs: A Digital Activism Case Study for Humanist Educators

Abstract

This chapter argues that promising opportunities for digital education in the humanist tradition can be found in college co-curricular programs that connect critical thinking, creativity, digital technology, and global writing to public service and community citizenry. In this chapter, digital literacy co-curricular programs, which in simple terms merge digital technology and public writing, are titled “digital activism” because they give students opportunities to bring their academic learning to real-world experiences in ways that are meaningful to students and that benefit the college community. This chapter presents an ethnographic case study of one co-curricular digital activism program at a small private Midwestern university. Information was collected from description of interactions with the program’s team as well as from scholarly literature on digital technology, digital literacy, and technology’s impact on young adults. This information provided valuable background and context to the study. The case study highlights the stages of the program’s development and the outcomes of the program after its one-year pilot initiation. Case study findings show that co-curricular digital activism programs can positively impact students by offering them the freedom to develop rich collaborations, the responsibility to make conscious, ethical choices about how they share knowledge, and a platform to teach their peers, as well as other internal stakeholders, about issues that matter to them. This chapter supports the notion that co-curricular digital activism programs can empower students to use teaching and learning to shape their college communities into vibrant places of respect and mutuality.

Citation

Johnson, P. and Spartz, J. (2020), "Co-Curricular Programs: A Digital Activism Case Study for Humanist Educators", Sengupta, E., Blessinger, P. and Makhanya, M. (Ed.) Integrating Community Service into Curriculum: International Perspectives on Humanizing Education (Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning, Vol. 25), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 73-88. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2055-364120200000025006