The reading I focused on this week was Critical Digital Citizenship by Maha Bali.
In her article, Critical Digital Citizenship: Promoting Empathy and Social Justice Online, Maha Bali writes “I suggested we reconsider what we mean by “critical,” and proposed that universities aim to promote criticality that centers around social justice and empathy as a more fruitful approach than one centered on skepticism and antagonism.” Since I am studying to become a teacher, this quote was like a hook for me. In history we are taught to ‘question the author.’ It is surprising how I did not learn such a reasonable practice until college. Recognizing bias is incredibly important in this field. However, Bali did not write much more on that point. Instead she focused on how the digital community could be used as a platform for Social Justice. I would have to entirely agree. Aside from my news sources, I get nearly all of my arguments from social media. For instance, when Pepsi recently released their ad with Kendall Jenner, I knew about it immediately because of Social Media. Bali believes that we can achieve intercultural learning experiences through social media but I found her article lacking specifics. Her research is good but social media trends are hard to pin down. I think that any social justice platform on social media would have to be very deliberate and persistent to turn likes into action.
Digital History 