Pursuing Digital Literacy in Compulsory Education

Over the last two decades, advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) have contributed to the ideological construct of an emerging «knowledge society» – one which places a high value on knowledge and education and promises a better future for humanity. However, the severe economic – and by extension, social and political – crisis that occurred at the end of 2008, which brought about rising unemployment and threatened social welfare, has changed the view of an ever-prospering society riding the ICT/knowledge wave, forcing it to face a sudden reality check, and to reconsider individualism and its consequences, cynicism and greed. In these circumstances, it is likely that people will attempt to rediscover their values and visions and to redefine their hope for the future. As has occurred at other, similar historical junctures, the years that follow such a reexamination could usher in a period of radical economical and societal transformations. It is within this context – the universal desire to reinstate and reposition our hope for a better future, and hence to promote a transformative vision of education – that the aims and themes of this book lie. Digital technology and digital media are inevitably and inextricably part of our future, a future which is literally defined by the way we educate our children. As such, the aim to provide digital literacy for all depends upon the re-construction of the school.

Lampros K. Stergioulas is Reader and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Information Systems and Computing at Brunel University, United Kingdom. A qualified chartered engineer, he has studied informatics and physics at the University of Athens, and received an M.Sc. and a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Liverpool, specializing in information engineering and communications. Dr. Stergioulas has published over 100 papers in journals and international conferences. He is one of the academic leads in the United Kingdom’s RIGHT project, has been principal investigator in numerous EU projects, and coordinates the e-START E.U. network. His research interests include technology-enhanced learning, educational and health information systems, human-centered computing, educational computing and information systems for society.
Helen Drenoyianni is Assistant Professor of ICT in Education at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Education, in the Department of Primary Education. She is a graduate of the National University of Athens School of Education and has an M.Ed. and a PhD from the University of Birmingham, School of Education (United Kingdom). Her main research interests focus on ICT literacy and its relationship to multi-literacies, the role of ICT in school curricula with an emphasis on integrated, transdisciplinary and democratic curriculum practices, as well as the investigation of issues of social exclusion and ICT through the lenses of critical pedagogy theory. She has participated in a range of national research, teacher training and professional development projects concerned with ICTs. She is a member of the editorial board of the journals Education and Information Technologies and Themes in Education.