Social responsibility is an important element of the B.C. curriculum. If students are socially responsible, they care about society in a global, communal sense, and understand their individual and collective potential to make positive impacts for the benefit of more than just themselves. If we as educators include social responsibility as a integral part of the curriculum, there have to be mediums in place for students to enact these curricular goals and make tangible differences. With this idea as a starting point for inquiry, I began searching for research or examples of how students used technology as a primary medium to create and spread their initiatives. I had the idea in mind that technologies such as apps and social media could be fostered to not only create a philanthropist movements, but also spread messages and have an impact globally.

Initially I found many websites and articles that supported the idea of technology use in classroom for positive learning environments; many articles contained information about the need for teachers to help their students use technology efficiently to aid in their learning process; however, I did not find many examples or research about the use of technology to promote socially responsible students. Many examples included bake sales, book and food drives, car washes, and fasts. These are certainly initiatives that promote social responsibility and contribute to helping society on a global level. But in reading “Why School”, which asked the question why hasn’t education embraced technologies like other sectors of our society have, I wondered if any teachers were using technology to explore the social responsibility competency of the curriculum.

Eventually, I came across the term “globally enabled social change” and the idea of “digital citizenship”. These keywords led me to ideas about citizens using technology to make a difference or build awareness about a particular cause. Some methods included utilizing hash tags and charitable pages, while other methods used facebook private pages as activist chat rooms for those living in undemocratic countries.

In looking for instances that specifically included youth that were given opportunities within their education to make a difference, I came across a few examples. Some examples included students who created apps that helped impoverished people living across the world, while other examples consisted of teachers who were using ipads to allow students to create stories through stop motion, prezi, and the like, to increase engagement, share ideas, and make a difference. The teacher stated, “my students are creative and interested in changing the world.” You can read more about that story here: http://digcitizen.tumblr.com

Overall, it seems as though there is an absent of literature to do with technology and social responsibility in education; although I found examples on blogs and websites, I did not find scholarly articles and journals that touched on this subject in a substantial way; however, I do not doubt for a second that social activism in education which utilizes technology, is not taking place. Massive contributions such as We Day take place yearly, and reach many students across the globe. I know that students change their avatars, update their facebook statuses, sign e-petitions, and make online donations, all to support whatever cause that matters to them.

I do believe that as educators adapt and incorporate technology in the classroom more importantly and frequently, students will naturally use technology to create, plan, organize, support and carry out movements that are important to them. Collective grievances, whether environmental, social, emotional, etc., creates a desire in people to act. Students have the power to male a difference together, and technology can and does serve as a great vehicle for that change.