Digital Citizenship in the Afterschool Space: Implications for Education for Sustainable Development

Education for sustainable development (ESD) challenges traditional curricula and formal schooling in important ways. ESD requires systemic thinking, interdisciplinarity and is strengthened through the contributions of all disciplines. As with any transformative societal and technological shift, new questions arise when educators are required to venture into unchartered waters. Research has led to some interesting findings concerning digital literacies in the K-12 classroom. One finding is that a great deal of digital media learning is happening outside the traditional classroom space and is taking place in the afterschool space (Prensky, 2010). Understanding the nature of learning in the afterschool space and bridging the current divide between formal schooling and the learning happening online is critical to the establishment of core ESD values and skills, namely ethical online communities and the development of respectful, tolerant global digital citizens.