What is the true cost of your smartphone?
Examining the "everyday violence of resource extraction and labour exploitation" (Emejulu & McGregor, 2016) through cross-curricular connections between Grade 7 ELA, Science and Social Studies.
While reading "Towards a radical digital citizenship in digital education" I found myself making notes in the margins about this idea of shifting digital citizenship from 'netiquette' (which I still believe is necessary and crucial to developing productive digital citizens) to encorporting and infusing digital citizenship and digital activism into a 'rich learning experience' (which I also believe is necessary and crucial to developing productive citizens of our society - digital or otherwise).
Emejulu and McGregor cite research done by Friends of the Earth; the self-proclaimed largest grassroots environmental network in the world. The 2012 Friends of the Earth document, Mining for Smartphones: the true cost of tin, was published in a 32-page digital magazine, filled with interviews, photographs, infographics, data and reference material. It would be a fascinating and engaging text for examining non-fiction text-structure with students. There are also accompanying videos published by Friends of the Earth that would compliment and support the printed text. Utilizing both formats would provide students opportunities to access information through printed text, visual text and auditory text - not to mention digital text as well:
Examining this topic with students in a rich learning environment could create opportunities for students to engage in all of the four practices of the new ELA curriculum:
Language as Sense Making: by connecting prior knowledge, making connections, summarizing and/or synthesizing
Language as a System: by examining text structure and working with vocabulary
Language as Exploration and Design: by articulating questions and designing solutions to problems by analyzing, interpreting, and communicating learning and understanding.
Language as Power and Agency: by reflecting on identity and advocating for self, community and the environment.
This topic would connect to Grade 7 Science: Interactions with Ecosystems
7-1-05 Identify and describe positive and negative examples of human interventions that have an impact on ecological succession or the makeup of ecosystems.
7-1-06 Identify environmental, social, and economic factors that should be considered in the management and preservation of ecosystems.
7-1-07 Propose a course of action to protect the habitat of a particular organism within an ecosystem.
VC-004 Be willing to take action to support quality of life for people around the world.
KP-041 Explain the relationship between power and access to wealth and resources.
KP-042 Identify various individuals who influence world affairs.
KE-045 Give examples of the uneven distribution of wealth and resources in the world and describe the impact on individuals, communities, and nations.
VP-013 Demonstrate concern for people who are affected by discrimination, injustice, or abuse of power.
VP-014 Appreciate the positive contributions of various individuals to world affairs.
VE-016 Appreciate that quality of life is not solely determined by access to wealth, resources, and technologies.
KG-036 Identify various international organizations and describe their role in protecting or enhancing global quality of life.
VG-011 Value the contributions of international agencies and humanitarians to quality of life.
After (or during) investigating and analyzing the texts, plus any others that may be pulled in, students could publish their findings, interpreations, opinions etc... as digital content. Some powerfuls digital mediums may be to create and publish a youtube video, record a podcast, write a blogpost or develop a social media campaign to spread the word about the issue - why it is important to pay attention to and what can be or is being done about it.
There really are a ton of possibilities here, and it could/would/should be directed by the students as to where they would want to go with this topic. I'm really wishing that I was teaching ELA/Science/SS this year so I could expand on this and work through it with a group of students. Alas, maybe I can find a willing teacher to take on the cause and foster some digital activists in their classroom!
Emejulu, A. & McGregor, C. (2016). Towards a radical digital citizenship in digitial education. Critical Studies in Education. doi: 10.1080/17508487.2016.1234494
Friends of the Earth. (2012). Mining for smartphones: The true cost of tin [Online]. Retrieved from http://foe.co.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/tin_mining.pdf