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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Saur April 30, 2021

Student Experiences with Digital Citizenship: A Comparative Cultural Study

  • Jenna Kammer ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Kodjo Atiso ORCID logo and Edward Mensah Borteye ORCID logo
From the journal Libri

Abstract

This comparative cultural study examines differences in digital citizenship between undergraduate information literacy students at two different, but similar, universities across the globe from each other. Under the notion that the internet and prevalence of mobile devices allow students to participate online as digital citizens in ways that were impossible before, we use mixed methods to compare the attitudes and experiences of undergraduate students at a university in the midwestern United States (U.S.), with a university on the southwestern coast of Ghana. We also examine the policies related to technology use at these schools. The findings indicate that Ghanaian students had higher levels of digital citizenship. Other findings suggest that network issues are a problem for students in both schools, especially for Ghana, and ethical aspects of internet use, like cyberbullying, hacking, and fake news, deter students from participating online as much as they would like.


Corresponding author: Jenna Kammer, PhD, School of Professional Education and Leadership, University of Central Missouri College of Education, Warrensburg, MO, USA, E-mail:

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Published Online: 2021-04-30
Published in Print: 2021-09-27

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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