by Tactical Tech, International NGO.
With a growing generation of teens relying on the internet for learning, entertainment and socialising, it’s crucial to cultivate their capacity to ask critical questions about the ways that technology has an impact on their lives, their communities and the planet. But how can educators guide teens to understand and navigate the digital world confidently? Everywhere, All the Time is a creative and playful digital literacy intervention, aiming to do just that.
The “Everywhere, All the Time” package includes self-guided, interactive and memorable materials aimed at young people aged 13 to 19, as well as detailed guidance to support educators or hosts in formal or informal learning environments with hosting and fostering engaging, nuanced and critical discussions. The overarching goals of the package are to:
- Demystify modern technologies
- Promote critical digital literacy
- Provoke discussions about the benefits and drawbacks of technologies
- Consider technology’s influence on oneself, society and the planet.
Co-developed with 300 young people and 100 educators worldwide, “Everywhere, All the Time” includes an easy-to-print and install exhibition, activity cards and an extensive educators’ guidebook. These resources assist facilitators in guiding teens to explore crucial topics, including understanding how AI chatbots work and the hidden labour behind technology, recognising the attention-grabbing designs behind popular games, and learning about the physical infrastructures that power the internet, among many other topics.
“Everywhere, All the Time” uses practical examples, simple and familiar language, and engaging visuals, making it an accessible interactive experience that resonates with young people. By utilising these resources, educators can create a unique space where teens can reflect on their relationship to technology while examining how tech and invisible systems like algorithms shape their lives and relationships.
Teens can also increase their confidence by actively adopting better digital privacy and well-being habits. “Everywhere, All the Time” serves as a learning platform for meaningful exploration and discussion and a place for inspiration that encourages teens to take action and shape the digital world in which they want to live.
The “Everywhere, All the Time“ package includes posters, activities and a guidebook.
Playful posters
These posters explain, contextualise or challenge perceptions around AI and technology, balancing playfulness and depth.
- Everywhere, All the Time: The introduction poster to the whole intervention sets the stage.
- A Multi-Player Game: Introduces the ‘players’ who influence the gaming experience. Accompanied by two satellite posters about persuasive design features and how the gaming industry makes money.
- My Screen, My Time: Invites teens to fill in a matrix in order to assess how long they spend engaged in each type of screen time in relation to how much enjoyment they get from the experience.
- Online, Offline and Everything In Between: Invites young people to position themselves based on their agreement or disagreement with statements about their relationship to technology.
- Chitty Chatty Bot Bot: Introduces what a large language model (LLM) is. Accompanied by satellite posters explaining how LLMs are trained and how they work, as well as exploring the potential for bias and inaccuracy with LLMs.
- Living with Algorithms: Introduces what algorithms are. Accompanied by satellite posters presenting examples of when algorithms are used to make important decisions, exploring potential biases, and the potential for algorithms to influence people.
- Erasing the Internet: Introduces the material parts of the internet, including the footprint of the internet through submarine cables, data centres and satellites.
- Workers of the World’s Biggest Project: Sheds a light on the billions of workers who create, build, maintain and distribute AI and technology.
Activities that spark conversations
These interactive games are paired with the posters to foster further reflection and reinforce learning on each topic.
- Data Detox Bingo: Contains concrete actions that can increase familiarity with and control over data privacy and digital wellbeing.
- Algorithmic Storytelling: Invites participants to practice first-hand, in a very simplified way, how an algorithm would create a story.
- Digital Footprints Quiz: Deepens learning about the materiality of the internet and gives a glimpse into the impact of technology on climate and the environment.
A guidebook for educators
This detailed guidebook includes additional supporting resources about the posters and activities, a set-up manual, guidelines on how to host the exhibition and more.
Educators working with young people will find “Everywhere, All the Time” helpful in fostering critical conversations about technology, AI and their impacts. Developed by Tactical Tech‘s youth initiative, What the Future Wants, this learning experience equips educators, librarians and anyone working with young people aged 13-19 with a set of engaging and innovative digital literacy resources and methods that can be used in both formal and informal learning environments.
If you are interested in hosting “Everywhere, All the Time”, please get in touch with us at youth@tacticaltech.org, to access the resources free of charge.
Author
Tactical Tech is an international NGO (established in 2003) that engages with citizens and civil-society organisations to explore and mitigate the impacts of technology on society.
