YOUTHLEAD Technology and Digital Tools Technology and Digital Tools

Welcome to the YouthLead Technology and Digital Tools for Inclusion Hub. Meet other young changemakers and find tools to begin or enhance your own journey.

Highlights

Digital Inclusion Starter Kit

This starter kit includes resources on how young changemakers can learn about digital safety and digital skills as tools for positive digital development and transformation, both online and offline. These resources are a kick-off point for those interested in learning what the digital divide is, the benefits of gapping the digital divide, how each person can contribute to greater digital inclusion, and how learning digital skills can be transformative. This kit contains courses, videos, articles, reports, and stories on how to take action to increase digital inclusion.

How to use Digital Tools to Run Effective Digital Activism Campaigns

Watch the webinar on How to Use Digital Tools to Run Effective Digital Activism Campaigns.

Review a webinar and slides from YouthLead's training session on digital activism and campaigning. As the use of social media and online communications continues to rise, knowing how to effectively navigate digital platforms has become crucial. In this session, participants will learn how to use digital platforms like Instagram and Zoom to conduct online campaigns to reach youth globally and maximize young voices in the digital realm.

Led by YP2LE Youth Advisory Group Member Nandini Tanya Lallmon, this webinar explored the design process of digital activism campaigns through the lens of successful campaigns, leveraging digital campaigns to promote your work, and delivering an advocacy campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic

Participants will also learn how to incorporate Positive Youth Development (PYD) into their messaging and proven techniques for using digital spaces for activism. Lallmon will also share her strategies for overcoming the digital divide while ensuring inclusive campaigning.

Growing up in a Digital World Youth Report

Digital technologies have profoundly changed childhood and adolescence. The internet and the means to access it, such as tablets and smartphones, along with social media platforms and messaging apps, have become integral to the lives of youth around the world. They have transformed their education and learning, the way they make and maintain friendships, how they spend their leisure time, and their engagement with wider society. UNICEF's State of the World's Children 2017: Children in a Digital World report reveals that one in three internet users is younger than 18 years and 71% of 15–24-year-olds are online, making them the most connected age group worldwide. However, the so-called digital divide is substantial: 346 million youth are not online, with African adolescents the most affected (60% are not connected compared with 4% in Europe).

Children and adolescents have the most to gain and are most at risk from digital technologies. They must be at the forefront of national and global digital policies, not only to protect them from online harm but also to allow technology to help them fulfill their full potential. This editorial reviews the risks and benefits of digital technology on children and adolescents, a group with "the most to gain and are most at risk from digital technologies."

            Using Big Data for Insights into the Gender Digital Divide for Girls: A discussion paper
        

Digital technology is rapidly evolving and increasingly indispensable in our lives. This is true not only for adults, but also for children and adolescents. For young people, digital technology provides tools to engage in entrepreneurship, network with peers, and access critical health, career and financial information. For women and girls, digital adoption and use offers an opportunity to overcome hurdles they may face in the physical world. It can offer skills needed to excel in education and work, as well as increased access to the digital jobs of the future

Unfortunately, a large gender divide disfavours women in digital access and use. The Using Big Data for Insights into the Gender Digital Divide for Girls discussion paper describes the findings of a study that used big data as an alternative data source to understand the gender digital divide for under-18s. It describes 6 key insights gained from analysing big data from Facebook and Instagram platforms, and discusses how big data can be further used to contribute to the body of evidence for the gender digital divide for adolescent girls.

Internet Safety Course

The first step to using the Internet effectively is learning how to use the Internet safely!

This Internet Safety Course can teach you how to create a safe password, how to understand browser tracking, what to do if your computer gets a virus, and much more. This 15 part course includes videos, examples, and definitions that are essential to safely getting the most out of the digital experience.

As a bonus, this course also includes extra tutorials on mobile device tips and computer basics.

Take the full course at GCFGlobal.org.