Promoting Inclusion and Global Democratic Citizenship Through Digital Dialogic Collaborative Learning: Diversity Matters!

This paper addresses the problem of inclusive, creative and innovative learning quality of digital collaborative learning designs and their potential for amplifying digital democratic citizenship in learners - digital democratic citizenship with inclusive, empowering and teaching/learning processes at both a macro and micro level. The use of digital technologies for inclusion in processes of teaching and learning is illustrated through the findings from a Danish research project funded by the Ministry of Education. On the basis of these insights and the continuous development of new technologies, such as e.g. humanoid robotics, the paper concludes with a hypothetical theoretical exploration of a not-yet-utilized social-emotional meta-learning space and the tentative identification of its educational potential for inclusive learning and development, positioned in the interactive, communicative space between the learner and the robot. The paper finalizes with a possible conceptual, principled recommendation for digital learning designs that may be a step in the right direction towards sustaining global educational use of digital technologies for the purpose of digital democratic citizenship and social inclusion.