FutureLearn
Free Online Course (Audit)
English
Certificate Available
2 weeks long, 2 hours a week
selfpaced
Overview
Explore how our differences of opinion can bring us closer together
On this course, you’ll explore ways to make the online world safe for everyone and learn how we can use technology to celebrate our differences online.
Can differences of opinion bring us closer together?
With fascinating insights and instruction from educators working in the fields of social media influencing, journalism, research and more, you’ll consider what our ‘differences’ really mean and how they should be respected online.
You’ll examine the concept of social media echo chambers and learn how they feed into our online conversations, before getting hands-on experience creating a social media platform that encourages differing ideas and dispels fake news.
How does bias affect technology?
Technology reflects the unconscious biases and prejudices we hold.
You’ll learn with Areeq Chowdhury, founder of WebRoots Democracy and digital democracy advocate, how bias feeds into technology and can shape our ideas on gender and race.
Together, you’ll consider the value of diverse ideas and viewpoints for helping us overcome bias.
How can we embrace diversity online?
Expressing yourself safely online requires the right type of communication. You’ll hear from Chloe Pierre, Lady Leshurr, and Liv Little on how to have healthy forms of debate and dialogue online and why that means listening to opinions that are different to you own.
You’ll get tips for communicating better online, before completing the final challenge of thinking up a product, service or app idea that will help us to respect our differences online.
By the end of the course, you’ll understand why paying attention to and amplifying the opinions and differences of others online with technology can help make you a better global citizen.
This course is primarily designed for 18 to 25-year-olds interested in how technology can be used to help us respect our differences online.
However, the course will be useful for anyone who is interested in making positive social change through technology.
Taught by
Liz Truss
