“What It Means to be a Digital Citizen”: Using concept mapping and an educational game to explore children's conceptualization of digital citizenship

Digital citizenship (DC) education is key to a bright future for children in the digital age. Despite its attention in K–12 settings, little is known about how children conceptualize DC, which diminishes the effectiveness of associated lessons. This study introduced the conceptual content cognitive mapping (3CM) approach to investigate children's conceptualization of DC and its changes after digital game-based learning with MinecraftEDU. Results showed that children tended to conceptualize DC superficially as personal responsibility and generally ignored the role of active online engagement. The game's mechanism had weak influence on how children conceptualized this idea, mainly reflected in the change of importance they perceived during the game. These changes were related to their perceptions of emotion, game design, and value commitments. Children jointly showed their interest in the game and exhibited diverse behaviors and learning reflections during the game. Implications for teaching DC and using educational games are discussed to promote DC localization in China.