Digital identity construction and high school students:a lifelong learning competence to be addressed

There are a series of social and technological processes that happen inside of what is known as Information Society (IS), which has on Internet its main symbol, where we can find a “hybrid” space that meets school, home and community environments. In this space, that some people liked to call the “new agora”, most of relationships are established from the private sphere, and more specific from the digital identities of the people that participate through Internet’s different channels. Today, Internet is one of the technologies used to teach and to learn in educational contexts all over the world, being an undeniable tool to access and exchange information, to participate, to improve learning processes including those related to personal competences. However, there is a lack of information regarding Digital Identity (DI) construction as a competence, especially when related to high school students. And even though when some institutions have addressed this issue, there is still a long way to go. On the one hand, a responsible construction and management of a DI can prevent not only digital crimes (such as hacking, copyright felonies, privacy policies violations), but also can prevent from dangerous online relationships, cyberbullying or other types of digital violence. On the other hand, a well-constructed DI can motivate a healthy identity construction (online and offline), can stimulate participation, citizenship and construction of strong communities that can and would influence the life of each and every student nowadays. This article aims to resume some aspects from a larger study that tried to connect digital identities construction and school violence in Mexico. These aspects are those related to a DI approach and communication processes, and some recommendations for DI construction as a basic competence in lifelong learning education.