Permanently online, temporarily abroad: Digital media use during secondary school exchange

This commentary responds to Dr. Alessandro Soriani's presentation of the Council of Europe's Digital Citizenship Education framework at the 13th Forum on Intercultural Learning and Exchange ("Encouraging Value-Based Behaviors: From Pupils' Mobility to Civic Engagement," Colle di Val d'Elsa, November 13–15, 2025). Written from the dual vantage point of an AFS alumna and a media and communications scholar, it argues that the exchange year as a bounded, intense, and singular experience is an unusually rich laboratory for democratic and intercultural learning. Yet, secondary school students remain largely absent from existing research. The commentary briefly reviews what the literature reveals about connecting to personal lifeworlds and host-country civic life, and proposes low-cost reflective methods and systematic, longitudinal research that AFS is uniquely positioned to advance.