Abstract

Emotion and affect play a complex but critical role in the learning process. Researchers and educators have increasingly incorporated emotional understanding into pedagogy as captured in the now common refrain “teach to the whole student”. Social and emotional learning aims to improve academic outcomes in the classroom as well as promoting necessary emotional development in relationships and career outside the classroom. The proliferation of digital technologies poses opportunities and challenges for supporting the development of students’ emotional self-awareness. the role of emotion in the use and experience of digital technologies is profound. Marketing manipulation, online trolling, revenge porn, and digital escapism are just a few examples of challenges where emotion plays a central role. The increasingly “onlife” nature of our social experience suggests the need for emotional self-awareness is only growing. However, there is a lack of coherence in the literature regarding what teaching ESA around digital technologies means. This chapter will argue that ESA ought to play a more prominent role in digital literacy curricula and is undertheorized in digital literacy literature.