澳门跑狗论坛

Opinion
Classroom Technology Opinion

Even 鈥楧igital Natives鈥 Need Digital Training

By Erin McNeill 鈥 October 20, 2015 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

Imagine a 5th grade sleepover party where, inevitably, someone gets left out. So far, a typical elementary school experience. Because it鈥檚 2015, the children post photos of the party on Instagram, and the child sitting at home gets her feelings badly hurt. On Monday, the principal receives a call from that child鈥檚 parents about a cyberbullying incident, and teachers and administrators spend the whole week responding to parents and sorting out the children鈥檚 experiences. But this isn鈥檛 cyberbullying; it鈥檚 just poor etiquette in the digital realm, and it all could have been avoided if the kids had practiced safe and respectful online behavior.

Young people urgently need guidance on thoughtful, ethical, and responsible digital-media use. For the most part, we as a society are not providing educators鈥攚ho are feeling the fallout from new media鈥攚ith the resources and the support to take up the challenge. What鈥檚 needed is policy change to ensure that the resources are there.

Children are handed powerful, connected devices by parents and schools at younger and younger ages. The messages and media that children are consuming, creating, and sending connect them to their friends and the world, and allow new opportunities for self-expression, but can also have negative and sometimes life-changing consequences.

BRIC ARCHIVE

In most states, the policy approach has been to criminalize cyberbullying and require schools to install filtering tools to ensure children aren鈥檛 seeing harmful or unsavory images or prevent the use of potentially troublesome social-media apps. Simply blocking these apps rather than actually preparing children for this new world is shortsighted. Meanwhile, blocking and filtering is just ineffective: Schools experience breaches, and kids access media via smartphones and tablets outside of school.

Lawmakers in Utah have taken the lead in this new world by enacting a law earlier this year that requires schools to provide opportunities to learn safe technology use and 鈥渄igital citizenship.鈥 The legislation builds on laws requiring internet safety and social-media instruction in Illinois and New Jersey. Lessons on digital citizenship help youths learn norms of appropriate, responsible, and healthy behavior, such as: what鈥檚 appropriate to share online and why privacy matters; how comments on anonymous social-media apps may hurt others; and what message youths are sending to a potentially worldwide audience when they post videos of bad behavior. This digital citizenship is a key subset of the comprehensive media-literacy skills that students need today.

State Rep. Keven Stratton, a Republican from Provo, introduced the Utah bill out of concern that schools in his state are handing out digital devices without also providing the tools to use them appropriately. 鈥淭his is an all-hands-on-deck issue,鈥 he told me by phone just after the state Senate gave final approval to his bill. 鈥淲e need to wake up.鈥 Implementation is still to be seen, of course, but by having already secured funding, Utah has ensured this important issue won鈥檛 be regarded as another burdensome unfunded mandate.

Simply blocking these apps rather than actually preparing children for this new world is shortsighted.

We know that digital-citizenship education works. The Journey School in Aliso Viejo, a small Southern California city, is an example of a digital-citizenship success story. Since instituting a three-year middle school series on digital citizenship, information literacy on evaluation of online sources, and media-literacy courses to teach critical-thinking skills around media texts of all kinds鈥攎usic videos, film, print advertising鈥攖he school has nearly eliminated bullying and behavioral issues and significantly boosted standardized-test scores. 鈥淲hat has been a small investment has paid off tenfold,鈥 , the Journey School principal who instituted the program.

Certainly, parents also have a role to play here. But many parents are overwhelmed by the digital devices in their families鈥 lives and the constantly changing landscape of social media. Parents lack digital-citizenship skills, too. To return to the sleepover example, parents allow a group of 10-year-olds to use their smartphones without supervision, and then other parents escalate the problem by reporting cyberbullying to the schools. In another example, parents might post photos or information about their own children publicly without considering the long-term ramifications for a child鈥檚 grown-up digital footprint or sense of privacy and autonomy.

The potential positives from our interconnected world, and access to information, are far-reaching and exciting. But there are consequences to the mistakes that children will make, and it鈥檚 neither fair nor right to leave them on their own in this new online world. It鈥檚 time to stop just letting the digital wave happen, but rather take an active, engaged approach to the 21st-century education of our children and ourselves by teaching media literacy in all its forms, including, most urgently, digital citizenship. Let鈥檚 follow Utah鈥檚 lead.

A version of this article appeared in the October 21, 2015 edition of 澳门跑狗论坛 as Digital Citizenship Matters for All Ages

Events

Artificial Intelligence K-12 Essentials Forum Big AI Questions for Schools. How They Should Respond鈥
Join this free virtual event to unpack some of the big questions around the use of AI in K-12 education.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of 澳门跑狗论坛's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School & District Management Webinar
Harnessing AI to Address Chronic Absenteeism in Schools
Learn how AI can help your district improve student attendance and boost academic outcomes.
Content provided by 
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of 澳门跑狗论坛's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Science Webinar
Spark Minds, Reignite Students & Teachers: STEM鈥檚 Role in Supporting Presence and Engagement
Is your district struggling with chronic absenteeism? Discover how STEM can reignite students' and teachers' passion for learning.
Content provided by 

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide 鈥 elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

Classroom Technology How AI Is Changing Education: The Year's Top 5 Stories
Schools are tackling big questions about AI.
1 min read
Illustration with tech education background and the words AI Top Five.
澳门跑狗论坛 + Getty
Classroom Technology Spotlight Spotlight on EdTech
This Spotlight will help you learn how to teach digital literacy skills, evaluate edtech tools effectively, and more.
Classroom Technology Cellphones in the Classroom: The Year鈥檚 Top 5 Stories
The devices distract students from learning, disrupt sleep, and can harm mental health.
1 min read
A duotone photograph of a group of elementary students sitting together and looking at their cellphones
Canva
Classroom Technology What Does Watching All Those Videos Do to Kids鈥 Brains?
Video content is ubiquitous inside and outside classrooms. Educators should know how it affects students.
5 min read
Boy Watching Video On Tablet With Headphones.
Liz Yap/澳门跑狗论坛 and iStock/Getty