Are digital technologies the best thing ever or the root of all evil?
Correct answer: neither.
I recently attended a day long seminar where David & Erin Walsh argued that digital technologies are not inherently good or bad, they are powerful.
As youth workers we need to learn how to maximize the benefits and minimize the harm of these powerful tools. So let’s take a few minutes to review the rewards & the risks.
Digital technologies can provide these rewards:
- Extending real world relationships
- Providing the tools to delve deep into interest areas
- Providing opportunities to become politically involved
- Building connections
- Sharing information with the world
Digital technologies can present these risks:
- Bullying (the kind that doesn’t stop when a kid leaves school for the day)
- Losing privacy
- Developing attention issues (The Reactive Attention System is a survival instinct – we are programmed to focus on things that move and things that are emotionally stimulating. Focused Attention, the kind that you need to read, must be developed through practice.)
- Being chronically distracted (FYI – multi-tasking is not possible, our brains are not built to do more than one thing. We can hold 7 chunks of information in our working memory for 10 seconds. If we try to do too many things at once we are taking up all of those 7 slots and only paying partial attention to each thing. To think deeply we have to use those 7 slots in working memory to combine information from the environment with information from long term memory.)
- Becoming addicted (think lab rats)
- The double digital divide (There is the regular digital divide where some kids don’t have as much access as others and now there is the new digital divide. Some kids just use digital technologies to hang out and pal around and other kids use these media to aid their success. Librarians take note: adults are the #1 influence to move kids from hanging out to learning and growing.)
As we guide kids towards responsible digital citizenship we need to encourage them to:
- Protect privacy (everyone’s)
- Think before they post (here is a nice commercial on the topic)
- Share their creativity
- Be good to others
- Create a positive community online
- Be a role model
- Speak up and protect others
You can find digital citizenship curriculum materials at Common Sense Media and you can find tips, tools and conversation starters at DrDaveWalsh.
If you have an opportunity to hear David & Erin Walsh speak, please take it. They are dynamic and fascinating presenters.
Deborah
This puts me in mind of the closing session at this year’s AASL annual conference. Mimi Ito spoke about the power of technology as well. She mentioned how important it is for students to be involved in topical communities, such as people interested in photography, and how the Internet and social media can be used in constructive ways for teens to interact, communicate, and share their learning. I was actually just talking about this issue with some colleagues today; we discuss how important it is to prepare kids for the real world, and that means giving them the opportunity to interact with it. You’re right, we need to focus on teaching digital citizenship. We should be guiding students to proper use of these tools, not restriction access.
Common Sense Media
Thank you so much for sharing our curriculum link with your readers!