Digital Citizenship

As schools talk more and more about incorporating online learning into curriculum, a new report that surveyed 2.5 million students and teachers in 160 countries has indicated that online study tends to be a solitary activity. 79 percent of those surveyed say they do not study collaboratively when they are online. Is your school presenting online learning in a collaborative way? It is an interesting statistic in light of the many employers these days who require team work and collaboration on projects.

Eye tracking technology has been getting a lot of attention lately. While marketers are expecting to use it to find out if people are looking at their ads on any given web page, gamers imagine using it to interact in new and creative ways across virtual reality and other digital entertainments. While only time will tell the limits of this technology, as a parent or teacher, you may wonder if it will ever be used to keep track of how seriously kids are paying attention to assignments they are supposed to be doing online!

According to a recent article from the NY Times, the obsession with politics that has many adult Americans fiercely following the news has filtered down to their children. Teachers say their middle- and high-school students are more engaged than ever in politics. Students say their social media news feeds, including Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, make it easier for them to keep up with current events. Of course that also means you need to discuss with your children the need to vet and confirm what they read or see online.

It may not come as a surprise that research shows the quality of conversational interactions you have with your child is more important than the quantity of words they hear as they develop their language skills. Researchers also say that when you stop a conversation with your kids to check your phone, you break the ability for this very important back and forth learning interaction to happen.  Researchers also say this formation of language skills can help predict the course of a child’s future when he or she starts the formal schooling process.

A new study published in the journal Psychiatric Quarterly suggests that the link between heavy screen time and teen depression is actually quite minimal, and that spending some extra time on the phone or computer is not as damaging as many believe. Study leader Dr. Christopher Ferguson of Stetson University believes that the strict attention to limiting screen time by policy makers and advocacy groups is uncalled for. Instead, Ferguson sees more value in focusing on how media are used — for example, as a tool for learning and socialization — than on consumption time alone. Until late last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended only two hours of screen time a day for youth, but dropped the recommendation completely from their current guidelines. This change reflects the fact that the data guiding these recommendations is somewhat unclear and that screen time suggestions are simply experts’ best guesses.

Need some tips on how to institute a device free meal at your house? Take a look at this video by Today Show’s Sheinelle Jones about breaking the addictive culture of obsession with our digital devices. In the short video, parents and children alike express what they have learned from the simple act of putting their phones, tablets and computers away during mealtime.

Got a minute? Take a look at the some of the short advice videos on the Common Sense Media site for some great videos that could start a discussion with your kids about particular digital safety issues. Topics include ways to spot fake news, four great fact-checking sites, five internet safety tips, five tips for dealing with haters and trolls and much more.

Are you or someone in your family intrigued by the ingenuity of MacGyver (either the old television series or the new)? One great way to help rev up your kids’ digital thinking skills is to present them with sticky “MacGyver-like situations” and then ask them to engineer their way out of it. Check out some challenges on Make magazine online, who is re-running a series called “MakeShift”. The column, which ran for five years, presented challenging scenarios (such surviving a zombie attack) and asked readers to use their knowledge of science and engineering to come up with creative solutions. The challenges, as well as the submitted solutions (and the winners), will be posted weekly.

When it comes to hateful exchanges online, most people think of Twitter as the worst offender. Twitter has vowed several times to put a lid on abuse, but it is still often gone unchecked. Recently, Twitter has offered new attempts to stop abuse, including preventing people who have been permanently suspended from Twitter from creating new accounts, and identifying accounts that were created "only to abuse and harass others.” "Safe search" results are also being turned on for users. These results remove tweets that contain sensitive content such as violent or pornographic images or language, or tweets that come from blocked or muted accounts. Twitter is also working to identify and "collapse" potentially abusive and "low quality" replies to tweets.

Of course, it is not all for purely altruistic reasons. The Walt Disney Co. recently decided not to pursue a bid for Twitter, citing concern about bullying on the service. The lack of interest from potential acquirers cranked up pressure on Twitter management, which has fallen out of favor with Wall Street, to do something about the abuse.

Have you thought about what might happen to your digital life – your social media accounts, hard drive back-ups in the Cloud, email, etc. ­– if something should happen to you? It is probably something that should be added to our wills, but since it is a relatively new concept you might want to establish a plan with a loved one. Take a look at the article Is Your Digital Life Ready for Your Death? from the Tech section of The New York Times for more information.