Digital Citizenship for Today’s Student

I’ve watched the emergence of the personal computer from my courtside seat in the GenX section.  My elementary school had a “computer room” with two dozen Apple IIc personal computers.  Following the step by step instructions from the teacher, my peers and I waited an eternity for the software to load off floppy disks and then gleefully played Number Munchers and The Oregon Trail during our computer time.  At home, my father taught me and my brothers how to assemble and program computers such as the venerable TRS-80 and newer 8088 based machines.  Thirty years later, I find myself astounded by how computer technology has advanced.  The average American carries a smartphone in their pocket that is more capable than a garage sized computer of the ‘80s.  In the blink of an eye, more computational power is devoted to a Google search for “cat cucumber videos” than the 195 hour Apollo 11 moon landing mission.

Computers can make some tasks easier but can also hinder other activities; this is especially true in the educational setting.  Teachers have a laptop computer thrust in their hands, an interactive whiteboard installed, then are thrown into a classroom of 25 students each with an iPad and left to sink or swim.  In these situations, technology is often used more as a pacifier than a tool to enhance instruction.   The illusion of technology as an educational panacea is a modern day siren song for educators who are reticent to utilize it in the classroom.  Proper support enables teachers to confidently use technology effectively in the classroom and has a multiplicative effect on the efficacy of the entire educational program.

In this “me me me now now now” era of copy & paste instant gratification, teaching students to slow down, read, and actually understand presented material is paramount and eclipses the bells and whistles of rich media.  Videos, games, and other media can enhance instructional material as well as make it more accessible to certain students with special needs.  However, too often rich media is presented as the fundamental constituent of a lesson allowing the students’ ability to focus on and comprehend written material to suffer.   The movie is never as vivid and thorough as the book; a crude how-to video is never a substitute for a written procedure or documentation.  There is plenty of room for good old-fashioned patience and self-discipline as we crusade for the purposeful use of technology in the classroom.

Social media is perhaps the greatest challenge facing parents and educators of young adults.  Most of us were the target of bullying in one way or another in our school experience, but today’s students commit heartless attacks on their peers using the ubiquity of social media without a shred of empathy or consideration of the consequences.  Modern means of communication have muted the ethic of reciprocity in today’s children.  Educators and parents are still playing catch up in our attempts to understand and ameliorate the “cyber-bullying” problem.  The inculcation of the golden rule and mutual respect for all is an obvious foundation for this effort.

While originally conceived as a tool, our internet-connected personal electronic devices are quickly becoming just another bauble.   We have the entire wealth of human knowledge at our fingertips, yet we refresh our Facebook feed at every opportunity to see how many likes we have.  These magic boxes are the conduit through which we consume the drug of constant distraction from email, social media, and the like.  We as individuals can do a better job a mitigating our addiction to the distraction of our devices.  We as parents and educators can do better job at modeling a patient and single-minded work ethic to our children.  We need to put the phone down at the dinner table and talk to our children about their day.  We need to limit passive screen time and foster more authentic experiences that allow the child to imagine, create, and become a more involved learner.  Technology resources are remarkably powerful and should be used at all levels of the educational process , but their effective use can only be guaranteed by the close involvement and sedulous guidance of parents and educators.

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Today, we heard from ESK Director of Technology Joe Fowler and his thoughts on how both students and teacher’s interact with technology in today’s classroom.