Tag: Digital parenting

Bookmarked Using the Internet to Raise Your Children (Medium)

This isn’t a HOWTO sit your kid down in front of a computer and have them turn into a genius. There is nothing that does that, there is nothing good that doesn’t involve effort from adult caregivers. Education is a conversation between people who care for each other, an energetic passing of culture and skills between generations. It takes our full attention in the moment to do it right, and that’s valuable, even when we don’t have nearly as many moments as we’d like.

Quinn Norton reflects on learning alongside her daughter. Although this learning is ‘work’, it can be fun work, especially when it is focused on interests. She supports this by suggesting a number recommendations to spark learning. My biggest takeaway was Quinn’s point that without pauses and reflection, music, podcasts and videos is merely consumption.

Cruising media without pauses feels like learning, but it’s not. If you don’t follow up the information by interacting with it, it’s in one ear and out the other. Redundancy helps, too. If you’re trying to teach your child about elemental particles, choosing a series of YouTube videos from different sources, with pauses each time to discuss them can be great, but the choosing and the pausing, to write or discuss notes, are what makes it learning instead of passive channel surfing.

Bookmarked Are your words doing damage: how to talk to your teen and help stop cyber bullying (Parent Hub – Dolly’s Dream)

The Dolly’s Dream video made by 15-year-old Charlotte McLaverty has taken our understanding of the impact of cyber bullying out of our heads.

Another great piece from Dan Donahoo on cybersafety and the importance of environment.
Bookmarked Building trust helps the most in keeping our kids safe online

When we see media stories about children who have been exploited or suffered abuse as a result of engaging with the online world – all parents shudder. These stories provoke our worst fears and elevate our concern about the dangers of the internet.

Dan Donahoo responds to the recent hype around the banning of mobile phones in schools. Rather than focusing on safety designs and managing screen time, he suggests that we need to build trusting relationships with our children. He provides three strategies to support this:

  1. Be inquisitive about your child’s digital life
  2. Be a part of your child’s digital life
  3. Model the behaviours you expect

This reminds me of a post from danah boyd discussing the fear of digital addiction. She suggests:

  1. Verbalize what you’re doing with your phone
  2. Create a household contract

There is no reason why the same could not apply in the classroom. I wonder if Matt Esterman’s notion of ‘Toolographies‘ supports this in that it helps fosters a more digitally informed citizen.

Liked Supporting your child online – pointers for parents by an author (Parenting for a Digital Future)
  • Start young
  • Model appropriate use of digital technology
  • Agree family rules about digital technology use
  • Provide your child with access to digital technology, ideally that they have ownership of
  • Talk openly with your child about using digital technology
  • Help your child link up with trusted others who have shared interests (e.g. other Minecrafters)
  • Recognise and value the learning that will inevitably happen as your child engages with digital technology