Yesterday I taught one of my favorite Common Sense Media lessons during a 6th grade Cyber Civics class. Called “Chart It,” this lesson challenges students to think through online ethical dilemmas — like a friend posting an unflattering photo on Facebook, a classmate cutting and pasting freely from the Internet for a homework assignment, or a girl posting misinformation on her blog. This lesson helps kids explore whether online acts like these are intentional or unintentional, and meant to be hurtful or helpful.
We spend a lot of time in this class sharing examples of online interactions like the ones above. And parents, I really hate to be the bearer of bad news, particularly right before the holidays, but guess what? Most of their examples involve us. Here’s what the kids say:
-My mom intentionally posted an unflattering photo of me on Facebook that was embarrassing and hurtful.
-My parent posted a picture of our family in Hawaii unintentionally showing us away for the holidays. This could end up being helpful to burglars.
You get the idea.
After one of these lessons, a boy said to me, “You really should be teaching this class to our parents.”
Get Digital is a course created exactly for this reason.
This series of online, self-paced lessons helps grownups understand the essentials of digital life. In fact there is a whole unit of classes in this course on “Digital Citizenship” that includes many of the lessons I’ve been teaching to kids for the past four years. Just launched in time for the holidays, this CyberWise Certified course makes a great gift for teachers tasked with teaching digital literacy, parents looking to understand the digital world our kids inhabit, and administrators looking to understand how digital media impacts education. It’s a gift that delivers lifelong returns.
When I told the kids about “Get Digital” for grownups, they immediately wanted to know if it included lessons about the social networks they love most, like Instagram, Tumblr, and Snapchat. (It does).
Here are a few other precious take-aways for parents from the kids:
- Don’t talk so much on the phone in the car or in public places.
- Learn some of the online games we play, and maybe even play with us.
- When something bad happens, instead of restricting us from technology, help us understand and talk about it first.
- No smartphones or iPads/tablets at school and sporting events, please.
- Help me do my schoolwork online (telling me not to use Wikipedia doesn’t count).
- At least try to learn more about social media and technology so we can talk about it with you.
In other words, get digital. We hope to see you online!