Ensuring Digital Responsibility : Strategies for Educators

Social media has become part of daily lifestyle and daily routine to the extent that we do not feel okay without cell phones. indeed social media has come to stay with us in modern society. As a result, the influence of social media on students has increased and this calls for an effort to deal with it. This transformation in digital age presents educators with opportunities like collaborative learning, virtual classes and challenges like cyber bullying, spread of misinformation and among others in the classroom. Educators are therefore needed to help to integrate social media into their teaching practices in order to promote education on digital literacy and enhance responsible online behavior.

As an educator, The Digital Citizenship in Saskatchewan Schools – Policy Planning Guide is a key strategy in approaching the issue of social media in the classroom as it highlights the significance of integrating digital literacy in all subjects and not to treat it as a single subject. Integrating digital literacy into the curriculum would enhance a thorough conversations between educators and students on issues like ethical use of social media and develop critical thinking skills among students. Educators can employ the strategy of question sessions with students on social media by asking what they understand by social media, the apps they use, how they use those apps and how they balance it with their studies. When educators employ this, it will be easy to figure out how students understand social media and what they use it for. This will inform educators a lot on what students are going through on social media.

The documentary on the social dilemma was just a reminder of surveillance capitalism to me because it highlighted the the addictive nature of social media platforms which aims to increase user engagement at the expense of users’ mental wellbeing in order for tech companies to gain profit. Balancing the opportunities and risks on social media, it has the potential of enhancing learning through collaborative projects, discussion forums, and online classes.  I think educators can help students to use these social media platforms in a healthy way. This can be done by sensitizing students on the need to set a boundary for social media use at certain time and reflect on digital overload by assessing what they watch and how it impacts them mentally, physically and emotionally through the comments they read and the contents they watch on their feeds. Do students feel manipulated or engaged? Such questions would bring some awareness to students on their digital lifestyle.

strategies: Tech-free periods can be employed as a strategy to encourage students to have breaks from online and social media and reflect on their studies.  Guided discussions as a strategy will enable educators to have an engaging and insightful conversations on dopamine and ethical use of technology with students.  Intentional use of  social media can also be considered as another strategy as educators can approach the issue of social media by  teaching students about privacy settings, data protection and digital footprints because the internet does not forget as whatever one shares online goes a long way on harming them if it was not a good content

The documentary on dark cloud highlighted some of the issues of cyberbullying and this reminded me countless issues concerning bullying by students in the classroom. The Digital Citizenship Continuum outlines the need for students to understand their digital rights and responsibilities. In this digital age, bullying and harassment has increased on social media and this makes it very crucial for educators to collaborate and help students navigate through this era of digital age by establishing a culture of respect and accountability.

Educators can employ the following strategies to deal with cyber bullying and harassment on social media

• Educators can Implement anti-cyberbullying policies that will highlight the consequences for bullying or harassing someone.
• Educators can also teach students to be bystanders. This strategies would encourage students to report any form of online harassment or bully. This would help to mitigate cyberbullying and harassment as it will keep students on  toes to respect each other.
•  Also, educators can approach social media issues by creating awareness on cyber bullying using real life situations to teach students the effects of actions on social media. This can be engaged through watching of documentary movies with students as part of sensitization program. Students may be exposed to physical, emotional and mental dangers associated with social media due to ill comments, negative messages and all sort of unkind words.

I found this video very insightful as it highlighted ways students can protect their sanity as far as cyberbullying is concerned. Educators can employs some of these ways in dealing with social media issues.

Furthermore, I think there should be a strong collaboration between parents and the school particularly with educators. Since students are mostly engaged with social media outside school hours, a strong collaboration with parents is very important as it will enable parents to monitor their children’s digital lifestyle in the house by probing into what their children watch, share, and listen. Parents conversations should go beyond how was your day or how was school today with their children, rather a deeper conversations on digital lifestyle like how did that comment made you feel, why was this image shared, why are you watching this video and among other insightful questions should be encouraged and even get normalized in the homes. Strategy employed is hosting seminars and workshops for parents on digital literacy would help to bridge the gap between school and the home. This would enable a unified approach in dealing with social media issues.

Finally, to achieve digital citizenship in the classroom, there should be professional development training for educators to always keep them updated with digital knowledge to be able to impact their students. Development trainings can focus on social media trends, privacy laws as well as a well-designed educational technology that would enable educators to create sound policies and lessons to enhance the ethical use of social media.