connected world – Media! Tech! Parenting!

21st Century life, digital citizenship, digital kids, digital life, family life, monitoring kids online, parent child conversations, parents and technology

Can You & Your Kids Balance Life With So Much Social Media & Tech?

Posted on July 19, 2017March 13, 2019 by Marti Weston

Take a few minutes to read Five Ways Parents Can Help Kids Balance Social Media With the Real World, appearing in the July 11, 2017 Washington Post.

Written by Adrienne Wichard-Edds, the Post article offers common-sense suggestion that parents can use to establish a sense of balance between digital endeavors and the rest of a family’s activities. Most of the ideas come from Ana Homayoun’s, Social Media Wellness: Helping Tweens and Teens Thrive in an Unbalanced Digital World. Continue reading “Can You & Your Kids Balance Life With So Much Social Media & Tech?” →

21st Century life, acceptable use, digital change, digital citizenship, digital devices, digital kids, digital life, parents and technology

Digital Kids to Parents — Don’t Break Your Own Rules! A Poem

Posted on April 30, 2017March 17, 2019 by Marti Weston

Several years ago I uploaded a post, Advice from Digital Kids to Parents, including some of the thoughts that kids in grades 3-6 shared with me about adults’ digital activities. My students often commented that it was unfair when parents asked their kids to sign a digital life contract or agreement because adults then proceeded to break many of the common sense rules.

For some time I’ve felt those children’s voices bubbling up with their ideas, and since today (Sunday) is the last day of National Poetry Month 2017, I listened to those voices, penning this poem about kids, parents, contracts, and common sense.

So here’s my second, and I hope amusing poem about digital life from kids’ perspectives. (Read my first poem.) Children have brought up all these events in discussions with during digital citizenship activities.

Hey Mom and Dad…

I’m really glad I got my phone,
It’s cool and lots of fun.
I’m texting friends and playing games,
It seems I’m never done.

I signed your contract with my name,
Yes, it was right to do.
But I wish you’d take the time
To follow those rules too!

Continue reading “Digital Kids to Parents — Don’t Break Your Own Rules! A Poem” →

21st Century life, civility, democracy and civility, Japanese interment, parents and technology, teaching civility, TED Talks

George Takei’s TED Lecture About His Family’s Internment During WW II

Posted on February 4, 2017March 17, 2019 by Marti Weston

screen-shot-2017-02-04-at-8-53-43-pm — Watch George Takei’s TedTalk.

My recent blog post Japanese Internment in the U.S. — Information to Share With Your Students, was filled with learning tools that teachers (and parents, too) can use to help young people learn about the Internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. One of the connected world resources merits its own post.

Recommended by a colleague, George Takei’s TED Talk, Why I Love a Country the Once Betrayed Me, describes what happened when soldiers arrested his family and imprisoned them at one of the internment camps. Takei, who played Sulu on Star Trek, explains how his parents lost everything and yet possessed the resilience to start rebuilding their lives after the United States government allowed them to leave the camp. I was sure that I had watched this talk, but it turned out that I had not.

Takei’s TedTalk is powerful and engaging, and it brings to life fear, sorrow, patriotism, and the terrible things that can happen when people fear others solely because of their race and ethnic background.

An important lesson in this age when so many people fear refugees and others because of their religion.

21st Century life, connected learning, digital learning, digital wellness, educating digital natives, parents and technology

10 Digital Wellness Thoughts to Consider

Posted on December 14, 2016December 14, 2016 by Marti Weston

Will new devices, robots and other items that connect to the Internet with your wifi be arriving in your home during this 2016 holiday season? If so, check out this post about maintaining digital wellness in your family.

Media! Tech! Parenting!

These days everyone talks about personal wellness — those steps that people need to take to remain physically and mentally healthy and strong. But what about digital wellness? Poor digital health affects not only our connected lives, but also our physical and mental well-being.

Digital wellness is about fine-tuning the 21st Century skills that we use to work and play in a connected world, and it also involves understanding number of common myths about the nature of online life. Helping family members take steps to develop digital wellness habits can challenge parents, mainly because many children, pre-adolescents, and teens appear to be far more advanced online consumers than their parents. Underneath the veneer of digital native expertise, however, are a fair number of information gaps.

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21st Century Learning, 21st Century life, 21st Century parenting, data collecting, kids and privacy, online data collecting, parents and technology, privacy

More on Using DuckDuckGo & My Extra Bit of Privacy

Posted on December 5, 2016July 31, 2019 by Marti Weston

screen-shot-2016-12-05-at-2-38-25-pm — Check it out.

Last June I wrote How Much Privacy Do I Have? DuckDuckGo Gives More, describing how I am using the DuckDuckGo search engine for most of my online inquiries. Interestingly after six months using the alternative, I’ve made some observations and noticed some changes. I’m so glad that I switched.

Check out what I’ve learned below. Continue reading “More on Using DuckDuckGo & My Extra Bit of Privacy” →

21st Century life, 21st Century parenting, digital parenting strategies, family conversations, parents and technology

How Parents Confront Digital Life Challenges

Posted on November 20, 2016March 21, 2019 by Marti Weston

screen-shot-2016-11-20-at-8-57-06-pm Take a few minutes to read When Tech is a Problem Child, appearing in the New York Times on November 19, 2016.

Written by Bruce Feiler, the article describes how families go about addressing and solving the day-to-day digital challenges that occur in 21st Century life. Feller spent six weeks asking parents, via social media, to share their rules and strategies related to raising children in the digital world. He describes in some detail the parents’ ideas, including thoughts about mobile phones, homework, digital devices and bedtime, social media use, consequences, and how families go about setting up phone-free family time.

While soliciting answers to 20 questions, as Feller did, is not scientific research, he did gather some interesting information about the challenges of raising children and the conversations that occur between children and their parents in the 21st Century digital world. Moreover, the article begins and ends with delightful references to the well-known musical, The Music Man, and its song, Trouble in River City.

My favorite digital parenting idea, relayed by Feller, came from a family that adopted a strategy for keeping children focused during device-free activities. They told their children that if a device was picked up, the parents would get to see texts on that phone and read them aloud. Clever idea.

6 Digital Life Conversation Starters to Use in School Meetings, Discussions & Presentations

Posted on October 2, 2016March 17, 2019 by Marti Weston

How much should parents know about the settings on children’s digital devices?

Now that back-to-school nights are about over, schools will be scheduling parent potlucks, curriculum nights, and educational seminars throughout the academic year. These activities offer lots of opportunity for educational communities to start conversations about the challenges — for parents and kids — of growing up in the connected world.

At all of these events administrators, teachers, and parents should plan to incorporate a few introductory comments that encourage parents to think about helping their digital children become stronger learners, savvier digital citizens, better consumers of content on their digital devices, and overall, more knowledgeable citizens.

Below are a few questions that can be shared at school events and classroom presentations, questions that encourage parents to talk about managing life with 21st Century digital kids. While there are no right answers to these questions, the conversations provide adults an opportunity to talk about what works — and what does not — in the context of young people’s school and social lives.

Choose one or at most two inquiries to use at each activity. Continue reading “6 Digital Life Conversation Starters to Use in School Meetings, Discussions & Presentations” →