Technology advances at a rate faster than many of us can keep up with. It was only 66 years between the first human flight and the first human moon landing, and it only took 81 years to go from the first television broadcast to having the first iPhone in our hands. Today, we have endless information at a tap of our fingertips, and not all of it is safe or accurate. It can be challenging to keep up with technology, let alone teach our children how to be safe and savvy.
At SJS, technology serves as a tool, aligning with our mission to nurture students’ hearts, minds and health. By integrating technology into our curriculum, our goal is to engage students to be active creators, rather than passive consumers. To help our parents partner with this mission, we’ve compiled a series of core tips to support teaching technology in healthy and sustainable ways for long term success.
Top Tech Tips for Parents
1) Be clear about intention
Have a clear intention about how technology is being used in the daily routine. What purpose is that technology serving? Be honest when your family is using it as a distraction instead of as a productive tool. Both have their purposes, but monitoring and limiting the passive use of technology is important for building a healthy, productive relationship with technology.
2) Model healthy tech habits yourself
Children learn by watching the adults around them. Lead by example by practicing healthy tech habits yourself. Support the limits that are imposed on them, limit your own screen time, and explain when and how you are using technology in productive ways. Leading by example both sets and demonstrates your expectations.
3) Diversify your tech activities
Having a diversity of activities emphasizes the intentionality of using technology. It could be digital drawing or video making, researching interesting questions brought up during the day, or playing a puzzle game together. There are lots of ways to use technology and it is a great way to practice their skills at home. Maybe your child can teach you something they learned in ADST class?
4) Set limits on technology
Screen time limits vary depending on the age of the child. The general recommendation is between 1–1.5 hours for kids six and older, and less for those younger. Of course there may be variations to this, especially with multiple children of different ages.
It comes back to the intention of the technology—is the longer screen time because the family is having bonding time by watching a movie together, or individually scrolling on Instagram? Intention matters, and helps to enforce those limits.
5) Monitor content—don’t trust platform settings alone
While many platforms offer parental settings, sometimes they can be inconsistent and misleading. That’s why it’s important that you are aware of what your children are consuming. If they’re looking through open information, such as scrolling through social media, make it a bonding activity to watch videos together.
Limit children’s access to open platforms such as Roblox, Discord and Twitch where they can freely speak with strangers. Because these platforms rely on live, fast-paced interactions, automated safety filters cannot catch every risk in real-time. Talk to your children about how to interact with people safely. For example: it’s okay to tell an online friend that you love pizza, but you should never mention the specific neighborhood shop you buy it from, or what day is family pizza night.
6) (Bonus Tip) Have conversations
There are going to be times where children see things that are beyond your control and appropriateness for their age. It is important to talk to them about it. There are many resources on Counsellor Corner that provide helpful tips and support for how to approach these challenging conversations.
While these rules are a strong place to start, they may change or shift depending on your family circumstances. Keep having these conversations with your children, and learning with them.
For additional resources, we recommend checking out Common Sense Media. At SJS we use this resource for our digital literacy curriculum, and they have a suite of parent resources that can be very helpful for supporting digital literacy at home.
Because technology changes so fast, all of us are always learning, and there is rarely one right way to do things. Remember that you are not alone. You have the support of our community, the resources of the school and the dedicated teachers who are here to keep your kids safe and help them learn too.
By empowering our students to use technology in intentional, healthy ways, we give them the tools they need to excel on their path forward and adapt to whatever changes technology may bring in the future.
