As a parent of young children who studies the impact media and technology have on teaching and learning, I know I get quite a few questions, emanating from both teachers and fellow parents. Just last school year, our Parent School Association advocated fiercely to get a series of child- and parent-facing guest speakers to our community to help respond to the questions being asked, and to provide some helpful tips and pointers and things to consider as children continue to develop in a world that is, at least in part, governed by technologies and algorithms.
Drs. Ian O’Byrne, Kristen Turner, Beth Stevens, and I recently engaged in an inquiry group that is exploring and documenting the ways in which we help our children learn about all the things associated with living and doing in the technology and media-filled world of today. Things such as: when to get a phone; whether to use social media; how to weigh risks and stay safe; how the internet and algorithms work in their worlds all appeared as questions we were asking or discussing with our children and debriefing about with one another.
We started to wonder what questions other parents were asking and to whom those questions were addressed. We discussed the role and responsibilities of teachers and schools regarding such queries.
As part of our research, we’re interested in the types of questions teachers and administrators are fielding from parents related to media and technology.
If you are a teacher, administrator, or parent please consider participating in our brief, three-question survey on this topic. Click here to take the survey.
Thank you in advance for taking a moment to help us ground our thinking in real data from real humans.
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