Should technology addiction be included as part of our social emotional learning curriculum in k12?
China banned children from playing video games for more than three hours per week and the World Health Organization has added ‘Gaming Disorder’ as a type of addictive disorder. Addiction to gaming and technology is being researched and widely accepted as a form of addiction among psychologists worldwide.
We have all been there, we know we need to go to sleep but scroll on our phones for a few more minutes, maybe even hours because we can’t put down the technology even though we know we should. Part of being a healthy, well-rounded individual is making healthy choices and having the ability to self-assess and determine if something is beneficial or harmful for us. Just as making healthy food choices is part of a health curriculum, I suggest discussing healthy technology use with our students and the impacts technology abuse can have on our lives.
Part of teaching our students how to succeed in society includes us discussing technology use in our classrooms, not only teaching them how to find data but also how to be responsible users of technology.
Another great blog post, Kristin. I agree that responsible use of technology is crucial to SEL in K-12 education. Students are getting phone at younger and younger ages, and the trend is likely to continue. With issues of cyber bulling, online pornography, and other inappropriate behaviors for children we have to teach our children the importance of responsible technology use. I’m not sure what age or when it should start, as this is not my area of expertise, but I whole heartedly believe it should be implemented at some age. A few tricks I use are setting use timers on apps, using the application Flux to adjust my screen brightness and colors to more naturally adapt to my circadian rhythms, and taking intentional time away from all technology. I’m just as guilty as anyone else when it comes to getting caught in an endless scroll loop on Instagram or Facebook, and need external enforcers to keep me healthy. I think if I struggle with these things as an adult, it is even more scary for what children might struggle with. Initially, part of the problem was that kids knew more about technology than their parents. This trend is going away as millennials and other younger generations continue to age, but teaching and modeling appropriate technology use is going to be a key aspect of my parenting when that time comes and I hope it is modeled in schools as well.
ReplyDeleteI really like this take on technology use in our students. As a P.E./Health teacher, I want to incorporate some sort of healthy technology use into my curriculum as well. It's already apart of the curriculum to introduce the students to ways of living a healthy lifestyle, so it only makes sense to add technology and social media use to that curriculum. Whether it will be required of me or not, I will implement a social media safety type lesson in some way.
ReplyDeleteEvery district, every school, every teacher needs to be asking this question: "Should technology addiction be included as part of our social emotional learning curriculum in k12?" Tweeting this post now......
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