Fear and Freedom

Digital citizenship, more than any other thing that we have discussed thus far, is the topic that I am the most overwhelmed by.    The idea of exposing my children (both my students and my own offspring) to the black hole of endless danger, misinformation, and corruption is downright frightening.  My intuition is to surround and protect not expose and release.   I would not consider myself an overprotective parent, except when it comes to the internet.  This is probably rooted most in my own lack of knowledge of and skill in navigating the vast network.    I know that this is not good for my kids.   The more I understand and experience the amazing possibilities of the internet, and digital technologies, the more I realize that I simply cannot control and protect if I want them to experience the power as well.  However, there are things I can do to prepare them to be safe, smart, and positive digital citizens.

I suppose this is true, and always has been, of all parenting (and perhaps teaching).  Our job is to equip, empower, and prepare children for a whole new world than the one we grew up in.  We are tasked with teaching and modeling how to be good citizens in all aspect of life, and then releasing our children and students into the world to live it out.  Sure, we will continue to be there to guide and encourage, but our goal should be to give them the foundation they need to navigate on their own.   There is power in freedom, and in the words of Spiderman, “With great power come great responsibility”.   It is our job to instill that responsibility.   I have also learned that, as with all things, as I gain new knowledge and skill in technology it becomes less and less “scary”.  I begin to see that while there will always be enormous and unknown dangers lurking all over the world wide web, with the proper preparation my children and student can harness many of those dangers and experience the freedom to tap into an amazing source of learning, growing, connecting, and discovering.  I am still scared, scared now that I will fail, that I will not adequately prepare them.  But I am determined to continue to grow and learn and fly with them.  It is a whole new world and we cannot afford to let our fear hinder our freedom or prevent them from being prepared for theirs.

To the end of preparing and equipping we (a colleague and fellow parent, Kyle Maddox, and I) have put together a few thoughts on how schools can work to inform teachers, students, and parents about how to be safe online.  Check out our presentation below:

Digital Citizenship Presentation