SASKATOON – Schools should teach students how to be good digital citizens.
And if that worries parents, too bad, say education professors from Brandon University.
Teaching kids to use social media safely should be part of a school’s duty, they told a session at the 16th National Congress on Rural Education in Canada held March 27-29 in Saskatoon.
Chris Brown said schools can shield students from full internet access during the day, but they will go online unprotected once they are home unless they have been taught how to safely deal with the digital world.
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Schools should be places where students can learn to critique knowledge, he said.
Jackie Kirk said schools should guide students through the risks rather than putting up firewalls to block social media sites in schools.
“Knowledge is no longer something we fill students up with but something teachers and students create together. We each have a piece of the puzzle and when we put it together, we’re collectively brilliant.”
Schoolteacher Carmen Peasley of Lashburn, Sask., agreed children should learn how to handle social media early. She teaches technology once every six days to her kindergarten to Grade 6 classes.
“I teach them how to use the mouse, play games. Parents come to me because the kids were so excited. What’s tricky is getting parents involved because Facebook and social media has been demonized.”
She said parents would never send their children to the swimming pool without first taking lessons, so why would they let them go online without learning how to do it safely?
The 200 students in her K-6 school have access to 25 desktop computers in a lab and 25 mobile ones in the school. As well, teachers each have a computer.
Peasley said her technology position is commonin Saskatchewan’s rural schools.
