Is your kid ready for the Digital Driver License?

by Priyanka Raha ~ June 28, 2018

A few days back I read a discussion on the interwebs about having a ‘digital driver license’. It did sound extreme at the beginning but the more I thought about it the more it made sense.  Do we tell our kids to never cross a road no matter what OR do we make sure we teach them good practices while crossing the road? When they are young we hold their hands. We say things like ‘Look left, look right and then walk’, or ’Wait for the walking man sign to show up’. When they are old enough we teach them how to follow the traffic rules, the signs, and the difference between the green and the red light. Many times we practice these standards with them even preemptively, when they are not old enough to be on the front seats of the car. Then why not do the same to help them navigate the digital world? While technology continues to evolve like a roller coaster without brakes it is far more imperative to define best practices for the digital world. I have come to realize there are quite a few similarities and analogies between a regular driver license and a digital driver license.

Let’s say, we had a system in place where we could hand out a digital driving license, what would that entail? I pulled out a few things that stands out as qualities of a good driver on the road and used them as guidelines for defining healthy practices to steer the digital world.

Use good judgement - As we make sure that kids use their good judgement on the road, we need to teach kids to make good choices while online. I cannot stress enough on this that digital tools are not just a medium of entertainment, they are tools to advance their learning and keep up with the changing technologies. In USA alone, 62% of working adults use the internet for their job and 96% use technology. This is the world that the current students need to be prepared for. We need to coach our kids on spending meaningful time on the digital devices besides just games and fun, programs that will supplement learning.

Think about safety - It is our duty to make our kids aware of the risks that online exposure can bring and hence teach them about safety. Tell them to be mindful of what they are posting online, never share passwords and never steal or damage others’ digital property. Six million teens report that they have received inappropriate images from someone they know. It is crucial to make appropriate decisions when communicating through a variety of digital channels. We must also help our children make responsible online purchasing decisions and protect their payment information. A typical teen reports having lost an average $400 to cybercrime.

Display respect and empathy - As you would practice to be respectful to other drivers on the road, model and practice digital citizenship in the classroom. Kids can use platforms like Seesaw or Google classroom to post work online and provide constructive feedback to each other. While commenting online, have kids use words as they would feel comfortable saying out loud in front of their peers. Encourage positive communication. 88% of social-media-using-teens have witnessed someone being mean or cruel. It is important to realize that harsh words through a computer screen can hurt as much as when they are said directly to us. These practices are not limited to the classroom environment. Practice and display the same behavior when discussing social media at home.


So, then are you ready to help your kid pass the digital driver test?

How not to drown in an ocean of kids’ apps

by Shikha Das Shankar ~ June 21, 2018

A sense of responsibility bestowed upon me when I came across the term digital natives -- a generation exposed to technology from their formative years. Times have changed and so have our responsibility as parents. Marc Prensky coined the term in 2001 while talking about the difference in the thinking process of the generation of early technology users to those who were not. And in explaining his viewpoint, he also introduced us to the term digital immigrants -- a generation who were not born in the age of technology but introduced to it later in life. Think random requests from grandparents and parents to create email ids: worrying about internet speed as you get ready for a video interview with your prospective b-school, and the drive to earn well enough to earn your first smartphone so you can check your emails on your phone and download Bejeweled. That's us, the digital immigrants. The parents of digital natives. The one who felt proud of creating email ids for our folks but find it hard to keep up with all the new apps your child gets to hear at school.  As a mother raising two children in this ever-changing digital world, I am flummoxed by the problem of plenty. Blink an eye and you are sure to miss ten new children's apps launched in that nano-second. Once you start skimming through the plethora of children apps, a sensation similar to drowning engulfs you. For support, you read the reviews and review the ratings, and soon after a huge tide completely submerges you in water. How do you resurface? How do you conquer this wave of language, learning, art, music and gaming apps? By going back to the basics and remembering our rules of keeping it simple. While academic professionals, teachers, occupational therapists, and caregivers have elaborate criteria for choosing an app for students, we as parents can keep the following three points in mind without getting overwhelmed while downloading the next children’s app.

Simplicity: Easy user interface with simple directions that will enable the child to do most of the talking or typing in this case. If an app looks like a scene out of your child’s favorite tv show, he or she doesn't have much to do on it anyway.

Collaborate: Parents don't have to be passive spectators to what a child is doing on his tablet. Add another dimension to learning and fun by choosing apps that allow you, a sibling or your child’s friends to participate actively in what your child is creating. Apps that encourage collaboration have the potential to change classroom learning and is a thrust towards building long-term collaborative skills.

Empower: An app that empowers the child to steer his imagination in all directions without distraction is a winner. Children respond to and assimilate information better when it comes to them in a relatable and impactful way. More is not necessarily better. Less is not always boring.

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Shikha Das Shankar is a storyteller. Multitasking dragon slayer mom. Happy hiker. When not writing, she is seen scaling heights, literally, with her favorite trio—the son, the daughter and the husband—around the hills of beautiful Seattle suburb or cooking her favorite foods in her de-stressing zone, the kitchen.

Human Factor in Technology

by Priyanka Raha ~ June 14, 2018

Raise your hands if you think that we should take away ALL (and I mean all) the technology from our daily lives. I don’t see any. Don’t worry I actually can’t see you, we are not there yet but I didn’t think you would raise your hand. In all seriousness though I didn’t have my hands raised either. I am pro-technology but what I strongly believe is the human factor in technology. Last 20 years has seen unprecedented growth in tech. At 3.6B the number of internet users has surpassed half the world’s population. Let me ask you this - What is the most powerful tool in your vicinity? Here is a hint - Over 40% of the adults living in this country check it within 5 mins of their waking up and again look at it at least 50 times during the day. That’s right, it’s your phone. Children 8 years old and younger spend an hour each day on their digital devices. Yet we haven’t harnessed the digital medium when it comes to creating a valuable connection between parents and children.

Thus was born PopSmartKids. Before I had PopSmartKids I had 2 boys. Raising two kids, being responsible for two human beings made me realize how important and powerful that phrase is - the human factor in technology. It brought all of that into focus - of not letting technology own your life but you owning it instead. This is important because our kids are growing up researching on google and submitting projects on google docs. They will be exchanging ideas, building companies and creating masterpieces using technology. It is crucial that as parents we embrace the presence of technology in our children’s lives and go beyond that and teach the best practices. If not us, then who? PopSmartKids was forged out of this necessity to participate in our child’s creative endeavors leveraging the digital medium. My audacious goal is to build an offering of apps that will target specific aptitudes in the growth spectrum of a child’s development, but like any child PopSmartKids has to learn to walk first. So starting with one app that you will be able to run on your phone or tablet. 

With the first app, one thing I can promise you is that it is going to be a collaborative experience for parents - for when you are away or in the other room making dinner. It will allow you as parents to have an immersive experience in the creative pursuits of your kids and inspire them. This is built with the younger kids in mind. There are two explanations to this. First, kids this age respond and need the adulation of their parents the most. The greatest thing that motivates them is the fact that their parents have seen or witnessed their work. If you have an elementary schooler, how many times does he run to you in a day asking you to acknowledge the amazing drawing he made or the lego he built? You know what I am talking about. I am keying in on the two acts of love - words of affirmation and quality time. Second, this is also the age when kids are beginning to use the digital devices without their parents monitoring them and it is crucial to bring in the mentoring aspect of handling it. Think stop, drop, roll. Where have you heard it? Caution against fire, right? I think of the digital devices as fire, it is dangerous but we never reverted back to eating raw food because fire burns houses. With internet and digital medium we have discovered new fire. So instead of banning it I want to turn it around and evangelize screen time so that it is more than just entertainment. it is a channel of development for young minds. It does not need to be a black hole that our kids get sucked into.

While PopSmartKids is taking shape watch this space for more details.

Why we must make space for vulnerability?

by Priyanka Raha ~ June 7, 2018

Today I cannot write about anything else but the recent happenings. The Kate Spade story left me rattled. The fact that she leaves behind an 11 year old girl makes me sadder than ever. She was a mother, a wife, a successful career woman and an icon. But above all she was a human. And like us all humans she was fighting her own battle against personal demons. This story by no means is the-one-and-only one. We see this happening to people we love, people close by and people who we look up to. Our upbringing as well as society teaches us to show ourselves as bold, courageous and strong. That makes us afraid to talk about our shortcomings. We have our guards up all the time. We are scared someone might think less of us. There is no space for vulnerability.

Social media amplifies this today. Our Facebook and Instagram posts are always our happiest selves. Getting likes on our tweets and posts make us happy. Our 24 hour access to the world means that we are constantly bombarded by tales of people who have crushed it and people who have got it all together. I read in an interview guide once to be prepared to talk about my weakness but to put a positive spin on it. It also mentioned that we need to sound authentic but come across as strong at the same time. I cringed! We are persistently managing our image, mending our words and revising how we feel. It shouldn’t be this exhausting. We are beginning to measure each other by how happy and powerful we are. But doesn’t it take utmost courage to be vulnerable and to accept failure. No, I am not talking about giving a positive spin to failure, just accept that I failed and it’s okay to flounder.

As I thought more and more about this I wondered how can we let our kids know that it’s okay to fail. It is okay to be wistful. How can we allow space for being vulnerable, to be a little foolish and to be a little silly?

No, I don’t have an answer, I just know - we must make space for vulnerability.

Freedom of the Digital Citizen

by Priyanka Raha ~ May 31, 2018

If you read my last blog you know we are eager about mentoring safe practices to the digital citizens. This week we are diving straight into talking about freedom of the digital citizen. Why? Because being a citizen entitles one to have the rights and privileges of a freeman. The Memorial Day this week got me thinking about the significance of freedom, the sacrifice it takes from our brave soldiers to establish that and how we must protect and honor it. We live in a free world. As free citizens it is a little hard to comprehend the subjection to foreign domination or despotic government. So as I was speaking to my 7-year old about the power of freedom we went through hypothetical scenarios of what it would mean to not have freedom. It could be freedom of any kind - speech, act or thought. We relied on stories from history. The more I thought about freedom I realized that I will have to educate my child on what freedom means in the digital world as he is growing up in an age where online presence is as significant (if not more) as one’s physical presence. 73% of teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 have social network profiles. 93% of teenagers use the internet to go online. Digital Citizenship is no longer an add-on term, it is how we should be teaching our children. Freedom goes hand-in-hand with responsibilities. As free digital citizens we have responsibilities, ones that we must not ignore. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), a nonprofit membership association for educators focused on educational technology, vehemently focusses on Digital Citizenship as a component in it’s standards for students. Students understand human, cultural and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. So how do we teach our children about responsible digital citizenship.

I realize the following is not a comprehensive list but it is a good one to begin with. 

I will use my personal device for educational purposes only when I am at school.

I will make sure I am safe and appropriate when I am online.

I will protect my private info and the information of others.

I will respect myself and others when I am online.

I will use kind words on social media and remember that my ‘digital footprint’ should not harm others.

I will stand up and say no to cyberbullying. I will tell an adult if someone is being unkind or harmful.

What do you think are other things that can be added to this list?

Can we fight FOMO while raising digital citizens?

by Priyanka Raha ~ May 24, 2018

Apparently ‘Fear of Missing Out’ is a real term. All throughout this article I will be using the acronym FOMO, well because it sounds much cooler. FOMO first originated in the early 2000s in a Harvard Business School article*, to describe grad students’ frantic, text-driven social lives. Facebook did not exist then and neither did a million other social networks. The arrival of social media has definitely supercharged FOMO. In 2013 this clever term was officially added to the Oxford Dictionary. It reads ‘Anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on social media’. 

I have thought about it - Am I a victim of FOMO? But then I tell myself ‘Nah, I am just keeping in touch with everyone and everything.’ There is a fine line between staying in touch and being anxious about it. Don’t worry, I am not here to paint a grim picture. Quite the contrary, I love how social media adds value to our lives, besides the obvious ‘connecting with your friends’ - recruiting, career building, raising money for a just cause - the list is endless. Never before has an artist had the power to get into a conversation directly with their audience. What a solace it was for me, as a first-time mom, to read from other mom-posts that my 3-year-old’s behavior is nothing out-of-the-ordinary. Technology provides that mom-in-need the power to reach out to her community, beyond the constraints of geographical boundaries, to tap into the collective knowledge. Tell me you haven’t searched - ’10 fun things you can do with kids’ or ‘Find the best summer camps in town’.

While this is all great, we all worry about distraction and focus. So now we have this important job of teaching our kids to be mindful and responsible while tapping into the social media. Let’s not forget, there is no escaping this and if preached it can truly be very powerful. My seven year old did a multi-media presentation of him talking about planets as part of a class project. I wasn’t there. His teacher shared it with me and now I can share it with my parents. In terms of teaching our next generation to be better digital citizens, I am going to lean in to the slogan that Common Sense Education uses - ‘Don’t Make a Ban Have a Plan’. 

Now I want to lean in to all the parents and educators and conscious adults out there,

What are some of your suggestions for meaningful things that kids can do with their devices?

How do you teach your kids to not be afraid of missing out?

How do you teach them better digital practices?

* HBS Article

Have you thanked the 21st Century Teacher?

by Priyanka Raha ~ May 11, 2018

A quick google search will reveal that the following terms are very common - ‘the 21st century teacher’, ‘the 21st century learner’, ‘the 21st century school’. On the other hand terms like the 20th century teacher or learner, not so much. I think the following statistic has something to do with that. Today almost all public schools are connected to the internet, that number was 91 percent in 2008 and 15 percent in 1997. Which means the teachers who are teaching in these classrooms today did not grow up in a classroom like this. On top of that they have to prepare the next generation who will most seemingly live in a world that looks different from what it is today. Technology brings it’s own set of rewards and challenges. If you thought your job was difficult hand-holding just your child and helping him navigate in this quasi-digital world, then think classroom management of 20 or more kids. The difference is scale and theme. Besides just teaching content, teachers now have to teach digital citizenship, connectivity and social responsibility with respect to the physical and digital communities. The teacher appreciation week that went by got me thinking the uber important role that teachers play in the ever changing dimensions that technology brings. Teachers are responsible for giving the students the tools to learn most effectively on the web. Teach them to take command of their learning by using technology. Teach them to be responsible while making technology a conscious choice. 

Wall Display from an elementary school in Washington

Allowing a space for discovery through technology, coaching the class that technology is one of the many choices of activities, and educating the digital natives to own their technology and not the other way around - these are a few of the challenging tasks that the teachers perform to prepare the next generation for the future. There are a million reasons to thank a teacher but today I am going to be thankful for their adaptability in the changing times and for preparing the next generation to live and prosper in a future that is more seeming than present.

So, have you thanked the 21st century teacher?

Staying Close to Nature

by Shikha Das Shankar

Despite the cold, wet April we have gotten so far, spring is a wonderful time to explore nature with the kids in several ways. 

It was the beginning of April, and the light green colored leaves, tiny chirping birds and seasonal allergy-struck households meant that spring was supposed to have arrived. But what had arrived was the spring of deception—a phrase coined with the sole aim to depict the deceit of a month that should have been warmer and brighter. With the spring break around the corner, my plans to spend plenty of time playing outdoors with the kids where going to be dampened by the heavy rains forecast. 

When my son started kindergarten, and his routine started to resemble a 9-5 job, I looked forward to school breaks, as it gave me an opportunity to slow down the pace of life. These breaks were a perfect way to replace morning madness of packing lunches and hustling the kids out of the door to catch the bus with lazy mornings, sipping coffee that was still hot, tackling floor puzzles with them and letting them stay in pajamas till lunch time. There is the frazzling aspect of having kids at home too—snack demand by the hour, bantering and whining around the clock, and the mess! Despite that, finding a way to connect with our children that regular weekdays don’t allow us, and in the process, making lifetime memories becomes the essence of these breaks. Traveling with kids is a preferred way to spend the break for many and for others having house guests. Neither was in our plans and looking at the expected rains in the PNW, I was starting to scratch my head to come up with ideas to keep the kids busy.

The break started with the only sunny day in the entire week and we hopped over to the zoo with friends that day. For the remaining days, indoor playtime—boardgames, puzzles, building and chasing each other formed a large chunk of the kids’ morning but started to wear off by mid-afternoon. Their active minds needed more engagement than their playroom could provide. Keeping nature at the core of it, several simple and fun ideas worked great for us. 

Birdwatching: And hours of it! Three pairs of binoculars, a bird watching book and lots of fingerprints on the bedroom window were evidence to prove us guilty of stalking cute little birds in our backyard. While birdwatching is an extensive outdoor activity, we were lucky to spot the most popular birds of the season, as they frequented the trees surrounding our house, right from our bedroom windows. My toddler enjoyed copying the birds’ melodious chirping while my son was hard at work with the binoculars. I took it a step further with him, and downloaded a very informative backyard bird app, which provides details of hundreds of birds by their names and family group. 

Walk it Out: Unpaved hiking trails, especially ones with elevation, can be risky when there is incessant rain but the paved ones are safe and accessible most of the year. Arboretums and nature preserves usually have paved trails that are perfect for walks with kids, rain or shine. Our local botanical garden, the Washington Park Arboretum, recently opened a 1.2-mile long asphalt loop trail to walkers and cyclists, and we couldn’t be happier. A walk around the neighborhood with the sole purpose of jumping up and down in muddy puddles, Peppa Pig style, worked just as well. Finding the perfect muddy puddle was a daunting task, one that should not be sidetracked by thoughts of muddy mess that was to ensue in my house—a mental note I made to myself while on this excursion. 

Nature Journal: Have a budding Thoreau in your house? Do you find pebbles, rocks, dried leaves and flowers making their way into your living room after every outdoor activity? Maintaining a nature journal is an engaging way to encourage your child to continue his enthusiasm for nature. It can be as simple as the child drawing his observation on sheets of paper, and over the course of time, stapling them together to make a nature book. For older kids, going the full mile by investing in a hardbound or paperback journal, log book, magnifying glass amongst other things will help them document their findings, develop writing skills, and grow interest in nature. Another easy way is to store findings from nature in zip pouches, and including a note written by the child about the item in the pouch.

Planters: Planting to make your entry-way look appealing or simply planting a few herbs for your kitchen garden, this spring time activity never fails. Kids can have a great deal of ownership while involved in this fun activity by letting them decide on the planters, helping you lift the bags of soil into the cart and choosing the plants they want to grow. 

Documentary: There is plenty of nature and wildlife related documentary series on popular streaming channels, and all of them comprise quality screen time. Currently, we are hooked onto The Planet Earth and The Blue Planet series on Netflix that cover nature and wildlife extensively. David Attenborough’s resonating voice and the stunning visuals will keep everyone glued to their seats. 

Spring seems to be finally here with the weather looking better. Schools are working to wrap up another academic year, and families are planning summer trips, enrolling children in summer camps and many even taking out time for spring-cleaning. Whatever your spring goals are, the best part of the season is the happiness it brings in knowing that summer in just around the corner. Happy Spring!

Shikha Das Shankar

Storyteller. Multitasking dragon slayer mom. Happy hiker. When not writing, Shikha is seen scaling heights, literally, with her favorite trio—the son, the daughter and the husband—around the hills of beautiful Seattle suburb or cooking her favorite foods in her de-stressing zone, the kitchen. 

Going Strong

by Shikha Das Shankar

It is in our nature to hold on to traditions that are valuable to our family, and if the tradition is simple, engaging and has been integral to human evolution, like storytelling, it is worth holding on to.

For decades, a wieldy little blunt knife is a cherished belonging of little children in a Yupik-speaking Eskimo village of Alaska. Their sense of ownership and responsibility is immense for this handmade toy given to them by elders in the family. Carved out of wood or bone, a yaaruin, or a story knife, is used to draw pictures on snowy banks or ground while simultaneously telling a story. Squatted on the ground in a circle, children draw and tell stories for hours, learning language skills, valuable lessons like good behavior and entertaining each other. The tradition continues even today, the authentic wooden or bone yaaruin replaced with the common butter knife oftentimes.

Across the Pacific, all the way to China, a stage with a thin white cloth screen, uncustomary to other forms of puppetry around the world, has been set to entertain guests of all ages. While the concept is similar to string doll puppetry tradition of India, the detailed artwork that goes into creating shadow puppets is unlike any other. The puppeteers have worked meticulously to make delicate paper-like cutouts of characters, joined together with thread, so they can be dangled freely across the white screen to create moving shadows. The dexterity of the puppet operator is worth mentioning as he is skilled to play up to five puppets at a time, each of which has three strings attached to it. Coordination, music and a compelling story, usually derived from a Chinese folklore, come together to create the magic of a 2000-year-old ancient Chinese Shadow Puppet tradition for its audience even today. At the heart of this tradition is a desire to tell a story right out of the pages of Chinese history and continue this storytelling art for generations to come. 

Storytelling was planted in our genes some 40000 years ago when our ancestors, the Neanderthals, told their story of hunting, food, and survival by drawing on the recesses of deep dark caves. They only needed a flickering fire and chiseled rock to do so.  Humans evolved and so did forms of storytelling. Oral narratives became critical to the evolution of human language, culture and traditions. Songs and sonnets or chants and epic poetry became a way of life.  Drawings and oral traditions turned into scripts, scripts into books, and what was previously only word of mouth turned into written records. The advent of technology, media and eventually the Internet facilitated audio, visual and written narratives unprecedentedly. Even in this digital age, traditional forms of storytelling stay close to our heart and continue to be passed down as a tradition. 

What’s your family storytelling tradition? Is rainy day a finger puppet kind-of-a-day with your kids? Maybe a little rush of adrenaline on a dark night, over campfire and toasted marshmallows, is what brings out the storyteller in you? We would love to hear your family’s unique, special or funny story telling tradition in the comments below!

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Shikha is a freelance writer based out of a picturesque, hilly, Seattle suburb. Her husband and two children share her love for hiking, traveling and good food.

Unleashing their Imagination

Storytelling from the very young 

by Shikha Das Shankar

As we drove past the fire station, located a few streets from my toddler’s preschool, it had become routine for her to ask why the doors of the fire station were closed. She would ask sometimes, are there any fire trucks in there? Now, which toddler doesn’t like the sight of a fire truck? It’s big, fast, noisy and grade-A fodder for their imagination. So her disappointment at not having seen any come out or enter her favorite station seemed valid. And then one gloomy Seattle-eastside afternoon, the stars aligned and we pulled over to the right to let the siren-blaring ladder truck maneuver its way out of the station, into the street and eventually down the hill, honoring the call of duty. I did not want to notice her expression through the rearview mirror rather I wanted to soak it in. I cranked my neck toward the back to her smile jubilantly. I started to drive and quick came her question, “where is the fire truck going?”. “To save someone,” I said, leaving room for more to come from an imagination that had been fired up from the occurrence. A few more questions, handful of popcorns and two exits later, a story that included her brother, a forest, a deer, a mouse, and brave fire fighters rescuing helpless creatures had been woven, soon to be retold to the remaining members of the family. This is a simple example of how young minds use the art of storytelling to build their imagination, develop language skills and learn to interact with others.

Storytelling is a universal phenomenon as old as time. A well-crafted story—be it tales from ancient times or flights into the future—is gripping and hard to resist. Children make great artists for this interactive form of art. Their vivid imagination, filter-less lens of seeing the world, and animated, and often amusing, ways of telling a story wins hearts and captivates audience. Provide them with simple props, puppets or just your attention and they will take you on a journey of heroic quests and faraway fairylands. In a child’s mind, the realm of fiction and reality are not very different. What begins as an observation on their way from school stretches into an animated story, and what has fascinated them through their favorite books are brought to reality using their imaginations.

A few years ago, my dragon-obsessed son’s world came shattering down when I told him that these fiery creatures are not real. He wanted to see dragons in real life, asking me to find a zoo that had one. Dragon floor puzzles, books about warriors fighting dragons and hours of pretend play, where he burnt down the house a few times a day with his fire-spitting breath, had led him to believe that dragons where real. Age finally caught up and, although secretly he still wants to believe dragons exist, he has come to terms with the bitter truth.

Looking back at those days makes me think what if there is a way for them to bring these creatures to life? What if there is a way to give wings to their burgeoning creative skills even before they can read or write well enough to put their ideas on paper? What if there is a way for our children to use technology as an extension of their imagination rather than one that inhibits it? What if there is a way to collaborate with our children to use the digital space for creating stories that last a lifetime? Like building blocks, if technology allows our children to build their own stories step-by-step, and see them come to life, wouldn’t that be enabling and engaging at the same time? Collaborative use of technology allowing parents to see their child’s mind at work and adding their own strokes of creativity is a win-win situation. An ongoing effort by team PopSmartKids is developing an interface that does just that and much more. Use of imagination, preserving memories, quality time with children will be few of the outcome of what the team has been working on. Keep following us and watch this space for more!

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Shikha is a freelance writer based out of a picturesque, hilly, Seattle suburb. Her husband and two children share her love for hiking, traveling and good food.

Connection is why we are here

Many years ago I came across an invigorating talk from Brene Brown*. She spoke about several wonderful things on discovering worthiness, the power of vulnerability and other key attributes that define our social behavior. But there was one thing that stuck with me. Connection is why we are here. Inherently whatever we do and how we interact, we want to feel connected to others. It is our most primal and social urge of being. Now think the world today, we cannot imagine our lives without a computer, tablet or a phone. As an adult these are great resources that help us get through our days. These are also great tools for growth and development for our future generation - with one caveat. It needs to be designed and used the right way. The digital space is like a playground, I guess we need better playground equipments. Yet here we are today when almost all the apps that our kids interact with on their tablets and computers lack the most important aspect of human development - collaboration. The lexical meaning of collaboration is the action of working with someone to produce something. Yet it encompasses much more than that - it is Darwinian. It is how we humans have thrived through millions of years of evolution. It is the art of true collaboration that will help us progress. The opportunities are limitless for the touch-screen generation. My second-grader’s class uses a seesaw account (https://web.seesaw.me/) to share their accomplishments with each other and with their parents. Think facebook but the network can only be accessed by the class-parents and students can post things after their teacher has approved them. So it’s not just a closed environment but it is both a monitored as well as a mentored space. It’s a great way for parents to connect with their child’s achievements. At the same time it’s a great way to teach the next generation the importance of responsible social collaboration in the digital space. And that is the only way to thrive and evolve. 

*The power of vulnerability

Engagement not Entrapment

Recently I had the privilege of teaching a class of second graders for five weeks. As I walked in the door I was confident on my preparation that I had done the previous day, the list of activities I had planned out and the timetable. But I was far from ready. What I hadn’t anticipated is that kids go from one activity to another as swiftly as notes change on a song. The environment around them is a vast ocean of knowledge and they are like little sponges ready to absorb all this. There is absolutely no down-time which left me with zero transition time for prep from one activity to another. Not just that these little minds have so much to share and so many stories to tell. I never found enough time for everyone to speak during the sharing portion of my class. As I would get things ready for the next activity I found confusion taking over my class because the kids would each find their own thing to do. I realized the importance of engagement. Eventually I got better with the class but I never stopped wondering about the enormity of engagement and how it is half-baked in the digital space for kids. And by engagement I don’t mean kids being glued to the screen, that is not engagement, that is entrapment. 

True engagement is when both parties get to share and equally participate. In the case of a child engaged with his tablet this can only happen when there is active involvement and flow of ideas from him to the digital space and not just the other way around. As parents, educators and adults what that means is that the onus is on us to find the right media to nurture these minds and to challenge them. Let’s not stop at that, let’s make this a part of our social space, let’s ask them about their favorite shows or games - why do they like it, who is their favorite character and why. It’s as simple as inculcating comprehension after they have read a story, why not do the same for the digital media? 

I had the benefit of witnessing the fact that kids love to share their stories, all we have to do is ask.

I like the work that Common Sense Media is doing in this regard. Check out how you can search for age-appropriate media for your kids, like find apps for age 7-8 yrs. 

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/reviews/age/7/age/8/category/app 

PS: I cannot conclude this story without thanking Mrs. Megan Younglove (@myounglove), second grade teacher from Cougar Ridge Elementary, for her immense help and support during my short stint with teaching her class.

More Mentoring Than Monitoring

We live in different times. Our generation is the one that saw the progress of digital media in leaps and bounds. Around 50% of the world population has an internet connection today in comparison to 1% in 1995*. We saw the internet being transformed from exotic to an everyday necessity. If we have house guests today we welcome them with food, a comfortable bed and our wifi password. Our kids are going to be the first generation to grow up with digital devices. We are the first to raise a generation of digital citizens. It is almost like we have discovered fire and we have to keep our kids from going near it to prevent them from harm. In order to protect our children we are busy monitoring their interaction with the screens and in doing so we are forgetting to mentor the next generation so that they become the best citizens in our digitally connected world. Deborah Heitner, founder of Raising Digital Natives, deftly points out that mentoring is much more crucial than monitoring in managing screen times for children. Raising kids is hard work and the digital media just adds another staggering layer of difficulty on top of an already uphill task. I think the time is now when we need to participate with our kids in the digital space. We need to make our digital participation an extension of the social interaction with our children, one that is smooth and seamless and one that will make them strategic thinkers in the physical world and beyond.

* www.internetlivestats.com