Digital World Travel
Just, as we cannot guarantee risk free travel on the
highways, the air, or by sea. We cannot guarantee
100% risk free travel in the ever expanding Digital
World.
However, we can try to help you limit the risks!
I know I have highlighted this ever growing problem in other
articles. However, after the recent holidays I have decided to
revisit it once again. As it seems to be a continuing, if not
growing dilemma that I share with many other parents from
conversations I have had in the past two weeks.
Are you raising a technology addicted child?
Most parents are slowly recognizing that what starts out as an
innocent distraction and fun way to integrate technology into
our lives can easily turn into a full blown addiction to the
games and gadgets that our children now have access to all the
time! In many homes, getting kids to turn off their mobile
phones, shut down the video games, or log off of Facebook
can incite a revolt. And if your children say they need to be
online for schoolwork, you may not know when the
research stops and idle activity begins!
So what is a digital parent to do?
Kate’s Safe Travel Tips
When a Taiwanese 18 year old died in July after playing Diablo
3 for 40 straight hours, the Internet and other media were
abuzz with tales of the dangers of prolonged gaming. But,
these cases of extreme use aren’t what most modern parents
are dealing with.
Closer to home, my Facebook Wall and real life chat, have
been lighting up with tales of children addicted to Minecraft,
glued to their iPod Touches, and clocking up the hours
watching YouTube videos or playing Angry Birds and Temple
Run on iPads.
One friend announced she was cutting off her 8 year old son
cold turkey from Minecraft! After he had a full on kicking and
screaming temper tantrum at 7:00am! Because horrible
mother that she is! Wouldn’t let him play as soon as he woke
up! She misguided, old fashioned parent, thought a nutritional
breakfast and getting dressed ready for the day was more
important than a computer game!
Even My 3 and 4 year old nephews have shown signs of a
beginning technological addiction or reliance, in the week they
stayed with me over the holidays. They couldn’t understand
why I didn’t have the Smurfs game on my iPhone like mummy
and why I wouldn’t put it on there for them to play! A ploy that
worked in this instance, as a distraction from technology was
to go back to a very old fashioned nontechnical pastime. We
had a very enjoyable afternoon building and flying kites with
the help of their big cousins. Who after protesting and
grumbling really had as much fun without the aid of
technology, as the little ones!
Over this holiday I wanted to spent time with my boys with no
technology! Horrifying I know! So I embarked on a no
computer screen time during the weekday at all rule and a one
hour a day on the weekends. Somehow, the one hour of
allowed screen time easily morphed into two or three! I had a
fantasy that this would help me turn back time to a place when
my boys were younger and not cave dwelling computer/iPod
addicts. I tried! But, the lure was too great. They had friends on
Facebook to check up on, stats to look at, and basically, their
online world has become an extension of their normal world.
Part of assimilating back into their normal world was getting
back into their tech groove too.
Like most aspects of parenting, balance is the key! Technology
can be a positive part of our lives, and our children should be
able to create and use it to their benefit. My boys are 15 and
18 and with the introduction of one to one learning they need
to use a computer for school. Unfortunately this computer
follows them home every night like a well-trained dog! Funny,
somehow their homework tasks are not as obedient, or get
forgotten where the computer never does! These 1 to 1
devices have become not just a tool for education, but a means
of communicating with the world as well as a, so they tell me a
tool for relaxation and de stressing.
By the time most children reach the middle years of school
they will need to conduct research, write reports and as
schools are moving into the 21st century and beyond, they will
most likely have classroom blogs and tasks on the Ultranet,
Digital Portfolio and school communication online as well. This
is where it gets more difficult. Just as adults have a difficult
time shutting off the email when they get home (I know I do!)
Children will need rules to merge their “work” and home lives
with.
I’m the first to admit that I haven’t found the one right answer
to this ever increasing problem in my household. However, I do
endeavor to keep trying to set an example and turn off from
technology and insist on real family time each night. This
weekend the boys may even find that we have had a technical
problem with a mysteriously vanishing modem! If it was just
as easy to extract the smart phones from their hands, life
would be grand!
The lure of technology in our lives is so strong; the goal has to
be to figure out how to teach our children to master
technology and not let technology master them!
I was Wii boxing all day
and knocked myself out!
Safe Travel 
Kate Dole
ICT Coordinator