Heitner - Screenwise: helping kids thrive (and survive) in their digital world

Praise for
SCREENWISE
and Devorah Heitner, PhD

Screenwise is a comprehensive exploration of a timely and important topic, studded with practical tips for parents.

Wendy Mogel, PhD, clinical psychologist and author of The Blessing of a Skinned Knee and The Blessing of a B Minus

For all parents who feel like they cant keep up with todays technology, Devorah Heitner has come to the rescue. Screenwise doesnt judge or preach. It is full of empathy and insight, providing gems of guidance based on years of deep research and real talk with real kids. A pleasure to read.

Lisa Guernsey, author of Tap, Click, Read and Screen Time; director, Learning Technologies Project, New America

Dont let your kids tech life stress you out. Grab Screenwise and get the good news and strategies you need to guide your kids (or let them safely guide you) into a smart and savvy digital life.

Deborah Gilboa, MD, parenting and youth development expert at Ask Dr. G

A must-read for twenty-first century parents! Parenting the digital generation requires complex skills that I frankly didnt haveuntil now. Empowered by Dr. Heitners timely book, I feel infnitely more prepared to guide my son and daughter through the advantages and perils of modern-day connectedness. Issues like trust, relationships, security, and balance are handled deftly by an expert who clearly knows the territory and shares her knowledge in a relatable way. Every modern-day parent should read this book. Highly recommended.

Mary ODonohue, author of When You Say Thank You, Mean It: And 11 Other Lessons for Instilling Lifelong Values In Your Children

Find your way from screenworried to screenwise. Its time to get over your techno-guilt and become a more competent and confdent media mentoran enthusiastic tour guide and mindful role modelfor your child in the digital age. In these pages youll fnd affrmation, encouragement, a gentle nudge or two about your own media use, and practical strategies to help you become a tech positive parent.

Chip Donohue, PhD, director, Technology in Early Childhood (TEC) Center at Erikson Institute

Devorah has tackled the challenging, modern issue of raising kids in todays digital world head-on. Screenwise gives practical ideas and advice for parents struggling with this issue and really enables them to turn what could be a problem into an opportunity. As an administrator in a highly successful 1-to-1 mobile device school district, I face many of the challenges outlined in this book on an almost daily basis. Screenwise will help not only the parents in our district, but also the teachers when it comes to ideas and strategies for truly helping kids thrive in their digital world.

Carl Hooker, director of Innovation & Digital Learning at Eanes ISD, founder of iPadpalooza, author of the Mobile Learning Mindset book series

This book is full of calming words and constructive suggestions for todays parents who are anxious about their childrens immersion in digital media. Grounded in the latest research, it will help parents develop their resourcefulness in navigating what can seem like a worrying new world.

Sonia Livingstone, author of The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age

Screenwise is a practical guide for parents and families trying to navigate childhood in the digital age. Not a one-size-fits-all approach, this book is about gaining confidence and resolve to make the informed, intentional choices that will work best for you and your family. The scenarios and solutions outlined are developmentally on-target for the ages addressed, whether toddlers or teenagers. Heitner possesses a clear and direct voice that will help parents find the path that works for them.

Jennifer Farrington, president & CEO, Chicago Childrens Museum

Dr. Heitner offers smart, tech-positive advice for parents on how to be good mentors for children, and on how to best use technology rather than trying to monitor every single online exchange. We appreciate the age appropriate advice on how to balance autonomy and support.

Tom Vander Ark, author of Smart Parents: Parenting for Powerful Learning

Helping Kids Thrive (and Survive) in Their Digital World

Devorah Heitner, PhD

First published 2016 by Bibliomotion, Inc.
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN, UK

Bibliomotion is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 2016 by Devorah Heitner

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

ISBN-13: 978-1-62956-145-5 (hbk)

CIP data has been applied for.

For Dan and Harold

I feel overwhelmed by the technology in my sixth graders life; my daughter is accessing online tools and social media sites I am not familiar with, and I need to provide more guidance in her digital life.

How do we limit screen time to the suggested one to two hours per day when kids are now using these devices at school for who knows how long? Then they want to come home and unwind for a little, maybe watch TVbut they need to get back on a device to do homework. Limiting screen time doesnt seem manageable or realistic.

When I was a kid, the broadcasting of programs on TV stopped at a certain time. It forced you to stop watching. I often find myself cruising Facebook, watching dumb videos, etc. Is this what my life has become? What else can we do to reclaim our life and help our kids do the same?

When I lead digital citizenship workshops for parents, I hear concerns like these in every community. Who are these digital natives we are raising? And how is their world different from the one we knew when we were growing up?

There is little consensus about how to parent in the digital age, and it can be hard to talk about these matters without feeling judged. I started Raising Digital Natives as a resource to help parents and educators conquer the confusion they often feel when confronted with the way todays kids process information. The term digital natives was introduced by author Marc Prensky in 2001 to describe young people who are growing up surrounded by digital technology. This generation is used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to serious work.

Some have criticized the essentialist nature of calling people who grew up without these tech tools digital immigrants and those who did grow up with them digital natives. Researchers have pointed out that digital natives can also be digital naives, who may be clueless about the quality of the information they consume or the ways their own data is being mined.

This book is designed to help parents understand how growing up in the digital age presents some new challenges for kids learning to manage time and navigate relationships and how we, as adults, can offer guidance to tech-savvy kids based on the wisdom of our lived experiences. Thus, when I use the term digital native, I am referring to the touch-screen generation that has grown up creating and sharing as well as consuming digital content. Todays kids are part of the content-on-demand, everyone-is-a-producer generation. How can we help them become streetwise in this new world?