Challenge Seven: Digital Wellbeing

What it is:

So far in this challenge series, we have encouraged educators to incorporate digital tools in their teaching and learning practice. However, like everything else, too much of a good thing can also be a bad thing, and any tool, when used ineffectively or inappropriately, can also do more harm than good.

The B.C. Post-Secondary Digital Literacy Framework (p. 11) states:

A digitally literate person will use technology to support their wellbeing and have strategies for managing technology if it negatively impacts their physical, mental, or emotional health. A digitally literate person will have healthy boundaries with digital technologies, use them intentionally and will not use digital technologies in ways that harm others.

The concept of digital wellbeing is an important one, but also very broad and hugely complex. Jisc uses digital wellbeing as a term to describe the impact of technologies and digital services on people’s mental, physical, social, and emotional health. It is a complex concept that can be viewed from a variety of perspectives and across different contexts and situations.

Why it is important:

Our daily lives are intertwined with technology and filled with an abundance of digital tools. To live a digitally well-balanced life is often easier said than done. In Digital Media, Anxiety, and Depression in Children, researchers identify “growing concerns about the impact of digital technologies on children’s emotional well-being, particularly regarding fear, anxiety, and depression.” There has also been a huge push in the K–12 education system to ensure our children grow up to be capable digital citizens by helping them balance their digital lives.

Jisc invites us to consider digital wellbeing in these four contexts: social, personal, learning and work: “​​Technologies and digital activities can impact on physical, mental, social and emotional wellbeing in both positive and negative ways.”

Examples:

• Hear some great ideas and common strategies from webinar participants on how they support student digital wellbeing in their classrooms and presenter Lisa Gedak’s list of key strategies for ensuring student digital wellbeing: FLO Lab: Developing a Manifesto for Digital Well-Being (timestamp 41:00–56:00) and corresponding Padlet
• Get a few tips on staying tranquil in your own digital life: TED Talk by Adam Alter (video, 9 minutes) 

Multimedia Activity

Reflect on your current digital wellbeing by completing this self-assessment quiz, Is It Time for a Digital Detox?, from UBC’s Digital Tattoo project.

Learning Activities

1.   Learn it for yourself

• If your digital wellbeing self-assessment shows that you have a well-balanced digital life, congratulations! Then consider helping out Jordan, an instructor who is struggling with her class, in this case study, by learning and applying the PERMA Framework.
• If your digital wellbeing self-assessment shows that your digital wellbeing and real life is out of balance, no worries! In this week’s challenge, we’re offering you a few ways to get your digital life back on track by introducing the PERMA Framework.

Learn more about about the PERMA Framework through these reflective questions, adapted from this blog post:

2.   Incorporate it into your teaching practice

After learning and applying the PERMA framework, think of one thing that you could change over the next week. The immediate task could be as simple as:

• Using a bluelight filter on your devices
• Setting up fixed online office hours and only responding to messages and emails from students during this time
• Blocking off two to three hours of deep concentration time to avoid task switching and try out monotasking

The week’s challenge has two parts:

1. Share your digital wellbeing tip of the week in the discussion below.
2. Review the discussion posts/digital wellbeing tips other people have shared, and try out at least one other digital wellbeing tip. Let them know how their tip worked for you.

3.   Teach it to students

After trying a few digital wellbeing tips at the end of this week’s challenge, consider sharing them with your students or colleagues. Again, this does not need to be hard or time-consuming. The immediate task could be as simple as:

• Not requiring social media use in your classroom.
• Offering your students or colleagues a few digital tools/resources to help balance life and tech.
• Inviting your students or colleagues to complete their own digital wellbeing self-assessment and facilitate a group discussion based on their results.

Further Reading

• Read Digital Pedagogy Toolbox: Cultivating Digital Well-Being – From Fatigue to Healthy Daily Practices (blog post) for some of the reasons for and ways to deal with digital fatigue.
• Jisc’s Digital Wellbeing for You, Your Colleagues and Students: Briefing Paper for Practitioners defines digital wellbeing, looks at different aspects of it, and offers a list of positive actions individuals can take to support it.
• Check out the TRU Digital Detox, designed to help students and instructors think about technology and how it intersects with learning and teaching in new and more complex ways.