Safer or Better?
One special day each year to raise awareness of these issues is important but ineffective on its own. Affecting real change requires strategy and a broad palette of approaches from a rich number of sources and disciplines; schools are only part of that strategy but elemental in kickstarting and sustaining change.
And as technology progresses, it becomes increasingly apparent that the technology itself is less important than the behaviors and communities it engenders.
As our students stand poised on the threshold of the 21st century, the virtual spaces they and their families occupy are as important a part of any educator’s remit as any physical classroom. Creating a better experience for our children in these spaces needs us to do what we have always been effective at doing. To guide. To shape. To support. To challenge. To advance learning and to build ethical consideration and value into their journeys through those spaces.
And better is safer.