DEL Mission Statement and Ethics Audit
In Phases I, II, and III of developing this community engagement project, I selected three ethical values and wanted to focus on them when shaping my practice as a digital education leader. Those values are justice, security, and respect. And in the fourth model, I chose moderation. In the process of developing a unified mission statement, I produced the following sentence: “As an elementary school teacher, I intend to teach and educate students about the fair, safe, respectful, and moderate use of technology. My job is to help.” To become good digital citizens, community leaders, educators, students, and their families must understand the underlying risks and benefits of digital education. Justice comes from the most important values, as a person feels comfortable when he sees justice and lives a decent life. Security achieves psychological stability and a sense of security from danger. Respect is a great human value that distinguishes and differentiates individuals. Respect is the appreciation, commitment, and love that refers to a person’s quality. It is respect for others. The use of screens in our lives is an example of moderation acting as a mediator. My goal in this module is to help students use screens sparingly, with the help of parents as well. Whereas, in this current generation, students spend a lot of time on screens, whether they are doing their homework, playing video games, watching TV, or even communicating through social media.
I met with Professor Ahmed Al-Mulhim, who is a professor of educational technologies at King Faisal University.
1. Are students being taught and educated about safety in connection with mobility technology as well as balancing screen time on and off screens?
Of course, we are working to make students digital citizens who know the right and balanced way to use technology so that we get a conscious society that knows the right way to moderate the use of digital.
2.With so many hours spent in front of a screen, how can we ensure that students’ social and emotional needs are met?
With the work on balancing our time in our lives by using technology, students can not only meet the social and emotional needs among their families, but we can also participate with them in video games and spend quality time with them, as this helps to meet their needs and stay in touch with family members.
3. Is excessive use of technology likely to be beneficial or harmful? What are they? The use of technology has both benefits and harms, but excessive use of technology has many disadvantages, including insomnia, loneliness, obesity, poor eyesight, and a lack of concentration.
4. Does entertainment using technology replace entertainment in your daily life? With technological development, we are witnessing massive technological entertainment and progressing rapidly where you can shop technology, communicate, travel via VAR, and also play amazing video games. Anyway, in my opinion, it does not cover all human entertainment needs, such as camping in the open air and obtaining a clear atmosphere.
5. Has technology affected our lives, and how do you see it in the future?
I would like to say that technology has had a lot of impact on our lives. Technology not only helped us learn a lot of things but also shortened a lot of time and distances for us. All this is positive, but nevertheless there are negative effects, including because of the reliance on technology in everything, which causes many problems, such as weight gain, eye strain, and insomnia.
6. How can teachers and parents help students moderate technology use? Through awareness-raising programs in the healthy use of technology and explaining the harms of excessive use of technology in a detailed and clear manner to parents and students so that they can see the healthy way of using technology. Which enables them to use digital technology safely and healthily.
