A Digital 5 a day

Hello! & Welcome back to the last installment of eTips this year!

While we have been providing useful tips on certain tools for pedagogy, we thought we would round up the year with a mindful reminder for us and the students. Don't feel restricted to use these tips only with your students, they are equally useful for setting the grounds with your children too!

So, what is Digital 5 A Day?

The Digital 5 A Day provides a simple framework that reflects the concerns of parents/ carers as well as children’s behaviors and needs. It can also act as a base for family agreements about internet and digital device use throughout both the holidays and term time. Based on the NHS’s evidence-based ‘Five steps to better mental well-being’, the 5 A Day campaign gives children and adults easy to follow, practical steps to achieve a healthy and balanced digital diet.  

Connect
The internet has enabled everyone to maintain friendships and family relationships no matter where they are in the world and often, chatting with friends is the best thing about social media. It’s important to acknowledge that this is how students keep in touch but it’s also important to have a conversation with them about who they are connecting with and their privacy settings. Remember to keep a dialogue open and talk to our students to understand how they’re spending their time and so that they can come to you for help should they need to. 

Be active
Activity is very important for mental well-being and we should have time to switch off and get moving. We don’t have to be an athlete to be active. Find something that you enjoy – be that swimming, walking, dancing or yoga – begin at a level that works for you and make it a regular activity. Researching an activity or place online before going out is a good way of combining the two and provides an opportunity for you and your family to use the internet together. 

Get creative
The internet provides everyone with unlimited opportunities to learn and to be creative. From learning to code to building complex structures in Minecraft to creating video content, the holidays can be a great opportunity for children to build their digital skills. Time spent online doesn’t have to be spent passively consuming content. It can be educational, creative and can provide opportunities to build skills for later life.

Give to others

As well as using the internet to learn about how to get involved with local and national charitable schemes, we can give to others through our everyday activities. Remember that by giving positive feedback and support to friends and family as well as reporting the negative behavior of others, we can help the web make a positive place for everyone.

Be mindful

We hear that students and children (and us too!) often feel pressured by the constantly connected nature of the internet. While they might want to do other things, it can be difficult for them to put their phones down when apps are encouraging them to engage. Being mindful about the amount of time that they are spending online – and being mindful about how this makes them feel – is important. We can encourage them to come up with ways of managing this i.e. keeping a diary as way of logging the amount of time they are spending online or downloading an app that helps them manage their notifications. 

 As we're busy marking and working away, let's take some time to practice these 5 simple steps to help us achieve a balanced well-being. Do feel free to adopt these practices with your family too! ☺ If it has improved the use of internet for you and your family, don't forget to share with us!

We hope we've provided you with some helpful eTips for the year of 2017. If you found something useful, share with us how you've used it in your lesson! Drop us an email to be featured on our ICT blog and we'll see you next year 😉