Digital Moderation and Responsibility

Being a 21st-century citizen is quite challenging in today’s ecosystem, where technology is inherently plugged into almost every human life. Where everyone, from Governments and MNCs to grocery stores and taxis, primarily operate and transact ‘Online’, with effortless and carefree ease. Witnessing the other side of the world has become easier than ever and all kinds of foods and utilities can be delivered to the doorstep. And of course, like the other side of a coin, it has brought upon the world, various adversities which are affecting our millennials psychologically and physically. Compulsive use of social media, obsessive gaming and ‘binge-watching’ due to the overflowing content strewed by the internet, to name a few.
In recent years, as we all know, many schools have enhanced their teaching and learning styles with contemporary gadgets and software to develop better ways of imparting knowledge. And fortunately, knowing about the above-mentioned issues and threats, many parents doubt this change in our education system and hold westernisation as the direct cause of all these issues.

Here’s some food for thought: when you put on excessive weight and start to suffer from digestive issues, you are very well aware that blaming the food or your cook is futile. You recognise that you need a controlled and healthy diet with physical exercise. Simply put, ‘to take responsibility of your own actions’. And the fact of the matter is, to counter the extremities of any kind, what you need is healthy Moderation.
Same goes for this technological issue which, instead of being criticised and proscribed, can be efficiently utilised with apt Moderation. This philosophy of attending to all possible aspects in the Digital domain and crafting preventive measures accordingly has been considered under an umbrella term as ‘Digital Citizenship’ which covers various internet-related aspects like Digital accessibility, Digital communication, Digital law, Digital health, Digital security, etc.

Basically, moderating the use of technology is quite similar to practising a proper diet. To lose the excess weight, you utilise only the necessary amount of food which is required for maintaining a healthy body combined with a fitting set of exercises to be performed regularly. Similarly, you can utilize any particular electronic device in appropriate ways for the required amount of time. Also, being aware of the physical and virtual threats which originate due to excessive usage of those devices is equally important.
That been said, in order to create this level of digital awareness in our millennial, it is vital that they are provided maximum accessibility to the world-wide-web along with proper education of the responsibilities accompanied with it from an early age. This can help them naturally develop a sense of responsibility and wariness as they start inculcating technology into their day-to-day lives.

Victorious Kidss Educares (VKE) is one of those future-ready schools which recognises and uniquely integrates modern technology into the international pedagogy. It is the only school with the fastest Ethernet connection of 318 Mbps which is easily accessible across the campus. This level of accessibility serves the purpose of providing instant information to all the kids, irrespective of the growth in the school’s population. With this great power, comes the great responsibility of guiding the millennial in understanding the core basics behind the upcoming technological developments and the creative use of available tools.
Hence, every kid at VKE, right from EYP (Early Years Program) to DP (Diploma Program) has complete access to a state of the art ‘Apple iMac Lab’ and a ‘iPad Lab’ and five (5) ‘Microsoft based Computer Labs’ sheltering around 270 systems equipped with multiple application based programs which are being used today for design and development. Young kids right from PYP (Primary Years Program) learn Graphics for Website and Video Game designing.

The ‘iPad Lab’ also consists of several ‘Amazon Kindle’ Devices filled with digital libraries for study and research. And all the classrooms, instead of a blackboard limited by its space and utility, are facilitated with ‘Interactive White Digital-boards’ which are much more efficient and fun to learn from. As they learn all of the varied ways of using these systems, essentially, they become more and more enlightened of the existing responsibilities/attributes and challenges which arise with digital utilization. And the abundance of exposure to digitality, provided in the early learning stages, helps them gradually detach the desire to overuse or compulsively exploit technology.

We as parents and teachers can agree that kids today do not follow the same mindset as we did in our traditional schooling. They are dynamically evolving with this modern ecosystem and we are responsible for creating a space where they can make their choices with liberty. All of it, to help them understand that schooling is not simply for learning but it is for ‘Learning to Love to Learn’, it is not just about gaining knowledge, gathering a lot of information, data; but about applying it in their coming future, it is not about making their lives better but about making this world a better place to live.