It's digital citizenship month and we tend to be focusing on protecting/preparing/preserving our students' identities from the "bad stuff." But this morning I had this moment that reminded me that students use the power of the Internet for GOOD a lot too.
One of my favorite chuckles when talking to my 16 year old this summer was when she said, "Mom, no one ever uses email anymore." Granted in her world of technology for communication, this is basically correct. She contacts her friends via snapchat, texting, Skype, and FaceTime. As a rule, teenagers don't use email to communicate with each other except when they need to get information to or from a teacher, etc.
But this morning, my junior daughter that said that this summer was getting ready for school, her uniform was on and she was in my sock drawer looking for red socks. In our community, a neighboring school tragically had a death of an athlete while in the pool. Many schools in our area are showing their support for the family and friends of Sumner Smith by wearing red today (Baylor's school color). I asked her, "are you wearing red for Sumner?" and she said "yes." I said, "I didn't realize our school was doing that today." Her answer was, "I got an email from Hallie-Blair telling everyone to wear it." Hallie-Blair is a student in her grade. This got me thinking...There is also a member of her junior class that sends encouraging Bible verses/devotions out as well.
We often give our students a bad rap for their inappropriate use of their digital environment but I am thankful for students that use it to change the culture around them for good as well. I'm sure there are other students that have done things like this that I am not aware of but how awesome is it that technology has allowed these nobel-minded students a path to touch the lives of those around them in a positive way in the midst of trial, crisis, or just weekly encouragement?
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