Consider the field or specific profession you plan to pursue or are already working in. Identify the technology standards of practice that have been offered. These are often available from professional associations, such as the National Association of Social Workers (NASW.org), the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (aamft.org), or the National Parent Educators Network (npen.org). They may also be present in license requirements for the profession set forth by an individual state. As you review these standards, do you feel ready if you were to be given a test today? Where you would go to get the knowledge and skills required? Will they come from your personal experience? From your training in school? On the job? Through professional development? Based on your own knowledge and experience of technology use by our society and from what you know of the profession, are the standards sufficient? Are there ways you think they could be improved upon? Who or how would you advocate for these changes?

Ribble proposes nine elements of digital citizenship, below (see also Godfrey, p. 19). For each, propose a scenario in which you would see the element applied to family professional work. It might be the integration of ethical principles in the delivery of practice, or it might be a content area that would be taught or presented in work with families. Here are some examples of digital citizenship scenarios as applied to elementary education.

• Digital access: full electronic participation in society
• Digital commerce: electronic buying and selling of goods
• Digital communication: electronic exchange of information
• Digital literacy: basics of technology and its use
• Digital etiquette: electronic standards of conduct
• Digital law: electronic responsibility for actions and deeds
• Digital rights and responsibilities: freedoms extended to all in a digital world
• Digital health and wellness: physical and psychological well-being
• Digital security: electronic precautions to guarantee safety

 

Create a digital citizenship lesson to present to parents. Choose the age group of children the parents will have — young children, middle childhood (elementary age), teenagers. Consider whether the children or parents represent specific interests for learning and for technology use — those with disabilities, those who represent a culture or speak and write in a non-English language, those who may be migrants or immigrants or may be separated due to work or military service. Identify the amount of time that you’d have with the parents (and children, if they are included as learners) and the format for your lesson (in-person, online, hybrid). What content would you deliver? What outcomes for learning would you want to achieve? How would you facilitate their learning in ways that build on their own experience and interests?

With the Parenting Educator competency framework in mind (as discussed in the chapter), consider the content and practice needs related to technology use that a parenting educator might need. Consider the content of the book — from our use as a society; to differences in families; use by couples, children, and parents; in the workplace; for health and for money management. Consider both the required knowledge about human development AND about parenting to deliver your practice. What content related to technology might you need to know? What do you need to KNOW about families use of technology that will be integrated into your work? Now consider how you deliver education — is it in person, in classes, online, through an app? Who is your audience? What do you need to be able to DO with technology to deliver your services effectively to families? Are there particular attitudes or dispositions that might be influenced by technology?