Educators urged to prioritise digital wellness

Experts in the education technology field have called on parents, educators, and learners to prioritise actions that would help maintain digital wellness and build a resilient digital community.

According to a statement, the experts spoke during the just concluded June edition of Edtech Mondays, an initiative of the Co-Creation Hub in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation’s Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning in ICT.

The engagement session was themed ‘Digital wellness and resilience for educators and learners’.

One of the panelists and the founder of Coachfrika, Afeez Iyiola, stated that priority must be given to understanding the educators, their readiness, availability, and self-motivation, and the provision of digital literacy to achieve wellness.

“When we bring digital innovations and solutions to the teachers, most of the time, we don’t do our background survey to understand who these teachers are.

“Digital literacy, proficiencies in the use of digital tools, self-motivation, customization that suits teachers’ individual needs, and developing the right structure are critical to delivering digital wellness,” Iyiola said.

The founder of Internet Safe Kids Africa, Confidence Osein, explained that parents have a big role to play in ensuring that students maintain digital wellness in their daily online activities.

According to Osein, parents and teachers should lead by example by allowing structured screen time in classroom and home settings.

She advised that stakeholders must take advantage of technology by deploying digital wellness apps to monitor and regulate screen time for the students.

Earlier, Product and Operations Lead, eLimu, Bridget Iyere, stated that conscious effort must be made by edtech product developers, designers, and parents to ensure that learners and educators have balanced and healthy interactions with technology.

Iyere stressed that edtech product designers, such as eLimu should always take into consideration key factors, such as size, age, parental consent, or control, before designing an edtech product to guarantee the digital wellness of end users.

la