Digital emotional intelligence

Abstract

My first child was born almost ten years ago, and even before she was born, I watched my younger brother grow up, beginning in 1998. Even then, I realized how different his childhood was from mine. Being nine years apart, I was closely involved in my younger brother’s upbringing as his older sister, which very much revolved around the stationary computer in our living room. I wouldn’t say that this affected him in a negative way, but his childhood was definitely very different from how I spent my days from the age of six onward. At the same time, he was very active and involved in our street boys’ squad, jumping from garages, climbing poles, and riding his bike across half the city. Building my approach to motherhood upon my previous experience as an older sibling was an exciting journey. I read extensively about children’s psychology, and by 2015, there was already a growing body of international research and statistics on the pioneers of digital childhood. These children were now around my brother’s age, and the findings made me want to be prepared to make a difference in my own children’s lives and to take a more intentional approach to technology in childhood. At the same time, something seemingly unrelated at first glance was happening in my homeland. Crimea, part of Ukrainian territory, was annexed by the Russian Federation, and my entire family had to adjust to living under a different legal system. Travelling became much harder for them as the territorial dispute continued and became increasingly dangerous. For me, travelling to see them increased from 14 hours door-to-door to 36 hours or more, including crossing the border on foot for about a kilometre because transportation from both sides was only allowed up to the border. Because the Crimean Peninsula is connected to the mainland by a very narrow strip of land, this was the only route available. I did this many times, in all seasons, travelling with a stroller, two children, and two suitcases. I physically experienced what it meant to navigate a changing environment without having control over the system. As much as I wanted to blame the circumstances that made it three times harder for my children and me to see our family, I had to find solutions, navigate a new system, protect my values, and find ways to work within its constraints. And I had to do it quickly—children do not stay children for long. I wanted them to inherit and benefit from both cultures they belonged to, as well as from their grandparents’ culture and language. When the time came to make decisions about my children’s media education, I realized that I had been here before. I had to navigate a system that I did not necessarily agree with; however, the process of finding ways to make things work within those conditions was familiar to me. In my personal experience, the first step was always to face the facts: I could not change the circumstances themselves, but I could decide how to navigate them while protecting the values that mattered to me. I began to see the same principle applying to children’s media education. Media culture is already deeply embedded in children’s lives; technology is widely used in schools, and children socialize in environments shaped by digital media and algorithms. We cannot simply wish these realities away, and I did not want my response to be limited to resisting them through measures such as banning social media. Instead, I wanted to understand the environment children are growing up in and explore how parents and educators can navigate it more intentionally. In both situations, I was confronted with a system larger than myself that I did not fully agree with, but that I could not simply ignore. My experience with my family’s circumstances in Crimea did not directly lead me to Digital Literacy, but it shaped the way I approached it. I had already learned that rejecting a system does not make it disappear. Sometimes the more productive response is to understand the system, identify what can be changed, protect what matters, and learn how to navigate what cannot immediately be changed. This approach is reflected in this M.Ed. portfolio made up of three components intended for three distinct (and sometimes overlapping) audiences. Each of the three parts of the portfolio offers a different entry point into the topic. First, is the literature review which is intended for an academic audience of educators. Here, I began the process of developing this portfolio by gathering and examining a representative sample of research from different perspectives that examines digital childhoods and digital literacy. Second, is a website intended for parents and teachers, where I translated some of this complex information into more accessible language while also providing a collection of resources for further exploration. I intentionally included different types of sources - research papers, books, and videos - because I recognize that people approach information from different educational backgrounds, experiences, and learning preferences. Rather than presenting one definitive approach to the issues, I wanted to create a starting point that would allow parents and educators to explore the problems at hand at different levels of depth, develop their own understanding, and make more informed decisions about children and technology. The third component is a fictional children’s book called How My Grandmother Fell Under Surveillance that uses the story telling format to raise awareness through some cautionary and possibly humorous points. I chose to focus the narrative particularly on algorithms because they are one of the most difficult aspects of children’s digital experiences to explain to kids and the adults in their lives. Focusing on the basics of how algorithms work and what are their impacts, I tried to make the underlying concepts understandable through a story. Grandma’s Story was produced using scrollytelling software and for ease of access I have embedded it in the Web site, but it is intended as a distinct unit of this portfolio. The portfolio is the product of a learning journey for me, not only involving some research and reflection, but also the development of new digital skills which were essential to produce a Web site and a scrollytelling essay. Ultimately, this portfolio reflects who I am, the experiences that brought these issues to my attention, and the questions I believe are important for children, parents, and educators to consider.