INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL | Education in how to be ‘a good digital citizen’

Parental supervision of children’s online activities is an important part of their education, and has been recognized by International School of Macao (TIS) headmaster Howard Stribbell as a rising challenge for both the school and parents.
During a casual meeting yesterday morning with members of the school’s parents’ association to discuss their concerted efforts to foster a healthy upbringing for the students, Stribbell told the Times that finding a way to  educate students to be a “good digital citizen” is very important to the school.
Incorporated into TIS curriculum, education on behaviors in the virtual world also require involvement from parents, the headmaster said.
“Outside the school, that’s very difficult and it’s very important for the parents to monitor their kids’ social media. But we also need to make sure that we have relationships – parents with children, teachers with children,” he said in reference to the importance of intimate bonds that could draw the two sides mentally closer.
A Singaporean mother named Gina said that she was always around her two daughters, aged five and nine, just to keep an eye on what sites they lingered on and what might come up in their cyber-world.
The best approach, not only according to her but also to British-Indonesian mother Lisa Rogan, is to curb the use of electronic devices if possible. However, that seems less viable for her 13-year-old daughter who has just entered adolescence. The mother also expressed concerns over the romantic interests of her daughter, who in return showed dislike towards her parents’ interference. “If people tell my daughter: ‘you’re so pretty,’ she’d fall very easily for that,” said Rogan, whose family just arrived to the territory.
As the school just started its new academic year last Tuesday, students’ tendencies to oversleep and risk being late have proved headache-worthy for their parents. In addition, both of the parents interviewed stated that they have struggled to help their sons readjust to the school routine after a long vacation.
The parents’ association holds regular meetings with the school management each month to ensure maximum involvement in the school. The school’s headmaster stressed the role of parents there, saying that not only would they become more informed, but that their kids’ school performance would also rise as a result, a theory backed-up by some researchers.
He advised that, aside from preparing a suitable environment for their kids to do assignments after school, the parents should also introduce leisure or sports activities to their kids. Aries Un