Digital Literacy Meets Ethics

We sat down with Alicia Regnault, Educational Technology & Support Specialist and advisor to REBOOT and REBOOT Jr., to hear her perspective on the importance of ethics and digital literacy education, at Kent Place and beyond.

Describe the journey toward digital literacy. 

When students are in Primary School, we have three or four digital literacy lessons during their Library class. We start with the basics: What is the internet? What is the World Wide Web? We then create building blocks of their learning from there. We learn about passwords (simple versus more secure), how to be kind online in group chats, and, as they get older, copyright. Is it ethical to take the lyrics of a Taylor Swift song and put them into a video you’re making? 

In Middle School, we focus more on digital citizenship and each of the students’ digital footprints, and we get into social media. Kent Place has a mandatory sixth-grade trimester course, then I meet with them as seventh- and eighth-graders during their health and wellness block. In these classes, we talk about body image and how media and advertisements online are influencing the ways they think. They learn that they can’t trust all the information they see or read online.

I recognize that tech is constantly evolving, so the digital literacy focus changes. I keep an eye and ear out for what’s on students’ minds, and I’m always asking: How can we best educate them? I do a lot of pop-in work, too, to address the digital challenges students are facing in every grade. 

How does digital literacy complement ethics?

In all of the classes I teach, I always revert back to our Ethical Values. We think about respect: Are you respecting others online? And authenticity: Are you your true self? We consider promise-keeping: Are you making promises online to a stranger you shouldn’t be talking to? We think about trustworthiness: What can we and what can’t we trust about what we see online. We teach them about security and privacy, about making your accounts private and protecting your identity. 

All in all, we emphasize that you should be the same person online as you are offline or in person. We all have to follow the same values. If a student wouldn’t act one way in person, she shouldn’t be acting that way online. Ethics is a part of all we teach at Kent Place, and is especially important for how these students are interacting with one another online.  

What is REBOOT Jr.? 

REBOOT Jr., similar to REBOOT in the Upper School, aims to teach the Middle School community to explore the benefits of technology and social media and, simultaneously, set ethical and digital boundaries. Last year, I started it as a pilot program, but this year it’s a Middle School committee. 

The students in REBOOT Jr. have great thoughts and ideas about how they’re engaging with their technology here at Kent Place and are collaborating with students in other schools. They’re writing case studies and conversation cards to gravitate toward their peers’ interests. Some people think REBOOT Jr. is “anti-tech,” but that’s a misconception. It’s about rethinking how we integrate technology into our world in an ethical way. Our eighth-graders from REBOOT Jr. will be presenting to the International Coalition for Girls Schools (ICGS) and to other all-girls private schools in February. 

They’re making advisory activities to create comic books based on our BEE Primary School curriculum, and are planning a summit in the spring to work with local schools. They don’t realize it yet, but they’re building leadership skills in presenting to parents and drafting school presentations and creating content, videos, and case studies to spread their message. These are all skills that will help them be leaders out in the world. 

You can read what Ms. Regnault’s students say about digital literacy and ethics here.