Educators should pay special attention to ubiquitous video-watching, recommends a recent report from the American Psychological Association (APA), as reported by Education Week.
Teaching students the skills to use video content and other digital media when it’s helpful—and recognize when it’s not—is crucial, says Richard Culatta, the CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
Video content, which includes movies on streaming services to video clips on social media, can both harm and help teens, the APA report emphasizes. It is content that appears to matter in terms of harms and benefits, the report says, not so much the medium.
Some platform design features that encourage engagement—such as auto-playing another video after one has ended—may exacerbate the effects of watching videos, for good or ill, according to recent research.
How should schools use this information? Here are three keys:
1) Teach students to use discretion with digital content
Adolescents must learn how to be savvy consumers of all digital media, the report says. Video content and digital media more broadly have pros and cons that must be considered.
Youngsters are far more likely than adults to form parasocial relationships with social media influencers. Kids trust them as role models or even friends, research finds. This can be a positive when schools use an influencer in an anti-bullying campaign. But influencers have a harmful impact when they spread conspiracy theories, express hateful rhetoric, or promote unrealistic beauty and lifestyle standards.
If an influencer is sharing something that isn’t true or healthy, the response from schools should be a conversation with kids. What do you look for in influencers that you follow and trust? What are the things that should give you a red flag? These conversations prepare students to thrive in an online world.”
Teens are also more susceptible to viewing paid product placements in influencer content as personal recommendations, the APA report said, rather than what they are: advertisements.
2) Don’t set policies that are sweeping generalizations
Don’t make big, sweeping categorizations about what platforms students and teachers have access to, Culatta says. Create healthy learning experiences in schools so students can recognize when media is useful and when it’s not. Media that encourages violence or eating disorders co-exists with media that promotes students’ well-being and good behavior, the report states.
School leaders should develop policies that go beyond blocking students and teachers from using certain platforms wholesale. Policies should focus on the quality of the content, not the platform, Culatta says.
Keep in mind that adolescents respond differently to video media based on unique factors that make them individuals — personality, age, experiences, and neurodiversity are a few possible variables. Adolescents mature at different rates, so the APA report doesn’t outline specific ages for viewing certain types of video content.
Focus on positive content. Students can use educational videos to get help with their homework, develop new hobbies, and learn about other cultures. Content that sparks happiness, amusement, and satisfaction can improve adolescents’ well-being.
“Research reveals that exposure to humorous videos, stories of kindness, and uplifting news can increase positive affect, increase optimism, and foster a sense of hopefulness,” the APA report notes.
3) Schools and parents should team up to teach healthy tech use
Artificial intelligence-generated videos and other media are quickly changing digital experiences. Research on the effects of AI-generated content on adolescents is just emerging, the report states.
AI-generated or altered content can exacerbate adolescents’ negative body images, and AI can create “deepfake” videos targeting other students and school staff. These emerging problems underscore the importance of teaching students AI literacy, the report notes.
Beyond AI, many challenges outlined in the APA report are unique to this generation of kids, and parents often don’t know how to navigate this new normal, says Culatta. Schools need to share the burden with parents to teach students healthy technology habits.
Schools also should be a source of evidence-based information for families, he says.
“If you look where parents go to get trusted information about how to create healthy tech-use conditions at home, they turn to their schools,” Culatta says. “If you help parents create real, good healthy tech use at home, your job at school is going to be a lot easier.”
Education Week
