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Lecture 2 - Breakout Rooms

High Gain Question 1 - Red

What is the role of the Church in helping control and structure the technology use of children and youth?

  1. Partnership between priest-servant-parent
  2. Share resources among churches
  3. Find an alternative to tech use
    • Interest groups (e.g. camera team)
  4. Giving a voice to children to know they are being heard
  5. Educating parents one on one 
    • Open house before Sunday School year, talk about expectations; Geek squad at church to help setup phones
High Gain Question 2 - Green

What are the three biggest challenges parents face regarding their children's technology use? How can the church help?

  1. Lack of knowledge
    • Kids are ahead of parents/servants in technology
    • For churches that don't have resources, we may want a shareable list of contacts that have IT expertise

  2. Time
    • Lack of time
    • Parents might say "I don't have time to spend time with the kids" or "I have to take an extra shift to support the family" etc.
    • Some newcomers may not understand what work can or can't force on them
    • Church can build family activities for the families to come as a unit (as opposed to just an activity for the kids and just an activity for parents/adults)
    • New parents need to understand that the kids are a shared responsibility

  3. Misguided understanding of freedom and culture
    • Parents don't understand the culture and think they will "overstep the freedom of their kids"
    • Encourage parents not to give up
    • Parents and servants should be examples to the kids and only use phones when appropriate (e.g. cases of emergency)
High Gain Question 3 - Orange

How are the challenges of new immigrants in monitoring children's tech use unique?

Challenges

  1.  Language
    • Even when encouraging the parents to actively engage with their kids, they may be sitting with them blind

  2. Priorities
    • New immigrants' priorities are to meet the basic needs of their family (food, shelter, job)

  3. Technology use requires being proactive
    • This is difficult if you are constantly playing catch up with the basic needs of your family

  4. Lack of awareness
    • Because of the above three, they don't know what they don't know

  5. Denial
    • Your kid did xyz... "no no no my kids are good!"

  6. Peer Pressure
    • New immigrants may feel more pressure to fit into a society as opposed to someone who was born here
    • They have certain assumptions about what it's like in the West based on TV and Media

Solutions

  1. Ongoing parent meeting (potentially open to all, but catered to newcomers)

  2. Online parent corner on the diocese website where different churches can share resources that are up-to-date. Like Axis but including Arabic language resources
High Gain Question 4

Describe the three biggest challenges in monitoring/controlling the technology use of teens.

  1. Lack of knowledge of parents
    • Lack of knowledge that there is even a danger; lack of knowledge of how to protect
    • Educate the parents and equip them with how to protect your children
    • Educate them EARLY
    • Continue to educate them
    • Open Wifi in the church should also be protected
    • Things are happening every day and it's hard to keep up
  2. Engage with children
    • I want kids to have freedom to explore, but without stifling them - how do I encourage exploration within bounds?
    • What alternative am I giving the kids? If I ask them to put the device down, they will ask "what else do you want me to do?"
    • Having creativity in engagements - what creative alternatives do you have to keep them engaged physically, mentally, socially?
      • Swimming
      • Biking
      • Going to a park
      • Playing sports
    • Needs to start early
    • Leading by example - learning is a lifelong process
    • In the class, can get the kids to use technology to answer questions, research, etc.
    • Engage every moment and don't leave time for talking or phones or even breathing!
    • Boredom

  3. Youth feel that their value is in social media and technology
    • Standing in tasbeha wearing my veil won't get me any "likes" on TikTok
    • How do we introduce other things as valuable to you and edifying to you
    • We should give weight to other activities - the Eucharist is life-giving... is this TikTok video life-giving?
    • Value proposition

  4. There is no one leading by example
    • "Well so-and-so does it"
      • Can redirect to a better behavior and show that that behavior is fruitful
    • Well this older deacon is using his phone in liturgy
    • Leading by example
    • We need to speak their language and come to where they are (e.g. through games, language, etc.)

To what extent should we limit the use of phone (e.g. "you're not allowed to bring your phone on this trip, or to this outing, etc.")

High Gain Question 5 - Black

What are the key features of an "ideal" program to help educate parents of young children about how to teach their kids healthy technology use (from infancy onward)?

What does the program look like?

  1. No sermons, but rather hands-on activities for the parents
  2. Guest speakers (younger that seem to understand their kids) that are experts
  3. Reach out to parents via phone calls so they can feel that we are seeking them to connect with their kids
  4. Targeted for a specific age group (i.e. not talking about HS when parents have elementary kids)
  5. SetupIT/Geek Squad at Church
  6. Servants leading by example (especially in Sunday School... how can one give the lesson while another is on his phone? Use liturgy books and Agpeyas (old fashioned) during liturgy)

What alternatives can we teach parents to offer?

  1. Having timers for going outside together
  2. Encourage screen time to be a family interactive screen time
  3. Set a time for the kid to look up a recipe and prepare the meal for the family
  4. Turn off blue light on your phone and use "night mode" all day
  5. Use games as a time together
  6. Teach kids to have good values and morals
High Gain Question 6 - Purple

What practical steps can parents take to ensure that their children's technology use progresses gradually in a healthy way from infancy to adulthood to help them realize age-appropriate benefits of technology while protecting them from unacceptable risks?

  1. Engagement
    • Playing with your kids
    • Family time
    • Physical interaction
    • Communicating
    • Leading by example and putting down your own phone

  2. Education
    • Educate parents and kids
    • Internet is not a bad tool but we have to know how to use it in the right way
    • Follow through on education

  3. Alternatives
    • Not "because I said so"
    • VidAngel
    • Coptic Apps (Upper Room Media, CYC, etc.)
    • Putting a schedule that gives earned time
    • Church Community
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