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With today's digital kids, it's the responsibility of parents, teachers, and other adult mentors to join kids on the digital playgrounds and to teach them to be happy and healthy cyber-citizens. Keep reading to learn suggestions for helping kids become happy, healthy cyber-citizens.

By focusing on quality over quantity, families can move away from fear, maintain a healthy balance, and seek out extraordinary learning.

It's a healthy reminder that struggling through a difficult problem—whether it's learning Photoshop, getting used to a new webapp, or picking up a new skill—is a necessary part of the learning process.

What are we doing as educators to meaningfully engage our students, to give them the autonomy, purpose, and opportunity for mastery which they crave and to which they respond with focus, energy, enthusiasm, and diligence?

Do we think that before technology, most students avoided distraction?

Yes, of course, students can and do get distracted when their computers and smartphones are open on their desk or lap, and teachers need to respond thoughtfully to this problem.    It is fine for teachers to ask students to put them away in certain times.    William Stites has a terrific post about how schools can confront and manage the technological distraction issues

How do you identify and avoid spreading misinformation, myths, and urban legends on the internet?

employ a healthy level of skepticism for what you're reading, watching, or otherwise consuming—on the internet or elsewhere

Snopes is "the definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation"—and for the most part, it actually does live up to that goal.

Likewise, it is up to learning managers to determine when to ask students and teachers to turn their devices off; that is, to unplug so we can talk, think, and collaborate face to face. On/Off. It's balanced. It's healthy.

The fact that their technology is so invisible to them is their Achilles Heel. Because they don't see it, they don't think to question it.

Developing Responsible-Use Policies:

best way schools can contribute to safe and appropriate use of the Internet and student owned-mobile devices is to move from the traditional AUP approach to an RUP—a “responsible-use policy” approach.

RUP policy/philosophy that treats the student as a person responsible for ethical and healthy use of the Internet and mobile devices.

Healthy urges can become unhealthy addictions

Turning off push notifications and setting up appropriate times to check your phone can go a long way to regain control over smartphone

workplace policies "that prohibit evening and weekend emails" are also important