DIGITAL WELLNESS
In 2015, Utah became the first state to have a Digital Citizenship bill (HB213). In 2020, Utah took the lead again to be the first state to include Digital Wellness in its governing structures and language. HB372 was signed into law by Governor Gary Herbert. This law calls for the creation of a Digital Wellness, Digital Citizenship, and Safe Technology Commission (still awaiting funding).
Just as in 2015, when EPIK Deliberate Digital created DigCitUtah as a free resource to help parents, teachers, administrators, and others learn more and have access to resources related to Digital Citizenship, now EPIK is helping provide Digital Wellness information and resources to the community. In order to facilitate this community support, EPIK dedicated resources to receive certification in Digital Wellness from the Digital Wellness Institute.
EPIK's director, Michelle Linford, shared some of her key takeaways from the course in this presentation created as her final project for the course: Helping Utah Lead the Way into the World of Digital Wellness.
This course was exciting because, in line with EPIK's mission, it brings the expertise of people from various sectors or specialties together in ways that can help individuals, families, schools, and organizations leverage the positives of technology while minimizing harms.
Digital Wellness Resources
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Online education where parents can create a tech plan that works for their family in a judgment-free zone.
Helps you prioritize the relationships with your kids instead of laying down tech laws. Reduce screen time. Restore family time. Raise kids who thrive.
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Our interactions with our devices can affect many different aspects of our lives: physical health, mental health, relational health, and more. This FREE Digital Wellness series explores various topics, and can help you and your family practice a values-centered approach for intentional technology use.
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Our MISSION here is to teach as many people as possible how to cultivate the skills and competencies necessary to take control of the media they allow into their everyday living, and the shaping of their identities in that process.
Our VISION is generations of autonomous humans who instinctively take charge of their relationship with media.
We would love to see media literacy education integrated into the curriculum of every school, and at every grade level, everywhere, as more leaders in educators understand that literacy today has a deeper definition than it had in past eras. Until then, we're doing everything we can to advance community media literacy education outside of traditional learning spaces.