Helping Students Navigate the Digital Landscape with TSI

How are we currently doing this? Beginning this fall, WFS started working with The Social Institute (TSI) whose mission is to provide “a gamified, online learning platform that empowers students to navigate their social world positively — including social media and technology — to fuel their health, happiness, and future success.” 

WFS has over 35 faculty and staff members who serve as either Captains, Junior Captains, or Facilitators. In their various roles, our educators are not only learning more about social media and the numerous ways in which it can affect our students, but they are also empowering our students through age-appropriate lessons beginning in fourth grade. While the lessons might be tailored to each specific grade level, the goals are similar: for students to avoid dangerous pitfalls that come with various social media platforms, recognize all of the misinformation that is spread throughout the internet, and build each other up on social media. 

Below, you will find some specific lessons that are tailored to specific groups of students in the lower, middle, and upper school here at Wilmington Friends.  

As they begin to advance their way through lower school, many students will create personal social media accounts on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. While these accounts can be helpful to connect with their peers and share various accomplishments both inside and outside of school, they can also be used to gossip about one another and spread false information about their classmates. In an activity that TSI calls “Reverse Gossip,” lower school students are asked to think about the ways in which they can respond to a negative message from one of their classmates positively. 

To start the activity, students are given a sample negative message from a peer that reads, “I heard she got a 40 on the math test but it was so easy! She must be pretty dumb.” Instead of piling on and continuing to speak negatively about this student, they are tasked with building the student back up. A response might look like, “She’s pretty smart though. Did you see her science project? She had the highest score in the class.”

After playing out multiple scenarios like this where they are “reversing” the gossip from their peers, students are asked to come back together and discuss some of their favorite responses that they came up with. They are also asked to consider the following: How might it make you feel if someone were to say something negative about you? What might you be able to do if someone says something not nice about someone else? How can we ensure that we create a safe environment for all of our classmates?

In asking students to ponder these questions and practice their “reverse gossiping” skills, the hope is that they will think twice when they receive a negative message and, instead of piling on, build that student up and create a more inclusive environment for their peers. 

As students reach their teenage years, they are excited to continue to share more of themselves on various social media platforms. Whether they scored the game-winning basket or crushed their most recent solo performance at open mic night, students want to share their accomplishments with their peers. However, due to this willingness to share, students are liable, at times, to overshare on their platforms and post images or videos of themselves that are not appropriate. Students may also make the mistake of posting photos or videos of others without their consent regardless of whether or not they have ill intentions. In an activity that TSI calls, “Respecting the Privacy of Others, Online and Off,” middle school students examine the power of their posts and why they should always think twice before pushing submit. 

To start this specific lesson, middle school students are asked to read multiple articles that demonstrate when someone’s privacy has been violated. As they begin to understand the severity of posting personal content or of posting content of others without their consent––and the consequences that can follow––they are given specific scenarios and asked what they would do. 

Scenario 1: One of your friends falls asleep on the school bus during a field trip. A couple of classmates pull out their phones, take embarrassing photos of them, and plan to post them on social media. What do you do? 

Scenario 2: Your crush sends you a message and asks for an inappropriate picture, but you do not feel comfortable sharing. What should you do at this moment? 

These discussions, while difficult, are important to have with students as they might be faced with these decisions in either middle or high school. After spending time combing through each scenario as a class and discussing the appropriate response, students will gain the tools to be more equipped to handle these situations. The goal is for students to understand that not all photos should be shared on social media, inappropriate photos that you take of yourself or screenshots of others can have damaging consequences, and you must have the consent of others before posting photos and videos of them.

Whether they have been posting pictures, videos, or simply making comments on other posts, upper school students typically have an online presence that is stronger than younger students because they have had access to the technology for longer periods of time. In this lesson, “Handling the Pressure of Representing Something Much Bigger Than Yourself,” students look at how posts from the past influence future opportunities, explore why colleges and employers look at this information, and create their own personal mission statement to help them with future posts. 

To begin this lesson, students are tasked with reading various articles that demonstrate the positive and negative effects that past posts and comments on social media can have on people. Topics include: the Teen Vogue Editor-in-Chief who was forced to resign due to homophobic and racist remark; a future UNC student-athlete who lost their scholarship due to an Instagram Live video; and a research article that shows over 70% of employers screen their candidates' social media presence (and that 42% of these employers that checked felt even better about the person after checking their social media page). After reading these articles, students are asked to discuss the following questions: Why might companies or schools revoke a job or scholarship offer based on a post? Does it matter how old these people were when they posted and/or commented on these hateful things? What do your social media pages look like and do they accurately represent who you are and your values? 

These discussions, particularly around the final question, are geared to help students understand that social media is permanent and that their posts and comments reflect their core values. Their final activity in this lesson is to create a one- to two-sentence mission statement about their lives and who they hope to be. The goal, in theory, is to help these high school students become more self-aware about what they post online and how this content aligns with the values and standards they have set for themselves.

While we must teach our students how to use technology responsibly, it is also important to provide resources for caregivers to use at home. TSI, understanding how difficult it can be to keep up with all of the social media trends and platforms, makes it easy through their Parent Toolkit which includes Playbooks, Family Huddles, and the Wall of Wins. 

Playbooks include articles by TSI experts that talk about how children are using specific social media platforms along with descriptions of every single app, the purpose behind each one, and ways students are currently using them, both good and bad. If a child asks to download an app, parents and caregivers can turn to the Playbook to find out what the app is and how students are engaging with it. The Family Huddles are simply positive conversation starters for families to discuss what was learned in a specific day’s lesson or serious issues surrounding social media platforms. Lastly, because social media can often be such a negative space, the Wall of Wins helps families see all of the good that can come from social media and how students use it to uplift one another. 

While no one can become an expert overnight, these resources provided by TSI can help parents and caregivers ensure that their children are safely using technology and give them some insight into all of the good that social media can produce as well.