Social and emotional learning in digital age: Future trajectories for children and adolescents

Pages: 237-239
Rekha Sapra (Department of Human Development and family Empowerment, Bharati College, University of Delhi, Delhi)

The digital technology as a powerful influence on how and what we learn has been established by an array of researches in this domain. The relevance and significance of social and emotional skills has been researched extensively for its role in promoting well-being. The core skills, which have been identified by social-emotional learning (SEL) programs focus on self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision making, social awareness and relationship skills. The umbrella term for SEL includes skills of team work, collaborative abilities, negotiation skills, critical thinking, ethical and social responsibility and effective communication to name a few. SEL is still an emerging field of enquiry and fostering and promoting it through technology has powerful implications for positive outcomes. World Economic Forum notes that both current and leading edge tools have the potential to bring social-emotional competencies to school. Digital technology is a powerful and all pervasive tool which can be used positively in classroom situations. Teachers, researchers, psychologists, mental health professionals and all the stake holders can come together to make use of the available digital programs in a positive structured manner. The discussion in this paper are based on social media platforms and other games based learning solutions for enhancing critical skills of decision making, critical thinking, empathy, and ethical behaviour by children and adolescents. Use of Facebook in a responsible manner, dealing with comments on social media and many other digital platforms can be used by educators, psychologists and researchers in an interactive manner to promote student engagement, peer collaboration. Certain wearables do indicate if the stress level has increased. These are accompanied by positive suggestion and techniques like breathing exercises, soothing music. The digital technology is here to stay. Bring technology to the children in a responsible structured manner so that it becomes a fertile ground for learning the positive skills.