Technology—from social media to cellphones—is often blamed for causing bad behavior among students, especially middle schoolers. But when used intentionally, technology can also promote kindness, collaboration, and other essential social skills.
For students to successfully navigate their digital worlds and future careers, they need to learn how to work productively and communicate respectfully with one another on online platforms, said Jennifer Foster, a senior program coordinator for the eMINTS National Training Center, a teacher training initiative at the University of Missouri.
“We hear often: the kids are stuck on a computer all day long, they’re not interacting with other people, and they lose those social skills of being able to collaborate with others and get along,” she said. “But I do work remotely and interact with people all day long, every single day, and have to make sure that I have good collaboration skills, even though I don’t report to an office. There are lots of technology tools that are available to us to help students learn how to enhance these skills.”
Foster was scheduled to present at ISTELive 25 + ASCD Annual Conference 25 in San Antonio, June 29 to July 2, on how technology can help teachers promote kindness in their classrooms. She shared with Education Week, ahead of the conference, her thoughts on five tools educators might want to consider using. All of those tools can be used on most standard school-issued devices.
These tools, Foster said, can help teachers of all subjects to incorporate social-emotional learning exercises into their existing lesson plans. And they can be especially powerful for engaging students who don’t like to speak up in class, Foster said.
That said, experts caution teachers to take a hard look at any digital tools before using them with students, and also test a variety of them before determining what will work best with students. And teachers should make sure that those technologies also feature strong data privacy standards.
With that in mind, here is what Foster identified as some key areas with certain tools that could be helpful:
1. Teaching social-emotional skills
BrainPOP produces videos on a range of academic subjects for elementary and middle school students, but its content on social-emotional skills, such as conflict resolution and mindfulness, are especially relevant for middle schoolers, Foster said.
“Conflict resolution, problem solving, those are [social skills] that middle school students really need to develop so that they are learning to get along and collaborate with others,” she said.
2. Encouraging students to think before they speak
VoiceThread can help students learn to see other points of view and to pause and think before responding, Foster said. These skills are important not just for working in groups but also for being respectful and positive on social media and—one day—online work platforms.
“Perspective taking is a key component to being able to collaborate with others and learn that your perspective is one of many perspectives, and middle school is a critical age to develop those skills,” she said.
To use VoiceThread, a teacher decides on a prompt, such as asking students to share a story about themselves or their opinions about an assigned reading, Foster said. Students record a short narrative that their classmates listen to before recording and sharing their reactions and feedback to the original narrative.
“It’s asynchronous, so that kids have time to process what they are going to say,” Foster said. “They can write it down, they can record what they want to say as feedback, then the original student can click through and listen to all of the comments about their story. It’s a little bit of a slower process, but it forces students to really think about what they’re going to say instead of blurting out the first thing in their mind.”
3. Creating a sense of belonging
Padlet is a website that allows groups to create shared boards where students can post and comment on other people’s posts. It’s a good tool for creating vision boards or for students to map out ideas for a group project, Foster said, practicing the digital communication skills they’ll need in a work environment.
Teachers can also have students use Padlet as a digital space for students to introduce themselves at the beginning of the school year with a photo and short biography, which helps build a sense of belonging, said Foster.
“We encourage teachers to do that live in person, but that’s not always the preferred method for some students,” she said. “They live in a digital world and are hesitant at times to share things about themselves out loud in front of a full classroom of students. But they’re very comfortable in sharing things on social media.”
Similar to Voice Thread, Padlet gives students opportunities to share thoughts and comment on other people’s posts, encouraging respectful communication on digital platforms, Foster said.
4. Improving students’ emotional regulation
Headspace is a useful tool for improving students’ emotional regulation, Foster said. It teaches students social-emotional skills such as emotional management and social awareness through short videos. For example, Foster said, there are lessons on how to show gratitude or the health benefits of smiling. Some videos are interactive, such as leading students through a breathing exercise.
Foster recommends teachers use the videos the same way they would a brain break when transitioning from one activity to another.
“Headspace would be really great at the beginning of a class period or as they’re getting ready to move from group practice into individual practice or right after lunch, where the kids come in and they’re completely dysregulated because things are crazy in the cafeteria,” she said.
5. Promoting reflection and goal-setting
Canva has useful templates for reflections and goalsetting, said Foster, both important to developing students’ self-awareness. It also gives students the chance to get really creative in how they express themselves, she said.
This tool can be especially helpful for students who struggle to write by hand and for whom a more traditional exercise, like journaling, may be a struggle, said Foster.
“Maybe the goals can be a visual representation” of what they want to achieve, she said. “It can also be a visual representation reflecting on their own behavior over an incident that had recently happened.”
Although Canva can do a lot of the things the other tools on this list can, said Foster, the tool can also be overwhelming to students. She recommends that teachers make sure they are giving students guidance and parameters on what templates to use in the program.
