{"id":37679,"date":"2025-09-23T12:42:47","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T16:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nearpod.com\/blog\/?p=37679"},"modified":"2025-09-23T12:51:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T16:51:44","slug":"digital-wellness-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nearpod.com\/blog\/digital-wellness-students\/","title":{"rendered":"How to teach digital health and wellness to students"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Digital wellness: What was once thought of as supplemental content is now becoming more recognized as a foundational set of skills that all kids\u2014and adults\u2014need today to thrive in our digital world. What is digital health and wellness? Digital wellness, or digital wellbeing, refers to a healthy state of balance in one\u2019s relationship with technology. And nowadays, schools are hungry to adopt curricula and resources to teach digital wellness skills and habits of mind to all students, from kindergarten through high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From daily digital habits around screen time to how we nurture our relationships with those we know IRL (in real life) or just online, to ensuring our privacy and safety, to having a critical eye when consuming media, our daily tech use has tangible effects on our mental, emotional, and physical health. While laws vary, most states nowadays have some regulation in place mandating education around media literacy<\/a>, digital literacy<\/a>, social media<\/a>, and artificial intelligence<\/a> (AI). With the increased scrutiny surrounding AI\u2019s role in teaching and learning, more conversations are emerging about the concept of digital wellness for students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New to Nearpod? Make sure you\u2019re signed up to access these lessons and activities!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod and the <\/em>21st Century Readiness Program<\/em><\/a> for schools and districts.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Teachers: Sign up for free<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Administrators: Schedule a call<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The benefits of digital wellness for kids<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The benefits of striving toward digital health and wellness are plentiful and transformative for young people’s development. With a focus on intentional technology use, kids can develop a healthy sense of agency and self-awareness about their digital habits. They build emotional resilience and forge stronger peer-to-peer relationships, moving beyond the superficial connections that often characterize online interactions. Children also learn to take back control of when and where they focus their attention, leading to improved productivity and deeper engagement with both digital and offline activities. Additionally, they strengthen their literacy and critical thinking skills\u2014essential 21st-century capabilities that will serve them throughout their lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These benefits become even more crucial when we consider the challenges kids face in today’s digital landscape. For many years, schools have embraced teaching digital citizenship<\/a>, focusing on how to be safe, responsible, and respectful online. However, as the digital world evolves rapidly, we need an expanded notion of digital wellbeing that goes beyond basic safety and online etiquette. Educators, psychologists, researchers, and parents have grown increasingly concerned about the addictive qualities of the internet and digital devices, recognizing their impact on kids’ neuroplasticity, dopamine levels, and sleep patterns. The constant exposure to curated content creates additional pressures through social comparison, which can lead to low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why advocates push for a proactive approach\u2014teaching these comprehensive digital wellness skills before children get online or receive their own devices, and before serious issues arise. Even as schools implement bell-to-bell phone bans<\/a>, these essential life skills remain key to helping kids navigate and avoid the pitfalls of online life, including phishing, cyberbullying, plagiarism, online hate, catfishing, and misinformation. Even without phones in their pockets at school, our kids still need to learn how to thrive in today\u2019s digital world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearpod & Common Sense lessons<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Nearpod Library and 21st Century Readiness Program<\/a> include interactive lessons and resources designed to set students up for success in school and life. This suite of content, available as an add-on to school and district subscriptions, focuses on timely 21st<\/sup>-century skill sets around AI literacy, digital citizenship, essential technology skills, coding and computational thinking, keyboarding, and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the 21st Century Readiness Program’s<\/a> digital citizenship offering, Nearpod partnered with Common Sense Education<\/a> to develop media-rich \u201cdigcit\u201d lessons that take advantage of Nearpod\u2019s engaging interactivity. Common Sense is a nonprofit dedicated to helping families, teachers, and kids navigate the world of media through trusted ratings, reviews, and advocacy work. These digital citizenship and media literacy lessons are available for students as young as kindergarten and cover topics pertaining to: <\/p>\n\n\n\n