Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

Cedarhurst, NY—The Digital Citizenship Project, a Cedarhurst based organization dedicated to teaching digital responsibility in the age of technology has released their 2-year-long study (2015—2017) on the digital life of Jewish Day School students. 

“This study gives us the quantitative data needed to address the growing challenges and opportunities that digital technology presents in the world of education and Jewish education” said Temima Feldman, associate director of The Digital Citizenship Project. “Our goal is to empower parents, educators, and students to maximize what technology has to offer by understanding how it’s inherent challenges impact them.”

The study consists of 2027 student surveys from 17 Jewish Day Schools and Yeshivot from across the United States. Respondents were between grades 5 -12 and self-identified as either Orthodox, Modern Orthodox, Chabad or Conservative. “As technology ownership and habits amongst children are very much socially driven, it is critical to have community specific data that informs practice”, said lead researcher Dr. Eli Shapiro. “We are proud to contribute to the broader landscape of research on technology use in the digital age and in particular to the Jewish education community, continued Shapiro.

Findings include, device ownership rates, age of acquisition, percentage of students who have parental controls activated, rules and policies about technology at home, device dependence, percentage of students disturbed by images and videos online as well as how students benefit from technology engagement.

For more information on The Digital Citizenship Project, please visit http://www.thedigitalcitizenship.com.