New podcast episode: Digital health literacy in schools: Between cell phone bans and self-control
Digital health literacy is more than just technology: it's about finding, understanding, evaluating, and applying information in the everyday lives of children and young people. Kerstin Flohr shows how teachers want to promote this skill and why the topic is ethical: responsibility, care, well-being—anchored above all in professional ethics.
Tablets facilitate planning and communication, but algorithms flood classrooms with misinformation. Teachers become points of contact, set up consultation hours, and act as media coaches. At the same time, there is a lack of time, recognition, and a framework that does not overload teaching.
Kerstin's empirical-ethical approach combines normative duties (e.g., promoting self-determination) with interviews. The result: many teachers are already doing a lot – creatively, pragmatically, often in addition to their regular duties. However, teaching suffers when devices are used in parallel and distract from learning. Clear rules are needed: when, how, for what; plus breaks and rest.
Devices are there, but skills are lacking. After the pandemic and the Digital Pact, training in healthy use remained patchy in many cases. A cell phone ban helps with uniform rules—but it is no substitute for self-regulation. What is needed is a strategy that intelligently combines analog (writing, reading, fact-checking) and digital.
What helps now: actively integrating iPads while ensuring analog skills. Training information literacy, checking sources, monitoring your own screen time. Schools need freedom and recognition for prevention – so that all children get the same tools, not just those with dedicated individual teachers.
Watch/listen now and gain exciting insights:YouTube, Spotify, Apple, Dezer