Yellowbrick.me and the West Hartford Community of Concern are sponsoring the panel discussion and Q&A session at Conard High School.

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The public is invited to participate in a panel discussion on the topic “Raising Digital Natives with Character,” on Wednesday, March 1, 2017, beginning at 7 p.m.

The event is being sponsored by global Yellowbrick.me, a “global community of parents, experts, and researchers who support and help each other on the parenting journey,” and the West Hartford Community of Concern. 

Panelists will include West Hartford Assistant Superintendent of Schools Dr. Andrew Morrow; Dr. Amy Alamar, educator and author of “Parenting for the Genius: Developing Confidence in Your Parenting through Reflective Practice”; and Una Barry, head of school for the Montessori School of Greater Hartford.

The discussion will focus on parenting issues relating to “Digital Natives” – with a special focus on how to raise them with character. But what exactly is a digital native?

A Digital Native is a person who was raised in a technologically advanced, media-saturated world. And as a result, the way they process information, form social relationships, and make decisions differs dramatically from those of us who were raised in previous generations – in the absence of modern technological innovation.

Although digital natives vary in age, the term is usually applied to people who were born after 1980. That’s when cell phones, video games, cable television, and personal computers started to become accessible to the average American family. These technologies have rapidly changed over time. And new innovations such as social networking sites have emerged, adding an additional layer of complexity to the lives of digital natives.

So what’s the problem? Our kids are growing up in the constantly evolving information age and there is still so much we as parents and educators are still figuring out. Their job is to venture into it with excitement and abandon and our job is to keep them safe, but also to raise them to be independent adults with character who can fend for themselves.

As with any generation, we are faced with new challenges we didn’t experience in our own growing up, and our children are quick to learn and act. We are here to talk about how to embrace and live in the digital age with hope rather than fear. Of course we still want to be vigilant and cautious, but we shouldn’t throw our hands up and give up because we don’t tweet.

The panel will be moderated by FOX61 and Hartford Courant anchor and reporter Sarah Cody.

Following the panel will be a Q&A session.

The event will be held at Conard High School, 110 Beechwood Rd., West Hartford. It is free of charge and open to the public. Advance registration is available on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1061237997320774/