I’m all about asking the big questions. And the one on my mind recently has been: how do we model conscientious use of digital tools for our students?

Last week I was reintroduced to a YouTube video, “A Vision of Students Today,” which focuses on the tensions between current education and the current global, digital world. Well, that piece, by a Kansas State University class in digital ethnography, continues to blow my colloquial, late-twentieth-century American mind. And then… there’s the Sunday comics.

Zits, a strip about a teenage boy and his family, is one of my favorites. In last Sunday’s strip (3/8/09), Jeremy’s friend comes by to pick up a book, use the bathroom, and eat a snack. Through the entire visit, they communicate only through texting. The mother is, of course, appalled at the missed chance for real communication.

No, I’m not going to answer my own question. Big questions are more important to ask than to answer. The two images provided here, however, provide some grist for lively discussions on what is of value and how to line up the “things” around us to reflect those values.

In terms of modeling conscientious use to our students: What are our values as educators? And, how do we employ or line up the digital “things” in our digital tool box to reflect those values? That would be a place to start.