Digital Citizenship Week at ISB

By Declan Doheny, ISB Communications 

Published on August 29, 2025

The International School of Beijing (ISB) launched its Digital Citizenship Week (Aug 25–29) into a whole-community conversation this year, pairing classroom activities with five practical workshops for parents led by visiting expert Patrick Green.

Green—an education-technology leader, spent three days on campus helping families rethink screen time, social media, and online safety. His core message was refreshingly down-to-earth: digital wellness isn’t an app or a ban; it’s a set of routines that families design and stick to together.

 Visiting expert Patrick Green featured in ISB’s parent-education series during Digital Citizenship Week. 

Beyond Screen Time: What Really Matters

Across ISB classrooms, students explored three fundamentals of digital citizenship: what a digital footprint is, how to be kind online, and how to think critically before posting. Spirit-day prompts—mismatched socks on Tuesday, bright shirts on Wednesday, and hats on Thursday—kept the week visible and fun, while homerooms used the themes to spark age-appropriate discussions about identity and empathy online.

Green’s parent program ran in parallel, moving from big-picture science to concrete household playbooks:

• The Truth About Screen Time (Mon, Aug 25) unpacked the research behind “good” and “bad” screen use, reframing the question from “How many hours?” to “What are we doing, with whom, and how does it affect sleep, learning, and mood?”

• Mentoring and Modeling (Tue, Aug 26) focused on the hardest part for adults—going first. Green challenged caregivers to align their own tech habits with the boundaries they set for children.

• Strong Foundations: Rules and Boundaries for ES & MS (Tue, Aug 26) translated values into simple, visible agreements: device parking spots at night, family media plans, and clear “when/where” rules for messaging and games.

• Social Media, Gaming, and Mental Health (Wed, Aug 27) addressed algorithms, comparison culture, and dopamine loops, with practical ideas for balancing online connections and offline recovery.

• Managing Online Risky Behavior (Wed, Aug 27) gave parents plain-language scripts for conversations about privacy, sharenting, scams, and what to do when a child makes a mistake online.

What resonated with ISB families?

Parents who attended described the sessions as “permission to reset.”  Rather than prescribing one perfect policy, Green encouraged families to prototype: agree a small change, try it for a week, review together, and adjust. That iterative mindset—familiar to ISB students in design and science classes—proved powerful at home too.

Key takeaways repeated in hallways afterward:

• Model first, then mandate. Kids watch what we do with phones at dinner and at bedtime.

• Name the trade-offs. Sleep and movement are non-negotiables; media that crowds them out should be re-scheduled.

• Post with tomorrow in mind. A child’s digital footprint is a long game; pause before sharing their images or milestones publicly.

• Make tools boring. Charging stations outside bedrooms and app timers work best when they’re predictable and not punitive.

• Keep talking. Curiosity beats surveillance; ask what’s fun or stressful online and listen for patterns.

A community approach

ISB’s decision to open Digital Citizenship Week to parents reflects a broader shift in how schools address technology: not as a problem to be “solved” by filters and bans, but as a shared culture that students, teachers, and families build together. By aligning classroom lessons with caregiver workshops, the school gave students consistent language and expectations—at school and at home.

Green’s visit also underscored that digital citizenship is not a single lesson in September; it’s an evolving practice. As platforms change and children grow, the habits that keep tech in its place will need regular tune-ups. ISB plans to continue the conversation through homeroom check-ins, counselor lessons, and future parent education events.

About the speaker: Patrick Green works globally with schools on digital wellness, parenting, screen-time routines, and digital citizenship. He customizes workshops to each community and is the author of two books on technology and learning, with a new, action-focused guide for caregivers on screen-time strategies coming soon.