Digital wellbeing is broadly understood as the impact (positive and/or negative) of digital technologies on wellbeing (Calvo & Peters, 2018; Gui, Fasoli & Carradore, 2017; Biggins & Holley, 2020). This workshop is designed to offer participants an opportunity to reflect on their relationship with digital technologies and to explore strategies to minimise the negative impact and optimise the positive impact of these technologies. The workshop draws on the findings of a case study that explored the impact of a digital wellbeing intervention on the digital wellbeing of staff in an Irish higher education institution (Stone, 2023). The findings of this study demonstrate that the intervention, comprising 4 x 90-minute professional learning workshops, had a beneficial impact for participants on their overall workplace wellbeing and their ability to manage their digital wellbeing. Furthermore, the study suggests that the intervention broadened participants’ appreciation of digital technologies as tools for autonomy, connection, and productivity.

Workshop participants will be invited to engage with three activities from the digital wellbeing intervention which emerged from the study as most beneficial for participants.

(a) Group discussion activity: Following a brief introduction to the concept of digital wellbeing, participants will be invited to discuss the challenges they may have encountered in terms of using digital technologies in the workplace.

(b) Individual reflection activity: A model of digital wellbeing in the workplace will be introduced to scaffold an individual reflection on the positive and negative impact of digital technologies in the workplace and beyond.

(c) Presentation and collaborative activity: Participants will be introduced to evidence-based practical strategies to manage the challenges of digital technologies such as work-home boundaries, digital distraction and digital overload. Participants will be invited to share their own strategies.

In addition to offering the opportunity to reflect on their personal digital wellbeing, the workshop offers participants a flavour of the digital wellbeing intervention examined in the research study, which may be relevant to their own work context as learning technologists, educational developers and digital learning specialists. Open Educational Resources (OERs) developed for the digital wellbeing intervention will be shared with participants and are available through creative commons licensing should participants wish to adapt the professional learning intervention in their own context.

References

Biggins D. & Holley, D. (2020) Institutional compassion: a co-design approach to developing digital wellbeing. ALT summer summit, 29th September 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETcTbm7prQI (Accessed on October 30th, 2020).

Calvo R., Peters, D. & Ryan, R. M. (2018) ‘Designing for Motivation, Engagement and Wellbeing in Digital Experience’ Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 9 2018 Available at: DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00797

Gui, M., Fasoli, M. & Carradore, R. (2017) “Digital wellbeing”. Developing a New Theoretical Tool For Media Literacy Research. Italian Journal of Sociology of Education, 9(1), 155-173. doi: 10.14658/pupj-ijse-2017-1-8

Stone, S. (2023). The yin & yang of digital technologies: A case study exploring the impact of a digital wellbeing intervention on higher education staff (Doctor of Education thesis, Dublin City University). DORAS. https://doras.dcu.ie/28980/