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Devorah Heitner

Born:
Connection to Illinois: Heitner has a Ph.D. in Media/Technology & Society from Northwestern University and has taught at DePaul and Northwestern. She lives in Chicagoland.

Biography: Dr. Devorah Heitner is the author of Screenwise: Helping Kids Thrive (and Survive) in Their Digital World and Growing Up in Public (Penguin Random House, September 12, 2023.) Navigating tech with kids can be overwhelming. Devorah Heitner offers pragmatic, research-informed approaches to navigating digital milestones with kids. Dr. Heitner’s work has appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and CNN Opinion.


Awards:

Primary Literary Genre(s): Non-Fiction

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Blog: https://devorahheitner.com/blog/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/devorahheitnerphd/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DevorahHeitner
Web: https://devorahheitner.com/


Selected Titles

Black Power TV
ISBN: 0822354098 OCLC: 816030807

Duke University Press Books 2013

In Black Power TV, Devorah Heitner chronicles the emergence of Black public affairs television starting in 1968. She examines two local shows, New York's Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant and Boston's Say Brother, and the national programs Soul! and Black Journal. These shows offered viewers radical and innovative programming: the introspections of a Black police officer in Harlem, African American high school students discussing visionary alternatives to the curriculum, and Miriam Makeba comparing race relations in the United States to apartheid in South Africa. While Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant and Say Brother originated from a desire to contain Black discontent during a period of urban uprisings and racial conflict, these shows were re-envisioned by their African American producers as venues for expressing Black critiques of mainstream discourse, disseminating Black culture, and modeling Black empowerment. At the national level, Soul! and Black Journal allowed for the imagining of a Black nation and a distinctly African American consciousness, and they played an influential role in the rise of the Black Arts Movement. Black Power TV reveals how regulatory, activist, and textual histories are interconnected and how Black public affairs television redefined African American representations in ways that continue to reverberate today.

Connecting Wisely in the Digital Age
ISBN: 1598501720 OCLC: 914495517

Youthlight Inc. 2014

The first Digital Citizenship Curriculum to focus on the social and emotional aspects of friendship and identity in the digital age. Social media and other aspects of the digital world can become a consuming presence in the lives of young people. Today's students encounter mean behavior in texting, social media and online gaming spaces that can carry over into face-to-face peer encounters. Some young people become so dependent on these technologies that they become neglectful of other important aspects of their lives. The goal of this curriculum is to offer students effective, easy-to-remember-and-use ways to identify, analyze and solve common social and emotional challenges they will likely be facing. This guide helps facilitate students in meaningful discussions that are recognizable and relevant to their everyday experiences. Unlike guides to general internet safety, this curriculum is focused on how young people shape their online communication with people they know and how their experiences will affect them on a day-to-day basis. This fourth to eighth grade digital citizenship curriculum was written by an experienced school counselor, Karen Jacobson MA and a digital citizenship expert, Devorah Heitner, PhD founder of Raising Digital Natives.

Growing Up in Public: Coming of Age in a Digital World
ISBN: 0593420969 OCLC: 1388322280

TarcherPerigee 2023

The definitive book on helping kids navigate growing up in a world where nearly every moment of their lives can be shared and comparedWith social media and constant connection, the boundaries of privacy are stretched thin. Growing Up in Public shows parents how to help tweens and teens navigate boundaries, identity, privacy, and reputation in their digital world.We can track our kids’ every move with apps, see their grades within minutes of being posted, and fixate on their digital footprint, anxious that a misstep could cause them to be “canceled” or even jeopardize their admission to college. And all of this adds pressure on kids who are coming of age immersed in social media platforms that emphasize “personal brand,” “likes,” and “gotcha” moments. How can they figure out who they really are with zero privacy and constant judgment? Devorah Heitner shows us that by focusing on character, not the threat of getting caught or exposed, we can support our kids to be authentically themselves.Drawing on her extensive work with parents and schools as well as hundreds of interviews with kids, parents, educators, clinicians, and scholars, Heitner offers strategies for parenting our kids in an always-connected world. With relatable stories and research-backed advice, Growing Up in Public empowers parents to cut through the overwhelm to connect with their kids, recognize how to support them, and help them figure out who they are when everyone is watching.

Screenwise 2nd Edition
ISBN: 103235013X OCLC: 1376427974

Routledge 2023

The second edition of Screenwise offers a refreshed, realistic, and optimistic perspective on how to thoughtfully guide kids in the digital age. Many parents feel that their kids are addicted, detached, or distracted because of their digital devices. Media expert Devorah Heitner, however, believes that technology offers huge potential to our children―if parents mentor them. Using the foundation of their own values and experiences, parents and educators can learn about the digital world to help set kids up for a lifetime of success in a world fueled by technology. Screenwise is a guide to understanding more about what it is like for children to grow up with technology all around them, and to recognizing the special challenges―and advantages―that contemporary kids and teens experience thanks to this level of connection. In it, Heitner presents practical parenting "hacks": quick ideas that you can implement today that will help you understand and relate to your digital native. The new edition includes updated material and additional strategies for parents and caretakers.

Screenwise: Helping Kids Thrive (and Survive) in Their Digital World
ISBN: 113841039X OCLC: 1005466340

Routledge [Place of publication not identified] : 2018

Screenwise offers a realistic and optimistic perspective on how to thoughtfully guide kids in the digital age. Many parents feel that their kids are addicted, detached, or distracted because of their digital devices. Media expert Devorah Heitner, however, believes that technology offers huge potential to our children-if parents help them. Using the foundation of their own values and experiences, parents and educators can learn about the digital world to help set kids up for a lifetime of success in a world fueled by technology. Screenwise is a guide to understanding more about what it is like for children to grow up with technology, and to recognizing the special challenges-and advantages-that contemporary kids and teens experience thanks to this level of connection. In it, Heitner presents practical parenting "hacks": quick ideas that you can implement today that will help you understand and relate to your digital native. The book will empower parents to recognize that the wisdom that they have gained throughout their lives is a relevant and urgently needed supplement to their kid's digital savvy, and help them develop skills for managing the new challenges of parenting. Based on real-life stories from other parents and Heitner's wealth of knowledge on the subject, Screenwise teaches parents what they need to know in order to raise responsible digital citizens.

 

 

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