Today we’d like to introduce you to Carrie Rogers-Whitehead.
Hi Carrie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
“Once a librarian, always a librarian”—That’s what I sometimes say. My first profession was as a librarian and it was mine for about a decade. In college, I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do. I started off as a biochemistry major, to go into genetics. But I quickly found that I needed people and more words and I switched to major in history. From there I decided to get a graduate degree in library and information science, and I started my career with a lucky break at a small library in 2004.
I loved libraries. I loved helping people and encouraging learning. I worked in a few different positions in libraries before being promoted to a Senior Librarian coordinating teen services for the Salt Lake County Library System. 2013, the year after that promotion I received the Utah Librarian of the Year award. I was of course thrilled to be honored, but that award also made me think. It was kind of a terminal award, and I had reached the end of one career ladder. The next steps for me, stretching out 20 plus years, were management, and more desk work and I wasn’t particularly enthused about the process.
So in 2015 I spent most of the year self-reflecting and thinking about what I wanted to do. Just about every week that year I would ask someone I admired, or someone in a field I was interested in for coffee. I learned a lot from those coffee talks and at the end of each of those conversations, I would ask: Can you introduce me to someone else? No one declined and through talking to dozens of people the idea of my next steps came into mind. I realized through those hours of conversations that the job I wanted didn’t exist; I would have to invent my next step.
When I was a Senior Librarian, one of my big initiatives was getting more STEM and other tech-related programming into the library. Libraries are wonderful places for curiosity and experimentation. I wanted to give the students a chance to try out new things and work in a safe place—with no tests or assignments! Through that work, I learned that many students could understand the HOW of technology, but not the WHY. They understood how to use different apps, but not if they SHOULD use them. The ethics, the critical thinking, those pieces were missing. I also witnessed in my years of work with adolescents continual issues with cyberbullying. When I would ask what these teens were learning in school that they would chuckle and sometimes roll their eyes. “Yeah, we had an assembly on that.” It was clear that there was a gap in their learning, and what they were learning wasn’t helping.
It was then I decided to start Digital Respons-Ability. I wanted to teach students where they were at, and do more listening than lecturing them. I also wanted to reach out to other students that weren’t getting this knowledge, including younger ones. I wanted to fill those gaps in education. I wanted to create positive digital citizens.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
There’s been plenty of bumps along the road. The first one was not being paid! We are primarily a government contractor and governments have their own processes and timeline. When I first started I had a small contract that I was working on, but it ended being about 8 months before I was paid. I remember sitting at my desk just wondering “What am I DOING here?!”
Another issue was in my personal life. My (now ex) husband was not very supportive of the business. I would have to work in bits and pieces, very early mornings or on weekends to fit it my work with child care. He would criticize my work. When I did make more money and grew the business things in my marriage got worse. My ex husband refused to do some housework and argued against getting additional childcare which I desperately needed to do my job. I had enough. I filed for divorce. But despite that stress at home, the business still had to be run. I still had to wake up every day, despite what was going on at home, and keep working. It’s much better now, but it was a very stressful time.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Digital Respons-Ability is a provider of digital citizenship education for students, parents, and educators. Digital citizenship is the ethical and responsible use of technology.
We teach tens of thousands of students each year in small, classroom-based live instruction. In our classes, we have discussions and activities and try to empower and educate students to make the best decisions for their digital lives. We also teach parents how to balance technology at home through our 3Ms of digital parenting classes. We teach parents the different developmental stages of children and encourage them to model behavior when children are young, then help manage their child’s accounts and then take a step back and monitor their adolescent’s behaviors.
What sets us apart in this space is how our staff is on the ground. We are a company of educators in the classroom regularly talking and working with kids. We aren’t academics, we’re practitioners. And we’re the only company doing this much live instruction on this deep a level. We take that knowledge and we help educators embed digital citizenship in their classrooms.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Remote learning let teachers and parents have a window into their students’ and children’s internet use. Technology has become more prevalent at school and at home and children are getting online at younger and younger ages. There’s more awareness and standards around digital citizenship and I anticipate the need for this type of instruction to grow.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://respons-ability.net
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Digital_Empower
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DigitalResponsAbility
Image Credits
Digital Respons-Ability
