I’ve been working in schools since 1998 and have spent the past 11 years here at ANCS. There have certainly been plenty of changes in education and in the experience of young people over that time, perhaps none as striking as the rise in access to and use of computer technology. When I started at ANCS as the principal of our middle school campus in 2007, the entire building shared a cart of heavy, bulky laptop computers, and it was rare for a student to have a mobile phone (and “smartphones” didn’t exist). Today we have a 1:1 student to laptop ratio in grades 3-8, additional tablets and laptop and desktop computers at each campus, and many students have mobile devices.
A few years ago our school’s technology subcommittee developed a multi-year technology strategic plan which included this description of the vision for technology use at ANCS:
As a member of the Coalition of Essential Schools, ANCS is committed to personalized instruction based on individual needs and interests as well as the performance of authentic tasks. As a hands-on, constructivist community, we view technology as one tool to promote personalization, project-based learning, and authentic assessment. Teachers and students are empowered to explore creative and varied methods of instruction and learning, some of which will include technology, some of which will not. It is the goal of the school to provide reliable, easy-to-use technology tools to its teachers and students to support their learning goals. Teachers and students are the primary drivers of how technology will be used in a certain learning activity; the vision of the school is to make technology available and to provide the appropriate professional development and training to make the use of that technology effective. Lessons and indeed classrooms will vary greatly in how often and how deeply technology is used, and that variance is consistent with the mission of the school. Our goal vis-à-vis technology is to make sure teachers and students have it available to use at their discretion.
As you can see, our goal is not for students to use technology simply to have a slicker, more modern way of learning but to use technology as a tool for deeper, more personalized learning. We are fortunate to have two terrific educators–Mike Boardman and Kisha Rogers–who directly support teachers and students in the use of ANCS’s technology and many more teachers at each campus who share their instructional technology skills with their colleagues.
Alongside the increase in the use of technology at school is a parallel rise in exposure to screens outside of school. These infographics from Common Sense Media highlight the dramatic change over the past several years in the level of media consumption among young people, particularly through mobile devices.
As parents and as educators, it is important to be aware of these changes so we can help our children and students to develop healthy habits when it comes to the use of devices so that we can avoid the negative impacts emerging research suggests can come from certain types and/or levels of media use. Here are three things I’d encourage all of us to do to support our young people when it comes to screens and devices:
- Monitor what students are using and watching and discuss with them what’s appropriate and what is not: We all know that “But my friend plays _________ video game” or “Her parents let her watch ______________ show” is a common response from kids. But we should all decide what’s best for our own family. Common Sense Media has terrific guides to apps, games, movies, and television with suggested ages and detailed descriptions along with discussion points for parents to use when talking with their kids.
- Help students develop a healthy media “diet”: There are plenty of positive benefits to using devices for learning and for enjoyment. But obviously there can be too much of a good thing, and we have seen students come to school bleary-eyed from staying up late watching a tv or displaying semi-addictive tendencies in relation to a video game. Again, Common Sense Media offers simple ideas for parents and for educators to help students establish appropriate limits for when/how/where/what they use devices.
- Reflect on your own screen time: Smartphones have made adult lives more efficient and easier in many ways, but they can also cause us to check email more frequently, want to capture and post about every moment in our day, and sneak in views of phone to check the score of a game while out with our family (I’ll admit to some of these myself). Our young people model much of their behavior based on what they see from us, and a recent article published by the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that one of the best ways we can support our kids in having healthy media use habits is to be more mindful of our own.
Access to technology is without a doubt a powerful tool for students, but we must take care to work in partnership between school and home to guide students in using that technology in ways that are beneficial to their learning and emotional development.