Covid has changed our world, in some ways, forever. With learning moved to homes and on screens, school districts are right to praise their tech departments and their teachers and staff for delivering education into the homes of their students. It was a herculean effort. Across our state, led by Governor Walz, Commissioner Ricker, and district administrators, plans were put in place to create the best atmosphere possible for distance learning: iPads were assigned; hotspots were distributed; bus routes were reimagined for food supplies; and upteen other decisions were swiftly made and implemented. With summer on our doorstep, it is time to take a collective inhale and exhale.
Now we can take a pause and consider the effects of screens on our students. This is the time to assess the type of experience distance learning was for our students and to better understand what can be learned from this spring in order to help plan for learning in the fall - whether students are in the building or learning from home.
LiveMore ScreenLess is a youth-inspired organization. We are informed by young people through our YouthBoard, discussion groups, surveys, written submissions to our website, and ongoing conversations. Recently we received over 50 written submissions of middle and high schoolers sharing their experiences with distance learning and the effects of screens. We are in the process of adding their blogs to our website here. We’ve gathered some of the themes to create a snapshot of their responses.
Middle School and High School Effects of Screens During Distance Learning
Learning
- Procrastination/Ruins desire for Productivity
- Lack of Motivation
- Struggle to Learn on Screens
- Overwhelmed by emails
- Lack of Sleep-Affecting Mood/Grades/Late assignments
Health Effects
- Headaches
- Nauseous
- Disrupts priorities and self care
- Lack of being fulfilled/sad
- Bomb Ticking-overwhelming number of texts
- Becoming a monster
- Addictive/Unable to log off/Sucked back to computer
Quality of Life
- Too much time on screens/Screens all day and all night
- Boredom
- Feeling upset with self
- Consumed by games
- Inside for hours
- Pulled away from the real world
(To read longer quotes, here is a link to a pdf of quotes from their blogs.)
To gain a closer view of the effects of digital media on young people, LiveMore has produced five ListenIn Youth Voice videos where high school students describe their experiences with technology. One of our videos focuses on the effects of screens on learning. Please take five minutes to view A Single Swipe Away describing the benefits and perils, namely distraction, of screen use when coupled with learning. The written submission and video provide just a quick glimpse into the challenges students face when trying to learn on screens.
Parents are also an important group LiveMore is listening to as they manage screen use at home. With distance learning, they have seen first hand the benefits of technology to stay connected, for creative lesson sharing, and for ease of accessing information. However, they are overwhelmed. In a recent survey, LiveMore asked parents of high school and middle school students “What three words or phrases capture what it is like to be a parent/guardian today with regard to managing digital media?” Parents responded: Love/Hate, Exhausting, Challenging, Time waste, Hopeless, Distraction, Powerless, Frustrating, Confusing, Uncharted, Tightrope, New World, Concerned, A-necessary-evil!, Anxious, Guilt-Inducing, Overwhelming, and more. Of the parents surveyed, 100% indicated concern about the effects of digital media on the mental health of young people. Furthermore, parents are crystal clear that they are looking to schools to help them: 97% say schools have a responsibility to educate students about the harmful effects of screen overuse.
A necessary evil. Screens are necessary, especially as we consider distance learning, and the powerful addition screens are to our lives, yet the harmful effects must be considered, managed, and mitigated. Schools are issuing the devices without having the ability to control how that device is used at home certainly and often, even at school. By design and function of apps and the internet, schools are inadvertently contributing to the harmful effects of screens on young people. School communities can take steps to guide students, teachers, and parents to recognize, better understand, and minimize the powerful algorithms and persuasive design techniques making students susceptible to outside influences on time and behavior, especially on the developing brains of tweens, teens, and early adults. We are all responsible for reducing the negative effects of screens on young people.
Students need more than Digital Citizenship lectures and tired sayings to combat the harm to their learning and wellbeing. LiveMore’s sustainable behavior change model prioritizes People, Messages, and Systems; amplifies and elevates youth voice; and incorporates the Whole School, Whole Community, and Whole Child Model where student learning and wellbeing is the central focus. We partner with technology and curriculum directors; counselors and social workers; teachers and paraprofessionals; student councils and student leaders; wellness committees and coaches; PTO’s and School Boards; and you, school leaders, to ensure that technology is an asset to learning, wellbeing, social and emotional learning, and overall health and any barriers to those key factors of healthy child development are addressed and minimized. School leaders like you who become early adopters and champions of Digital Wellbeing Plans and Practices will be poised to keep the trust of parents and the belief from students that the public school system cares deeply about the learning and wellbeing of students.
Lastly, the Minnesota Legislature created bi-partisan legislation that champions Digital Wellbeing and places the duty to act on behalf of the health and well-being of our young people on “adults throughout Minnesota, including parents, teachers, grandparents, youth workers, day care workers, neighbors, pediatricians, and government leaders.” The legislation calls on all of us to do the following:
- be aware of the importance of creating a conscious balance with technology
- ensure that use of electronic devices is in balance with other aspects of a full and rich life
- demonstrate appropriate digital media and screen use
Be a Digital Wellbeing leader. Show your Minnesota community that you recognize the importance of maximizing the good of technology while addressing its hazards effects on learning and health. Contact us now to be ready for the fall, whatever may come. We will support you.
http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/images/siteASCD/wholechild/wsccmodel-large.jpg
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Katherine Myers and Maree Hampton, educators and Digital Wellbeing advocates
Co-Founders of LiveMore ScreenLess, a Minnesota-based organization
If you want to learn more about LiveMore ScreenLess, please visit our website: livemorescreenless.org
Posted by: Katherine Myers | June 05, 2020 at 02:55 PM