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This installment will focus on technology distractions. Below you will find student opinions, statistics and articles to help you start the conversation at home.
Many recent studies from all over the world have looked at the impact of technology on our lives, from measuring its ubiquity to determining its effect on our productivity and learning. Some of these studies have made definite claims regarding how technology distractions like social media posts and text messages are a detriment to learning and the retention of new information. Links have even been made to lower test scores. The evidence is compelling and gives educators much food for thought as school cell phone policies are being revisited and revamped. In March 2015, a long-standing New York City Public Schools cell phone ban was lifted, the mayor’s office citing safety as a primary reason, and pledging to educate students in proper digital citizenship.
Digital citizenship was once more brought into the spotlight at PVC at our first Film Festival on March, 2, 2016, where students in grades 5 through 8 were invited to participate by submitting a short film focused on making good choices online. Students created their films independently after receiving a set of guidelines and meeting with the organizers. Here is a video about the event:
PVC Film Festival.mp4In addition to premiering the nine submitted films at the film festival, festival guests spent the first half hour visiting with 8th grade Media and Communications students who had prepared poster presentations and activities relating to being savvy and safe online.
This was followed by a panel discussion featuring former PVC students, three 9th graders who answered parents’ questions about children and technology, lending a unique inside look into the online lives of the typical middle schooler, and offering parents advice about technology limits. After the films were shown, certificates and awards were handed out to the filmmakers, with trophies and prizes awarded to the top three films that had been judged earlier by the film festival committee and a faculty member of the Jacob Burns Film Center Media Arts Lab. Our first, second and third prize winners are shown below.
Blog post: Bridging the Digital Divide: A Student Film Festival on Digital Citizenship by Johanna Mustacchi for The Good Project, a research unit of Harvard Project Zero.
The articles and information below center on the relationships between technology distractions and parents and children, at home and at school. While we tend to focus on how distracted our children are by technology, according to a global survey of over 6,000 people conducted by AVG, a Dutch-based security software and services company, 54% of children ages 8-13 believe their parents check their devices too often, with 32% feeling “unimportant” when their parents are distracted by their phones.
In the last issue’s survey, parents were asked three questions relating to technology distractions that were culled from recent national surveys. The questions were:
- Do you ever feel that you or your family would benefit from having ‘technology-free time’ where all communications devices are switched off?
- Have you noticed that social media, texts, emails, alerts, electronic games, etc., divert your child(ren)'s attention…?
- Imagine how your CHILD would answer this question: Is your parent distracted by his/her technology more, less or the same amount of time as you are?
One-third of the 8th grade class were also surveyed on the same questions, the last having been edited to: Is your parent distracted by his/her technology more, less or the same amount of time as you are?
Not surprisingly, parents and students differed significantly in their perception of whether their families would benefit from “technology-free time.” A full 100% of parents believed that their families would benefit from unplugging all the time, regularly or from time to time, whereas 35.5% of students felt unplugging was “rarely” or “never” necessary.
This might be explained by another area of divergent perception in the survey results: 75% of parents feel that their children are distracted by their electronics when relaxing with family members, yet only 25% of the students polled felt this was true.
The full results of our surveys are shown in the graphs below:
8th grade students were also recently asked to comment on the school’s cell phone policy. Many teachers invite their students to bring phones into the classroom to enable interactive participation in online educational games and assessments, research, as a stopwatch or timer, or for listening to music while they work. PVC’s cell phone policy stipulates that students must keep their phones in their lockers during the school day unless they have been invited to bring them into class by their teacher to be used for educational purposes only. Here’s how the 8th graders weighed in on the topic:
As much as cell phones do distract students in class, if you use them wisely, then students may actually learn more. Nowadays, kids are always on their cell phones, and I feel like since we're used to them, we could learn better by using them. I believe that the policy should be that students aren't allowed to use their phones for non-school related topics such as instagram, snapchat, and texting. Students should be allowed to use their phones for researching, projects, and other forms of education.
In some cases, cell phones distract students if they text, go on social media or play games in class when they're not supposed to. Although, the new cell phone policy in PVC is a little harsh. I think just because teachers see a phone doesn't mean they should take it away. The cell phone policy should be that kids can have cell phones on them but in class they can use them just when it is needed. Teachers should only take away phones if they are an obvious distraction, not just because they saw one.
I think that cellphones should be allowed in classrooms on silent. Music allows me to work, and I often take photos of the board to keep track of assignments.
Students will bring in their phones and work on them, but social media alerts can divert their attention. Yet I believe the policy should be that students can bring their phones into class TO WORK. If they don't work in class it's affecting their grade nobody else's. However if the teacher hasn't given permission then the students phone can and should be taken.
The phones distract teachers more than students. When a student has a phone out, the teacher drops what they're doing to either take the phone, threaten to take the phone, or try to figure out who has a phone. The cell phone policy should be that phones cannot be allowed out anywhere during school hours. There is no reason to have them, because they just serve as a big distraction for everyone.
Cell phones can distract students with apps, games, and the web. the cell phone policy should be no phones in class but allowed in the hall and before class.
I think that cellphones should not be allowed into the classroom environment. They distract students, and serve little to no purpose in the learning experience and development of children. If a student needs to research something online for a school project, they should just use a laptop, which almost all classrooms offer.
They can occasionally divert students from their school work, but I think overall they benefit the class if you quickly want to search something up and all the laptops are taken up. There may be some distraction, but it overall helps the class. The policy should be that you can bring your phone to class to search things up but if the teacher finds you playing a game or on a social media website, the phone gets taken away.
I enjoy having cell phones in classrooms. I do agree that when students are allowed to be on their cell phones they might not do the "right" thing, but I feel that kids should still be allowed to have access to their phone to work on school related assignments and projects. However if a student is misusing this responsibility, their phone should be taken away.
No cell phones should be out no matter what and every phone should be in a locker or in a bag during school hours and teachers should follow this rule too. It should be enforced more.
I think that the cell phone policy should be that all teachers know when people have their phones when they enter the room, so that there are no unknown distractions. I also think that the phone should be completely powered off when in the classroom, and in a pencil case or under a folder. The cell phones should probably only be used for educational purposes, and the teachers should make it explicitly clear that cell phones are allowed at that time.
I think the contrary, I do not believe they create sufficient distraction in a classroom for it to be considered a problem. In all of my classes since the beginning of the year, I've found that students really only use their devices effectively, and if it does become a distraction it is taken away or the student is redirected towards more productive work. I believe that we should all be allowed to use phones in class because it is a deprivation to mature students to punish us all based on the actions of the minority.
They create distractions from school by things like snapchat. I think there should be a bin when you walk into classrooms that you put your phone in. That way if you need it for educational purposes you have easy access, but it will not distract you during school hours.
Statistics
Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015
Pew Research Center
Kids competing with mobiles for parents’ attention, AVG Technologies
Articles on Technology Distractions to spark the conversation
Students can't resist distraction for two minutes ... and neither can you
By Bob Sullivan, NBC News, May 18, 2013
This article includes information on two studies that were conducted on how multi-tasking affects productivity and cognition, essentially “wear[ing] out the brain and mak[ing] learners more tired and less competent.” Results showed that if a person is distracted while learning new information, that information is quickly forgotten.
Kids Feel Unimportant When Parents are Distracted by Technology
By Grace Smith, Education News, June 29, 2015
This article highlights the global survey of 6000 people by Dutch security and software services company, AVG.
Schools seek balance for cellphones in class - Are they a teaching tool or a distraction?
By Linda Matchan The Boston Globe, June 16, 2015
Schools continue to grapple with their cell phone policies, but all agree the tidal wave is impossible to ignore. Perhaps the most compelling evidence against allowing cell phones in the classroom comes from a UK study of 91 schools by the London School of Economics that found that test scores were 6.41% higher at schools where cell phones were prohibited.
By Larry Rosen, Psychology Today, April 9, 2012
Dr. Rosen gives some useful advice regarding how to train ourselves and our children to focus better and take technology breaks.
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