Managing Screentime
Why Edtech? - Removing barriers to progress
Addressing misconceptions about screentime
Sometimes, teachers who have not embedded technology into their everyday teaching and learning have concerns about the potential increase in screen time for pupils with an increased device-per-pupil ratio. Sometimes this can be used as a reason to avoid embedding technology into everyday practice.
Parents can also be concerned about the benefits if the rationale/benefits have have not been fully understood or adequately had this adequately communicated by the school.
The key to managing this issue is effective communication and understanding the different types of 'Screentime' and appreciating which are the most effective and how to maximise the positive impact of device use.
There are different types of screentime.
It is important to understand the differences between them to ensure use fo technology is effective and appropriate for all learners.
Dr Fiona Aubrey-Smith explains how to manage the issue of 'screentime' and avoid using it as a reason to avoid increased device ratios in schools.
Managing screen time effectively
'The Issue of screentime comes up a lot. Sometimes parents and staff are nervous about how much time children spend looking at digital screens. The concerns sometimes in this project and elsewhere generally relate to fears about the nature of device use, addiction, physical, social, and emotional implications, and all sorts of very reasonable questions to be asked.
I want you to think about which of these things best describes the type of technology use in your own practice, your own class, your own school. Now, for the purposes of this conversation, I've classified screen time use into three categories. First, passive screen time. Let's call this stare and move, where our learners are just watching stuff, scrolling, viewing, where they're by some novelty, whizzy, excitement, stimulus, where they're doing some click-through thing, or where digital is used for entertainment or reward, or quite frankly, simply occupying a child and ensuring compliant behavior. Let's lift that up. Transactionary screen time. Let's call this sense and react, where our learners are seeing, they're hearing, and then they're responding to that.
Perhaps a knowledge recall quiz for times tables or spellings. Something about retrieval or completing something some procedures and processes like drag and drop, maybe polishing up a piece of work, maybe reading some simple comprehension. Let's level that up. Dispositionally developmental screen time. Let's call this think and enact, where our learners are using those metacognitive skills for evaluation, target setting, planning, thinking critically about different ideas, or synthesizing concepts and findings, applying their knowledge and skills to practical problems. Now, for most people who have concerns about screen time, it's often based on an assumption that its uses are at that passive level with maybe a little bit of transaction use. But at LEO, the majority of the practice we observed and discussed is either transactionally or dispositionally developmental. It's a big difference. When we calculated, actually, Despite having their one-to-one devices throughout the school day, when we calculated how much time a child typically actually spends actively using that device, it equates only to about an hour over the whole day because it's very rarely used for an entire lesson all in one go, is it? But instead for specific tasks, specific activities, carefully balanced alongside talk, group work, written work, and so on.
Now, the point being that across LEO Academy Trust, the approach is about careful consideration about how time is used. Actually, that's not specific to digital at all, is it? That just comes from excellent teaching and learning.
Dr Fiona Aubrey-Smith
PedTech Author
Passive: watching/listening for stimulus or interest, scroll reading, clicking with low levels of cognitive effort required. This may be highly engaging and enjoyable and perceived as motivating or as a reward. No material impact on learning.
Transactional: searching / looking things up and then recalling/evidencing knowledge for a purpose, online reading and answering questions, evaluative drag & drop or sorting, timed or competitive activities or games, practising a new skill multiple times, watching an educational video or accessing a resource in order to be able to immediately enact something specific. Begins to make an impact on learning - particularly short term/short bursts.
Developmental: real-life problem solving & metacognition, evaluating a previous activity and demonstrating explicit evidence of improving it based on feedback or self-review, connecting with another person where discussion explicitly changes the learner’s thinking, ideas and understanding. Creates sustained and embedded impact on learning.
e.g.
‘Researching online for a project’ and ‘Watching an Educational Video’ - this could be Passive if it is just a child reading about a hobby for general interest or watching a YouTube ‘how to’ Minecraft tutorial. But it would be Transactional if the child was then paraphrasing their findings into a document (e.g. slideshow about Cats) or using the insights to help them do a particular task (e.g. enacting what the Minecraft tutorial taught them).
The examples about using drawing apps, music apps to learn music etc could be Transactional if they are using those apps as a sort of tutor/instruction process. They would only be dispositionally Developmental if that process was supported by some kind of metacognition (e.g. doing something, reviewing it, improving it as a result and then finalising it).
'Video Chatting with a friend for a creative project’ could be Passive if it’s just themed chat (e.g. a social conversation about a shared hobby), or it could be Transactional if one friend gives instructional guidance to the other and that friend then uses that instruction to complete a particular task, or it could be dispositionally Developmental if the process of the talking itself helps both children move their thinking, ideas and understanding on - explicitly - beyond where they were prior to that conversation.
Discussion points?
When discussing concerns relating to screen time, are we clear on what types of screen time there are and how they impact the learner?
When a blend of screentime, does your pedagogy promote or favour?
Why is it important to understand the difference between quantity and quality of screen time?