Technolandy

Day 11 (of 2024/25) a student had questions. 

Had a grade 11-ish student pop in my office to ask about devices. They did a writing for their english teacher (well, we are all English teachers at PIE – and kindergarten teachers… k-12+ online learner support with in person opportunities) and was sharing a thoughtful discourse of the pros and cons of cell phones in class and society.

She asked for my (only slightly redacted) thoughts. She knows that I have said that if we are worried about mental health, we can’t just take personal devices away and say “job done! Mental health fixed!” There is always more to be done to actually talk about and support mental wellness; much as we can’t say “no phones 9-3 has ended cyber bullying issues” – though… can we now refer to rcmp as it’s not a “school” issue (even if it directly involves students at school(s)? I digress…

Then she wondered about distractions…

Distractions are everywhere.  Books in laps… magazines hidden inside textbooks… apps on phones… tablets… laptops (so many ways to work around ‘firewalls’ and similar restrictions…) paper and pencils (from notes to bullying messages to doodles to much worse…). And everytime there have been fears and bans.  Books were a huge distraction as they became more popular. Distracting from work and church and being exposed to (gasp) new ideas and inappropriate words and images. 

Now our focus is on on the tool that is the biggest disruptor to the education system: a tool with almost the answers (and with AI the ability to coach/teach/assess) that fits in a pocket. Phones. Tablets. Laptops (so long to the popular Byod approaches to help equitize and technologize learning?). And now (as expected) earbuds… watches… portable games… and next (based on the rationale) calculators as modern (since before 2000) ones have games and communication and wifi abilities.

Heck the rationale for this distraction should lead to a rethink about possibly supporting book bans and how kids are using paper and pencils – books on laps when they should be doing something else… notes, drawings and insults have long been popular distractions (yes, guilty) with youth long before screens.

Kinda like the dress code focus on banning black because of its connection with poor mental health – yeah – it’s called puberty and teens have always (?) well, 100ish years at least, been drawn to the absence of colours because of melancholy and depression. Banning it does not make the mental health change. It needs something else added, not ‘more control over what they can/not do, say, or wear. 

As that student came in, we took a look at some of the new posters for the province and had an early agreement… Shakespeare woulda been a madman on twitter…

We were metaphorically shredding (having fun) the posters apart… a poster featuring a textbook? Non-interactive device that we hope is actually accurate and maybe somewhat up to date on the most recent research? Textbooks were not all that engaging to me when I was a student a bunch of decades ago… and I think they lose in comparison to the interactive nature of recent options… 

Textbooks? The ones that usually  have some sort of graffiti and drawings after one use? If we are worried about distracted work, why are we providing something to doodle and sketch on? I mean, some were really funny, but so many wouldn’t last a day on Reddit… 

A poster with a Blackboard focus? so everyone is in rows facing the same way and learning the same thing at the same time? Thought that 1930s idea of Henry Ford had been disproven by about a million researchers! Not even a whiteboard? My hands were drying out just looking at the image!

And, admittedly, I am not an ‘all tech all the time teacher’ – though I will share that my G4 class two decades-ish ago with their 1:1-ish use of G4 iBooks was amazing – both in the content (the writing, the portfolios, the movies, the music) and in the competencies (most collaborative, critical thinking creative group thanks in part to the equity the tools brought out) but they weee school, rather than personal devices (that didn’t exist) And I LOVE and strongly promote learning through play and hands on activities – especially in the primary years… with encouragement for more in later years. But I still look at the overuse of tech with curiosity – as a sign for me to interfere a bit to figure out why – much like a tightly drawn hoodie is a signal to me, what else is going on where there is an overreliance on personal tech (it’s always something – usually loss of control, lack of connection, or other reasons for a need for a rush of dopamine) and we can’t be distracted by the tool. That’s how anxiety et al ‘win’ (cuz we ain’t targeting ‘it’)

But, sadly my takeaway is the current push, based on imagery, is for everyone to be working on the same thing at the same time at the same rate of speed on their birthday… and ignoring the most disruptive tool to impact education much as Blockbuster once dismissed Netflix. 

Yes. I will support the ministry and district codes about personal digital devices … but, again, if it is a mental health issue, this ought to be a family problem, not a school issue (set an age limit and fine families who provide the tool to too young a user – but when asked in our chat, I shared I don’t think any age is ‘right’ though – it’s more about readiness).  I agree with limited (at most) screen time for our younger learners – no phones is fine… but they can be useful for graphic arts… and out at breaks for our older in-person learners ~ with the golden parachute: in use if for an academic reason! Parting question – if schools are taking time to teach kids how to use a landline, why not take that time to talk more (and model) using the other devices. Dangerous conversation to start the day…