But does all of this technology, this 'screen time', come at a cost? Are skills such as critical thinking and handwriting in jeopardy due to the access to the world wide web? How does the prevalence of student personal devices affect academic achievement? Personal DevicesThere are countless advocates for technology use in education, but increasingly there are voices garnering attention that preach about limiting access, and in some cases banning access, for our K-12 students. A lot of this opposition stems from research based around screen time, personal devices (cell phones), and social media addiction. In some instances such as in the UK, cell phone bans have been enacted in the last few years with calls for technology companies to deliver safer alternatives for social media for our school-aged children. A 2016 study Louis-Philippe Beland and Richard Murphy studied the unstructured use of technology and bans on cell phones and how they affected standardized test scores. These results showed that banning personal devices showed an increase in test scores, specifically students of lower or average educational attainment. Personal devices were viewed as a distraction and decreased learning and productivity in the classroom. Cellular phones are a distraction everywhere. Companies in Silicon Valley work hard to keep us glued to their apps, and this is no different for our teenagers in school. Banning devices is an option, but throughout the modern era we can see that preaching abstinence or enacting bans does not have a lasting affect on larger social issues. If educational institutions want to curb the issue of device addition and distraction then the focus should lean towards what we all expect them to do- educate. Students see cell phone misuse constantly in their daily lives. To truly make a shift in self management students need to understand the alternatives to habits they see on the streets and, most likely, at home. Technology and the Assault on IntellectThere are many voices concerned about the affect of technology on traditional skills such as reading, writing, and collaboration. These traditionalists see their children coming home with digital ebooks and online assignments and long for the days of cursive and math textbook assignments (only the even, we all remember). What needs to be taken into account is that 'skills' is a flexible term. Collaboration and communication have evolved. This doesn't mean that there is less of an emphasis on face-to-face planning and handwriting, but that new skills and demands on workers have now come into play.
Many of these communication and collaboration methods are an improvement in terms of access outside of the instructional time (usually around 50 minutes a day). While teaching and implementing projects in my classes throughout the years I observed a shift of students communicating outside of class via email and project applications, mimicking work you see in the most modern work places. Replication of modern, efficient practices that we can see in any company should not be discouraged at a K-12 institution, but instead thoughtfully balanced with a variety of collaboration and communication techniques. Study after study states that more research has to be done into the effects of technology integration into education despite critics on both sides of the debate cherry picking quotes to support their own claims. As educators we have the obligation to treat technology integration the same way we treat any strategy, tool, or resource- thoughtful integration with multiple methods to reach diverse needs of learners. Balancing the integration of safe, practical technology can enhance engagement and improve workflow, but educators need to find a balance in student opportunities that works best for their class. Educating students about purposeful technology integration and personal device management is naturally occurring in classrooms across the world, because that's what we do- we educate and empower our students to learn an grow in this ever-evolving world. References
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