ipads

Recently, at one of our parent nights for our iPad 1:1 program, a mom approached me about my thoughts on screentime, and specifically, what did the research say about it? Were kids possibly being put at jeopardy with too much time in front of an iPad?

I have a couple thoughts on this, that I have shared with a number of parents. Some of these thoughts were also echoed by our teachers in the program.

1. Our iPad program does not prescribe students being actively in front of, and using, an iPad all day long. It’s hard to say how much time per day a student is looking and interacting with an iPad (or laptop for that matter), but within a 1:1 environment, that time might range from between 60 minutes to 3 hours per day.
2. All screentime is not the same. We have traditionally thought of screentime as time spent in front of a television. Later, video game systems were lumped into the concept. Now, it’s any time facing a backlit screen. We know that your brain is doing very different things between watching a television show (passive) to working out a puzzle game on an iPad (active). So, if we think if “screentime” as a way to kill off brain cells and waste time, video games, Google searches, and creative pursuits using software on a device are all actually brain-developing pursuits of time. That said, we do be believe there is a healthy balance and we hard to maintain that at school. It’s important for parents to help with that when the iPad goes home. Students still need active time away from all electronics, and hopefully interacting with peers and family face to face.

On the side of research, this study recently came out specifically looking at younger children from the American Academy of Pediatrics. They seem to echo my sentiment about choosing brain-active activities.

This 2008 report details how families used technology in the home, and more recently, this 2015 report details how teens are relying upon technology for romance. Both articles do not make a case whether or not technology as a whole is good or bad, but its presence in our lives is changing the way we spend our time.

There are two difficulties I see in proving or disproving whether or not technology use by younger students is appropriate or not. The first is that looking online will reveal a range of opinions. For instance, this blog post is in support of technology being a part of an early childhood education program. And research studies, like this dissertation, don’t exactly answer the question, and may be difficult for everyone to understand. The second issue is that because technology use is so ubiquitous today in many American households, it would be hard to conduct a true comparison study to look at child development with the absence of technology.

In the end, our 1:1 program is being developed to stand on a foundation with a few core beliefs. Among those is that the use of technology in a classroom should aim higher than simply replacing a the types of tasks that were undertaken by students without technology being present. Using the SAMR model, our aim is to provide, invent, and design new types of tasks that take advantage of ways of learning that would not have been possible without the technology being present. Another belief that does not parallel the first, is that technology can be used to make learning more efficient–both for the instructor and the student. We do not emphasize this, but tend to think of it in more student-centered ways. For instance, if assessment of student needs and strengths can be streamlined using technology, it can equip our teachers with more time and ability to individualize learning and based on a student’s needs.

Our final iPad Night for parents is tonight, Monday, October 5, 2015. We have loved the opportunity to engage with parents and love all the questions.

We’re almost done with iPad deployment this year, and coming up, we have some parent nights for learning more about the iPad program.

Our technology team, headed by Peter Martin, has been responsible for the behind-the-scenes work in setting up and configuring iPads. I know Ginni Nichols and Mike Arrighi have been helpful leading up to handing out iPads to students. Our library media specialists have also been instrumental in making sure iPad deployments ran smoothly.

We continue to struggle with Apple ID requirements for students. I want parents to know we regret the process has to involve coming to our schools and spending time creating these accounts.

I am looking forward to where we are 3 weeks from now – when the real exciting things really start to take shape with deeper learning. As I watched tonight at home the new Apple announcements for the iPad Pro, the new iPhones, and the Apple Watch, I was less impressed by the hardware or Apple’s new software. What stood out for me was what people were doing with these mobile tools. We might not yet be at the level that doctors, engineers, artists, and photographers are yet on the professional level with these tools, but there is something to be said about the inspirational notion of a tool doing something well and effortlessly to help us achieve our goals. Please know our team of educators this year is dedicated towards making these tools work for kids to help them realize their full potential. Through apps? Yes, but more through creativity, innovation, and hard work.