Inquiry Question: How does screen time affect elementary aged students? 

 

-sleep

-they don’t play like they used to (ex. Nature) 

-social development

– obesity 

 

-Need to prepare a digital education resource – list of key readings and resources on the topics 

-Answer sub questions of: 

  1. what is the relationship of your inquiry to teaching and learning?(Anna)
  2. What are the pros,cons, and risks? Orbin (Oxford)- effects of screen time on children and Beware the Slenderman Documentary (Kathleen) 
  3. What are some of the strategies, best practices, and tips regarding your inquiry findings?(SYDNEY) 

 

List of major sources used (turn into PP for digital resource): 

https://newatlas.com/screen-time-digital-technology-adolescent-mental-health/58019/

 

Orben~ How Much Is Too Much? Examining the Relationship Between Digital Screen Engagement and Psychosocial Q1Q2Functioning in a Confirmatory Cohort Study 

https://www.jaacap.org/article/S0890-8567(19)31437-6/pdf

 

-looked at whether or not screen time affected the psychosocial skills of children p.1

-method was “We analyzed data from primary caregivers participating in the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), an annual nationally representative survey fielded by the US Census Bureau between June 2016 and February 2017. NSCH uses an address-based sampling frame and both Web- and paper-based data collection instruments to measure psychosocial functioning and digital engagement, including a modified version of the Strengths and Difficulties questionnaire and caregiver estimates of daily television- and device-based engagement, respectively.” p.1

– result was “The expected parabolic inverted-U-shaped relationship linking digital screen engagement to psychosocial functioning was found. These results replicated past findings suggesting that moderate levels of screen time (12 hours a day) were associated with slightly higher levels of psychosocial functioning compared to lower or higher levels of engagement. Furthermore, it indicated that children and adolescents would require 4 hours 40 minutes of television-based engagement and 5 hours 8 minutes of daily device-based engagement before caregivers would be able to notice subjectively significant variations in psychosocial functioning.” p.1

-screen time might not be as big an indicator of a child’s psychosocial skills as originally thought, however going well beyond the average is still a red flag p.1

-“disconnect between the statistically significant relations identified in the literature and relations that could be understood as relevant to caregivers, policymakers, or health professionals.” p.2

-time a day spent on TV and other devices (phones etc) is evenly split at 1.5-2 hours daily p.3

-”child would need to engage 4 hours 40 minutes (5 hours 8 minutes for devices) of television-based activities on a daily basis for caregivers to notice a difference in their child’s psychosocial functioning.” p.4

-” that very few children, if any, routinely use television- and device-based screens enough, on average, to be understood to present meaningfully lower levels of psychosocial functioning.” p.7

 

-DeWitt~3 Fears About Screen Time for Kids and Why They Aren’t True https://www.ted.com/talks/sara_dewitt_3_fears_about_screen_time_for_kids_and_why_they_re_not_true

-look at screens as a tool and utilize them this way

-technology can let kids have human experiences

-screen time does not always have to be passive, it can be active

– embody learning they take into the real world and teach them real world skills

-technology can be used for assessment through gaming which can reduce tests and all of the problems that come with this

– technology can be used to interact with your children (ex: games)

-need to watch and talk about things seen on screen for it to be the most effective in learning and relationship building

-need to think about the content of the screen more than the screen itself

 

Beware the Slenderman~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NauymtGmk-o 

 

-12 year old Morgan gets her friend Anissa to help her stab their friend Bella after being obsessed with slenderman who she was obsessed with online

-Morgan’s parents knew about her obsession

-Morgan is schizophrenic and has oppositional defiant disorder

-Anissa’s parents monitored her screen time

-believed that they needed to kill Bella so that slenderman wouldn’t kill their families and they would be proved worthy of him

-slenderman was a new urban legend thats story evolved differently in different regions

-whole other life in her head from this online attachment to slenderman that the parents did not know about (Morgan)

-Children have a hard time separating reality from unreal

-some of the content online is very concerning

-Anissa was an outsider at school which does play a role, no social life led to increased time online and attachment to content online

-Anissa has no characteristics of psychopathy

-Anissa feels as though this might not have happened if they were not introduced to slenderman online

 

Sydney: 

What are some of the strategies, best practices and tips regarding screen time?? 

  • It’s not that they are using screens, it’s why/how. 
  • inner/outer/other focus 
    • Teaching self-regulation by learning about the settings available (guided access, DND) 
    • Tech can be individual so giving time for students to engage with others is important 
    • Students need to understand that their use of technology does not affect only them, there is a larger framework that needs to be acknowledged (class, community, family, etc.) 
  • With anything, there are benefits and deficits, it’s learning to balance those 
  • To integrate technology effectively, you need 
    • Routine and transparency 
    • Accessibility and availability 
    • Used to support curricular goals and reaching those goals 
  • If the idea of integrating technology is daunting, do some professional development 
    • Should be job-embedded, specific to the learners you have and include tech support, a schoolwide shift is best 
  • Test-drive all equipment including videos, apps, etc. 
  • Don’t assume kids know everything about the technology 
  • Develop a culture of trust and openness
  • Embrace risk and promote innovative practice 
  • Have professional development around technology exploration and sharing (and go to it!) 
  • Give time for guided practice and exploration – they don’t know as much as you think they do, the more they explore and understand the technology, the better the work they produce with it
  • Think about how it improves the learning culture 
  • Take your time, don’t worry about being “behind” on the technology – only move on once it has been mastered (by you and the students) 

 

Sources: 

https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/tech-and-student-led-conferencing 

https://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-research-avoiding-pitfalls 

https://www.edutopia.org/tech-teaches 

https://www.edutopia.org/article/reframing-debate-screen-time-beth-holland 

https://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-research-tools-programs (THIS IS A LIST OF TOOLS TO USE IN A CLASSROOM) 

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/tech-integration-and-school-culture-andrew-marcinek

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/technology-and-teaching-finding-balance-andrew-marcinek 

https://www.edutopia.org/article/technology-integration-what-experts-say 

 

https://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-guide-implementation —> this is such a good resource for literally what to do with technology but i don’t think we would have time to include much of it in our 10 minute presentation) 

 

Anna: what is the relationship of your inquiry to teaching and learning

 

How does screen time affect elementary aged students? 

 

  • Technology integration is the use of technology resources — computers, mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, digital cameras, social media platforms and networks, software applications, the Internet, etc. — in daily classroom practices, and in the management of a school. Successful technology integration is achieved when the use of technology is:
  • Routine and transparent
  • Accessible and readily available for the task at hand
  • Supporting the curricular goals, and helping the students to effectively reach their goals
  • When technology integration in the classroom is seamless and thoughtful, students not only become more engaged, they begin to take more control over their own learning, too. Effective tech integration changes classroom dynamics, encouraging student-centered project-based learning.

 

  • Integration of technology into the classroom means the teacher won’t be at the centre of attention but rather the technology device the students are using will be
  • Teachers still plays an important role in the learning process
  • Study done by the one laptop per child organization which is an organization that aims to provide poor children with a low-cost, low-power, connected laptop to empower the world’s poorest children through education

 

  • In this study, the organization dropped tablet computers in 2 remote Euthopian Village with the purpose of seeing if illiterate kids with no previous exposure to written words could learn to read by themselves by experimenting with the tablet
  • This study showed that they can and it the children were engaged in their own education
  • Although this study proved that just by giving children a laptop, they will know what to do, as a teacher you can’t assume that every student knows how to use technology and that the current generation are all “digital natives”
  • Digital natives should be replaced by digital citizens because these days “digital citizenship encompasses everything we do in every aspect of our lives”
  • For example, students engage in online gaming, blogs, minecraft, youtube channels, among others and it’s important they know and understand their rights and responsibilities online as well as how to conduct themselves socially online
  • Through the teacher, students have been taught about digital citizenship through dialogue, reflection and practice which would not be the case of this wasn’t facilitated through a classroom setting
  • Sure, we can place a tablet in the hands of children who have never seen a package label or a sign, and they will learn on their own. But what happens when and if those children become connected to the larger, global online community? It is not guaranteed that they will be ready to navigate etiquette and intellectual property rights on their own (need to reword)
  •  A classroom with only an interactive whiteboard and one computer, learning will still remain teacher centered and integration will revolve around teacher needs, which are not necessarily student needs. 
  • If  class has an interactive whiteboard and projector:

In her article on “Balance of Screen time,” Holland (20130, outlines three questions to ask when elementary school teachers are contemplating using screen time in their classrooms:

 

  1. Is it appropriate?
  2. Is it meaningful?
  3. Is it empowering?

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/balance-of-screen-time-beth-holland

 

Although technology can contribute to student learning, we do have to be mindful of when to unplug. Unplugging can reduce stress, relieve eyestrain and support a healthier lifestyle. Perhaps, even more important, is the need to balance screen time with the learning experiences that students gain from the peers and adults around them. With the growing numbers of screens being introduced into classrooms, the challenge for teachers is to maintain a balance between the physical and virtual worlds as well as to ensure that screens are being used in appropriate, meaningful and empowering ways.

 

  • The Australian Department of Health recommends less than 1 hour of screen time per day for children aged 2-5
  • Studies estimate children spend approx 8 hrs a day on screen based activities
  • Parents ignore the American Academy of Pediatrics advice abound screen time usage because they believe “media content is educational” and it’s a way for them to get chores done and have “me time” if their child is entertained by media
  • Screen time is linked to obesity, sleep problems, depression, and anxiety
  • In a study, each additional hour of screen time was associated with increased consumption of high fat/high sugar foods and decreased consumption of fruits and vegetables
  • Commercial advertising increases a child’s poor food choices
  • Study- 2000 children aged 8-12 had shorter sleep and insufficient rest or sleep due to tv watching or gaming 

https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/doi/epdf/10.1111/jpc.13462

 

https://mashable.com/2012/10/29/tablets-ethiopian-children/

https://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-guide-description

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/digital-native-digitial-citizen-stereotype-mary-beth-hertz

https://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-guide-implementation 

https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/doi/epdf/10.1111/jpc.13462

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsDxg2sTG20 (Michael’s video)