To make best use of technology in the classroom: survey, add, remove, and consider student psychology.

The goal of helping students achieve appropriate technology usage is central to my work as a 21st-century educator and school leader. I am constantly thinking of the best ways to approach it in my school community. I wanted to share a few thoughts with you, using my background in psychology as a lens to view this topic.

Q: How do I know what the best use of technology is?

A: The ideal way to create change or to set goals is to study the ideal.

This perspective comes from positive psychology, of which I am a proponent. To follow this method, you would look at students who already seem to have a balanced relationship with technology. 

For example, I recently developed and rolled out a new Digital Civics program at my school. As part of the program, I surveyed the students to learn about their habits and motivations when it comes to technology. This included preferred screen time (or the number of hours they prefer to spend on screens each day). 

Viewing this data through the lens of a positive psychologist, you would home in on students who indicated an ideal screen time of less than two hours. Some questions to think about would be:

• How they are using their time on screens?
• What is attracting and maintaining their attention in spite of the available technological distractions?
• Who are the students who choose to read in the library or play outside instead of sitting on their phones?
• What is it about their motivations, interests, values, and personalities that make them less inclined to overuse or abuse technology?

Q: How do I prevent the overuse and abuse of technology at my school?

A: Think about what you can ADD to promote appropriate technology usage . . .

Reiterate the need to offer positive alternatives to excessive or abusive technology usage.  

Schools can invest thousands of dollars hiring consultants or bringing in guest speakers to teach students about appropriate technology usage. However, a better alternative would be to take those  funds and invest in high-quality and reusable resources for student engagement.  Schools can purchase more engaging activities for students to use on campus, e.g., foosball tables, card tables with a variety of playing card games, puzzles, Legos, Erector sets, a knitting nook, maybe an old-school pinball machine. There are a lot of options that could easily attract students. I am always surprised at how popular the simplest games can be for students. 

Intentionally set aside a dedicated space for rest and recreation.

This is an essential component of successfully getting students to disengage from their devices. Hub spaces, libraries, and lounges can be ideal spaces for promoting and maintaining device alternatives. Schools can invest in more couches and bean bag chairs so that students are eager to sit down comfortably and play a game, work on a puzzle, read a book, or engage in quiet conversation. However, schools also need to be intentional and strategic in creating those quiet spaces. Students must be able to actually enjoy their reading selection or take a break from the busy or loud nature of the day. As Susan Cain noted in her book Quiet, many students benefit from have quiet spaces to be alone because it gives them the opportunity to “recharge their batteries.” 

Finally, on a grander scale, schools should be designed in such a way as to allocate spaces for both indoor and outdoor physical activity. 

Students need an area where they can go and play basketball, volleyball, workout, do yoga, etc. I would argue that schools that achieve balance have a variety of facilities that can support each type of student and a variety of interests. A lot of these steps can help to alleviate the desire to always turn to the phone, laptop, or tablet for entertainment or a sense of connection. The question becomes if and when each school is ready to dedicate the time and resources to make it happen. 

. . . and think about what you can REMOVE to increase focus and student success.

I also think that to achieve appropriate technology usage, we have to be willing to take some things away. For example, what if your school completely banned the use of phones on campus during school hours? What if the school directed parents to call the school directly to get a hold of their child? What would it look like if the school provided students with access to communal landline or VOIP phones after school if they needed to make a call?  

Along those same lines, what if your school chose not to be a 1:1 school? What would it look like to have students rely on computer labs, workstations, and laptop carts? This is a tricky question, since there are both advantages and drawbacks to this approach. One positive outcome is that it would provide technology departments with more oversight and the ability to limit usage. One negative outcome would be that it would make it more challenging for students to do work at home. (But this also begs the question: how much actual work is being done at home? Would students learn to be more organized and efficient if they had to get their work done at school?) This solution may also increase inequity, as it would provide a greater disadvantage to those with limited resources.

As for classes, it would help to reduce the amount of idle screen time. This could be done by encouraging teachers to engage in more interactive and direct types of instruction. I can say that most of my teaching career was at schools without 1:1 programs; it can be done, and it is often to the benefit of students and their learning processes.

Q: What are some other factors in technology abuse and overuse?

A: Another psychological factor in technology abuse and overuse is the ease of access, the instant gratification, and the continuous stream of content. 

On the psychological side, I think schools should also consider the possibility that, like most people, students aren’t that complicated in their desires and motivations. Technology speeds up the ability to meet those desires. It is difficult to replicate the ease of opening your phone to play any game you want versus walking to the library, finding a board game you like, and then getting someone else to play with you. The same could be said about communicating through text and social media. To overcome this, we would need to re-program students to be more patient and to reduce their need for instant gratification. I don’t think we should strive to replace stimuli, but rather change the cultural view of these activities.  

Let’s face it; many students show signs of real addiction when it comes to the use of technology. Part of the problem is that the consequences are minimal and the rewards are high. There is no other addictive activity like it. Drugs and alcohol are harmful to your health and in most cases, illegal. Gambling is bad for your wallet and illegal for students. Both are considered vices and have a negative social and cultural view. However, those stigmas don’t exist with technology abuse. It is normalized. Do we, as a learning community, want to change that view? Do we want to stigmatize the overuse and misuse? Is it an effective method or more likely to cause problems?

We also have to consider that a student’s technology overuse or abuse may be the most appropriate option. We have to first be honest in recognizing that one of the specific appeals of many video games is that they offer an escape and give players the ability to do things that they could never do in the real world. There isn’t a real-world alternative to Grand Theft Auto, Fortnite, or Call of Duty. A student that enjoys playing violent video games because they feel a strong sense of aggression may not have a better alternative. For example, for a variety of reasons, my current school doesn’t offer football, boxing, wrestling, hockey, or other contact sports. So how should we help aggressive students channel that energy? Similarly, a student that wants to view adult content may just want to see some nudity as they manage their hormones and body changes. Once again, the real-world alternatives would prove problematic.   

Final Thoughts

I’ve written all of the above because I would like to encourage schools to think about a few things when considering appropriate technology usage at their schools:  

First, think about the practical and positive outlets that we can provide to our students for entertainment, interaction, and recreation. I remember being the one to re-introduce four square at two of my schools. How quickly that changed the dynamic of student activity.

Second, I encourage schools to think about how to make policy changes, be transparent in their goals, and then be disciplined in their enforcement. If you don’t enforce the policies you have created, it is all a moot point.

Third, I would suggest that schools focus their time and attention on the underlying motivations that are manageable. Boredom is a much more manageable motivation versus an underlying desire to be mean or aggressive.  

Finally, I will go back to my original point about positive psychology. If schools go the route of the data collection and analysis, I would suggest that they look to learn from those who show an ideal relationship with technology.  

What is one way that you have found effective in balancing technology in your school? Submit a comment below to let me know.

Your friendly neighborhood teacher-man,