Screen-Time Use in Schools is a Sight for Sore Eyes
Our iPads have brought the entire world into the palm of our hands. From being able to access the library at home to one-click assignment submissions through Schoology, learning has never been so efficient and convenient, making technology-integrated classrooms ever-so-lucrative. Yet despite the push to make schools more digital, it is more important now than ever to achieve an equilibrium between screen time and everything else, in the face of mounting evidence pointing towards the fact that our screens should be more of a resource than our life. Indeed, in many cases, schools may be contributing even more to growing computer-related health problems in teenagers who are forced to acquiesce to an increased focus on screen time-based assignments because their grade depends on it.
Screen time has been almost uncannily linked to many of America’s contemporary epidemics– from a recent skyrocket in nearsightedness to the undeniable increase in obesity to assertions that excessive technology has been turning children to social wallflowers and otherwise emotionally unintelligent misanthropes. Almost all of these claims alarmingly hold true– over the last thirty years myopia has spread from 25% to 41.6% of the population, and a significant number of studies have correlated screen time to increases in chances of becoming obese; obesity rates are already sky-high and on the rise. Moreover, breakthrough studies have shown that screen-time for more than two hours has been shown to cause children to have a worse memory, language skills, and cognitive abilities– indicating that increasing our screen time has undeniable impacts.
From so much research on the detrimental effects of screens in our daily lives, government recommendations present the lofty ideal of two hours of screen time per day for teenagers–a rule we, as students and schools, tend to ignore. As much as mindfulness in technology is emphasized in the day-to-day school curriculum (as it should be), the classroom is not the ideal first step in emphasizing the importance of cutting down on the overwhelming use of technology in day-to-day life. In reality, class time use of screens and the excessive amounts of homework given through the iPads make keeping the amount of screen time to the healthy maximum a quixotic goal. And since there is no explicit limitation to the work that can be given through the iPads, students could have to stare at a screen for four hours in school and another two hours for homework without a second thought.
Although the integration of technology in the classroom is a necessity going forward, giving the message that we should try to reduce the time we spend on looking at screens but then overloading students every day with daily technology-based activities and immense amounts of homework on the iPads seems to present a paradox. Furthermore, recent studies have found that the effects of technology in schools seem to have little effect on student performance at all– from forty schools analyzed, there seemed to be no conclusive increase between schools with access to technology than those not– and it seems that the fate of the school is more tied into the teaching style of the teachers.
Considering that banning all technology from the school system is not an option, it is still important for schools to stand by the message they are transmitting and regulate the amount of straight-on screen time children are given to use on their school-use devices. iPad-based class assignments can be done in groups so that students will interact face-to-face as well as complete the assignment. Homework on the iPads can be limited to only 20–30 minutes per night for each class, and the Pomodoro technique can be applied in class to give the eyes rest every twenty minutes after working on the iPads and prevent eye strain. There are many ways to regulate and mitigate the negative effects of excessive screen-time in school– because in the end, even though in today’s world screen time can be a sight for sore eyes, it doesn’t mean school-based technology has to be.
