When Covid-19 restrictions forced the island’s schools into darkness in early 2020, teachers taught online and stranded children contacted each other via mobile phones and social media. Thousands of video screens lit up during the shooting. This technology has become a lifeline for orphaned children in a community.
But four years later, personal devices have become ubiquitous both inside and outside of the classroom, and educators say they struggle to capture student attention in educational environments filled with on-screen distractions. ing.
The Gazette recently spoke with a group of high school teachers during midday flextime (just over an hour of discretionary time) to learn more about what it’s like to be a teacher today, the challenges teachers face, and how to interact with teachers. We talked about how we wanted to connect. with students in a digital post-pandemic environment.
Teachers agree that the teens at this high school are still curious and creative, but the constant use of cell phones and other personal screens is hampering students’ attention spans and disrupting their education. They unanimously say that it hinders children’s social development and hinders their social development.
guidance counselor Sheila McHugh Hazell and English teacher Kate Hennigan. — Ray Ewing
As a corrective measure, high school boards will vote this summer on an updated school handbook that explicitly prohibits students from using personal devices throughout the school day.
Under the new policy, students will be given identical web-based Chromebooks at the beginning of the school year, and their phones will be placed in a locking pouch. Students will have their phones in their pouches, but they can only unlock them in certain locations when they leave campus.
The hope is that students will be able to focus more on their education and conversations with each other without having to keep checking screens during the day.
English teacher Kathryn Hennigan said the sight of students rushing toward their phones at the end of each class represents a classroom filled with missed opportunities. She said the time was an opportunity to make informal connections with her students.
“I feel like we need to build relationships there,” Hennigan said. “We’ll still be talking… while we pack up and get ready to leave.”
Chris Baer, art, design, and technology teacher, Ryan Kent, physical education teacher, and Erin Slossberg, world language teacher. — Ray Ewing
Ms. Hennigan also pointed out how social media can have a negative impact on students’ self-esteem, and how that, combined with grade anxiety, plays into the classroom.
“They’re constantly consuming information about whether they’re good enough,” she says. “My classes used to be very discussion-based, and I still try to be discussion-based, but I don’t feel confident in group discussions as a whole.”
World language teacher Erin Slosberg agreed that students are showing a newfound reluctance to communicate directly.
“They’re really quiet,” Slosberg said, acknowledging that cell phone use isn’t just an obsession for teens.
“We’re all victims of these devices, and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who isn’t tied to it… alarms, calendars, schedules, for a variety of reasons,” she said. “But we have to help this generation navigate how to be together, because even when they’re in spaces together, they’re feeling very isolated. Because I feel it.”
science teacher Heather Lochridge; — Ray Ewing
“I think when your confidence goes down, your empathy goes down, too,” she added.
On the positive side, Ms. Hennigan said she feels that today’s students often have greater insight.
“Ironically, they really understand the words presence and mindfulness, and the importance of paying attention to life in front of you,” she wrote in a follow-up email.
“During deep conversations, students are amazingly observant and thoughtful, able to offer reasoned solutions and insights about their own lived experiences,” Ms. Hennigan wrote. . “I’m always inspired by how much they see the big picture in a way I never could when I was a teenager.”
The challenge, she and other teachers said, is overcoming screen-based distractions that draw students away from their classes and communities.
Teachers acknowledged their dependence on technology. — Ray Ewing
Cheating has become a concern not only in high-stakes tests, but also in everyday lessons.
Heather Lochridge, a science and advanced placement science teacher, said some students are so used to Internet tools that they don’t try to complete even the simplest assignments on their own.
“I am amazed at how much effort students put in without doing their own work. [using the ChatGPT artificial intelligence tool for] Rather than read the very 8th grade level reading paragraphs that I have hand-picked for them, they give assignments and Google answers,” Lochridge said.
Although the new technology policy won’t go into effect until the fall, many teachers have already withdrawn the use of computers in class. Part of the challenge of having technology devices mixed in, they said, is that students don’t know what they’re looking at unless they walk around the room checking screen after screen.
“This is an uphill battle for educators, and no one can compete with computer games,” Lochridge said. “The world’s best neuroscientists are working to captivate people through these games. . . . We can’t match that.”
With all students using school-issued Chromebooks, teachers can monitor all screens from their laptops to ensure no one is straying from their tasks.
As the new handbook nears completion, guidance counselor Sheila McHughazel says it’s important to give students a role in creating new policies around devices, so they know where things might go wrong and how they can be made more effective. He said it is important to ask students if they can function effectively.
“When you give, [students] When someone says, “Okay, please help make this system better,” it’s not just “I don’t like it because you take things away from me.”” McHugh-Hazel said.
Teachers’ commitment to their students has not changed amidst the challenges, they told the Gazette.
“It’s part of our job to find out what they’re interested in and push them…to uncover more,” said math teacher Michael Innes.
