Into screens in the name of progress

 by Nate Ovelar

In our current age, there is a growing dependence on electronic devices. We use them to record life, stay in contact, do research, entertain, organize thoughts, and so on. The list of benefits is enormous when considering convenience. However, the use of electronic devices by young children, especially in the school environment, can do more harm than good. Not only are they widely owned by the students but, they are often treated as a right. Although there is still lack of substantial research on this topic, due to its relatively brief presence in modern society, there are certain issues which stand out for educators today. Through discussion with other teachers and through first-hand knowledge I can see a trend of negative effects on child development both cognitively and socially/morally. They lead the students to be disconnected from reality, unable to process things into long term memory, and given freedom that’s unmanageable by adults.

DISCONNECTED FROM REALITY: Smart phones allow students a constant link to peers and parents. By doing this they don’t allow for development of self-regulation. There is an assumption that social support and help will always be available and students stay disconnected from their own mind. They don’t embrace pauses in the daily schedule to work through personal thoughts. In moments of downtime at school, children rush to engage with their smart phones and this leaves them distracted enough to never work through deeper trains of thought. At the same time they stay disconnected from what’s going on around them.  They may be communicating but they are substituting face to face conversations in favor of emoticons and screens. So much of human language is based in the nuance of tone, body language, and gestures and students who have smart phones readily available will prefer to maintain many conversations while they play games. Though this may seem productive, they aren’t properly developing the social cues and rhythm required of prolonged conversation. Human language, though able to communicate extensively through the written word, is complex and requires a certain set of skills to properly convey your thoughts and opinions. I find students are having more difficulties in conveying their ideas through academic discourse and often haven’t developed the social rules of proper conversation. Lack of eye contact, curt answers, and smaller vocabularies are beginning to become commonplace.

DON’T RETAIN LONG TERM KNOWLEDGE: Students don’t bother as much to retain knowledge long term because they have an easily-accessible record of information to peck from when needed. The old task of taking notes and having to pass them on to an absent student is gone. It was an opportunity for the student to reassert the knowledge and the absent student to take it in as they wrote it down. Now they pass pictures or the teacher uploads all the notes from the lesson and the student catalogues it in their phone. They also have search engines at the tip of the fingers tips to find quick answers to almost any question. They also have the ability to look up other peoples work and re-write it for their homework, which causes them to bypass gaining critical thinking skills. The problem that is coming up is that students are lacking qualitative analysis of information. Information is ordered by facts and anecdotes, so students begin to struggle when having to expand on the knowledge because they haven’t properly processed the content into their long term memory. This greatly affects math and science because the conclusions and answers can come instantly and covertly. Teachers are finding ways to combat this by forcing students to explain their formulas and paths to find the answers. Sadly, students are adept at finding this information way quicker than teachers realize; which leads us to the concern of students having a new level of freedom that was previously non-existent in the school environment.

FREE OF ADULT CONTROL: The anonymous nature of the internet, the lack of regulation of content access, and superior youth expertise on technological devices cause issues with educational control. Students are adept at social maneuvering online and cyberbullying is a big problem. Educators still haven’t found the best way to stay informed of social media issues and they are struggling to instill ethics at this early stage of smart phone use. When they use their phones in class, they have the ability to look at any screen and easily hide the content when a teacher glances at them. Many students know how to use proxies and software to bypass restrictions on school issued smart phones as well. The students have a steady stream of new information that is digested before adults even hear of it. They have a higher knowledge on technology and learn new shortcuts all the time; this makes it harder for educators and adults to stay in control over the learning domain; the students own the knowledge, not the teacher.  This is a part of the argument that has largely been ignored in the debate over smart phones in school. There seems to be a bit of disconnect as schools implement device use in class. Teachers assume that they have covered all the bases to keep the content and lesson within the controlled aspect of the class. However, students are rarely overwhelmed by the perceived challenges proposed by the teachers. The gap between the young and old with regards to technological know-how is immense. The youth nowadays are ahead of the educators and that makes the use of smart phones in school largely counterproductive. When students know they can manipulate the system, they are less likely to take the lessons seriously.  I’ve noticed students pretending to be overwhelmed by tasks that they are well aware are easy for them to accomplish. They have found a loophole in the system, and because smart phones are beginning to be incorporated into more and more subjects, students are coasting through entire courses with little motivation to try hard.  

While most of the public argument on smart phone usage in school is anti-use in the classroom, I did manage to find some sources that were adamant that smart phones be used extensively in the lessons. Their argument is that the answers are readily available, they learn more comfortably, they learn in a more engaged entertaining way, and they can learn socially. Though I do see the perspective of these pro-smart phone advocates, it simply is focusing on the micro level of education and ignoring the macro level. There are short term benefits, but the long term disadvantages have more negative value on the human experience.  It alters the priorities of cognitive development and pivots their perspective on morality and ethics.

We still don’t know the total affects that smart phone use in school has on the students. It will take another decade to know for sure. As an educator, this issue can completely change the course of the curriculum and classroom management, and it seems that schools haven’t found an answer yet for how to properly handle this.  Teachers around the world are complaining about seeing their students typing on their phones in the middle of class and it’s become tolerated not controlled.  I urge the education community to reassess their approach to this new policy, and focus on a way to counter the negative psychological affects that technology already presents in everyday life. School should offer a way to foster a mind that can detach from technology when needing to face difficult life tasks. I don’t believe that incorporating tools based on the idea of convenience alone is wise.  Cognitive and social development needs a base in schools and it’s an injustice to this generation of children if we let them disconnect into screens in the name of progress.