Screens In Schools

Tips to keep a check on digital learning, distractions.

- Melanie Hempe

If you give your child a choice today to either go to a library and do research or get on a screen to watch YouTube videos, which would they choose? Mine would not choose the library. In fact, most kids would not choose to trade their screen time for research time. But what happens when screens are used as a tool for learning? Research and common sense tells us that if we put technology on a child’s desk at school, we can’t expect them to always use it as intended. Even with the best teacher supervision and online security, there are always distractions and temptations for kids on school screens.

“Kids are not great decision makers, and they are even worse with impulse control.” says Joe Clement and Matt Miles, high school teachers and authors of the book “Screen Schooled.” “The more we put them on screens in class, the more they are going to goof off.”