Post you DC elementary school’s tech usage!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Giving devices to elementary school children is an excellent way to destroy their attention spans. Don't complain when they won't read a book.

I have read only 10 books in my life. There are so many other ways to get information. Books are boring, the world is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:During tours of Capitol Hill schools this year during lottery season I witnessed:

- PK-4 class at Maury dancing to a video on the smartboard
- 1st graders at LT working on tablets (1:1)
- A video displaying the words to a story on a smartboard at Payne in a PK or K classroom
- A class watching a video on a smartboard about another country on a “virtual field trip” as the tour guide called it at CHML

And those were things that just happened to be occurring as the tour passed by! I felt pretty disheartened.

LT does not have 1:1 devices for 1st grade (not even close; 1:3 is the target ratio) so you either saw testing or one small group on devices.

[Anonymous]

We are at Mann and my child reports tons of tech, and says the teachers create a lot of anxiety and worry about their tech skills because of the testing.

No one at dcps is looking at the cumulative load of screen use. Each individual scenario seems harmless or potentially beneficial. And the teachers either feel powerless or don’t understand the damage because their own brains weren’t subjected to this. Or they think it’s a lost cause because of screen use at home.

I’m disappointed but it will be a decade before parent activism can make a dent in this. It’s just too tied to testing and the idea of tons of paper seems archaic and wasteful.

My personal priority is advocating for the removal of all truly gratuitous tech. “Readalouds” on smart screens, dance videos when music alone would be fine, any iPad use before 3rd…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at Mann and my child reports tons of tech, and says the teachers create a lot of anxiety and worry about their tech skills because of the testing.

No one at dcps is looking at the cumulative load of screen use. Each individual scenario seems harmless or potentially beneficial. And the teachers either feel powerless or don’t understand the damage because their own brains weren’t subjected to this. Or they think it’s a lost cause because of screen use at home.

I’m disappointed but it will be a decade before parent activism can make a dent in this. It’s just too tied to testing and the idea of tons of paper seems archaic and wasteful.

My personal priority is advocating for the removal of all truly gratuitous tech. “Readalouds” on smart screens, dance videos when music alone would be fine, any iPad use before 3rd…

I think the amount of time DC teachers and students spent in virtual school really screwed things up as well and normalized way more tech use than anybody needs. We are seeing movement in the right direction with the recent citywide cell phone ban, and the conversation is slowly starting to shift as people are realizing how much damage all of the screen time does.

One thing I think is helpful is when technology is used for short (30 min) blocks during centers rotation to allow differentiation. As a kid who was advanced in math in the 80s I was often just given some cards with word problems or an extra math book when I finished my work - if they use the right programs, allowing kids to spend that 30 minutes doing math activities that are tailored to their needs can be a good thing, IMO.

As a former teacher who spent a lot of time prepping chart paper and writing things on white boards, I don't think all smart board use is the same - if there are certain vocabulary words, or a visual you want kids to have while they do an activity, I think having them displayed on the smart board is fine. Saves paper, toner, teacher time (esp if the lesson is taught in multiple classrooms etc.)

[Anonymous]

OP here. I'm really appreciating the insights and information on this post, thanks so much all. Keep the comments coming!

The thing I find interesting is that in many cases, people are unwilling to name the school. When people are happy with their situation, they tend to want to report the school name (like the LAMB poster). When people are leaving a school or have made a different choice, they're fine reporting "bad" stuff with the school name (like the person who wrote the list of what they saw at Hill open houses, which was helpful).

That so many are unwilling to say the school tells me that we may have a situation where people are generally happy with their school, but are unhappy with tech usage, and are willing to live with it. Which is interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I'm really appreciating the insights and information on this post, thanks so much all. Keep the comments coming!

The thing I find interesting is that in many cases, people are unwilling to name the school. When people are happy with their situation, they tend to want to report the school name (like the LAMB poster). When people are leaving a school or have made a different choice, they're fine reporting "bad" stuff with the school name (like the person who wrote the list of what they saw at Hill open houses, which was helpful).

That so many are unwilling to say the school tells me that we may have a situation where people are generally happy with their school, but are unhappy with tech usage, and are willing to live with it. Which is interesting.

I wouldn't read that much into it tbh. I think people are often wary of naming their school and deanonymizing themselves in a lot of different threads.

[Anonymous]

At Yu Ying there was way, way too much screen use, and parents have pushed back pretty successfully (with teacher and administrative support). My kids aren’t at DCI yet, but I’ve heard screen time has gone down as well.

The evidence is just too strong against screens in the classroom, even though some is unavoidable. I doubt we’re even 5 years away from screens being mostly gone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at Mann and my child reports tons of tech, and says the teachers create a lot of anxiety and worry about their tech skills because of the testing.

No one at dcps is looking at the cumulative load of screen use. Each individual scenario seems harmless or potentially beneficial. And the teachers either feel powerless or don’t understand the damage because their own brains weren’t subjected to this. Or they think it’s a lost cause because of screen use at home.

I’m disappointed but it will be a decade before parent activism can make a dent in this. It’s just too tied to testing and the idea of tons of paper seems archaic and wasteful.

My personal priority is advocating for the removal of all truly gratuitous tech. “Readalouds” on smart screens, dance videos when music alone would be fine, any iPad use before 3rd…

One problem with these, and why there's tech adoption, is that the non-tech often costs more. YouTube is free for music, Spotify is not. At $20/month for six Spotify users that's well over $100/month just to have on demand music in each classroom.

iPads can provide differentiation for students at a lower cost.

Readalouds may be cheaper than actually buying each book new.

I'm not saying I love it but there are some reasons for it.

[Anonymous]

As a teacher, I would love a tech free classroom. But there are things computers are just far more efficient at. I teach math, so let’s take basic math facts. Sure I can make centers and games and have kids do paper quizzes. But those take time to make and grade and collect data.

Or I can have kids do a program for ten minutes a day that quizzes them on all their facts, identifies which ones they know well and which ones they need to learn, then automatically sets up practice and quizzes on just those facts.

IReady is similar. I teach grade level content, but your kid will be getting limited below or above grade level content from me. Yes I do small groups. But not everyone, everyday. But iReady quizzes your kid on what they know and then gives them lessons on those topics.

If I had more time, I would absolutely love to be able to do more individual planning but by the time I get through everything else I have to do to plan for a regular day, the 50 individualized plans just won’t happen. Hence, computer time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:During tours of Capitol Hill schools this year during lottery season I witnessed:

- PK-4 class at Maury dancing to a video on the smartboard
- 1st graders at LT working on tablets (1:1)
- A video displaying the words to a story on a smartboard at Payne in a PK or K classroom
- A class watching a video on a smartboard about another country on a “virtual field trip” as the tour guide called it at CHML

And those were things that just happened to be occurring as the tour passed by! I felt pretty disheartened.

Uh huh. 🙄 How much screen time does your kid have at home?
Have you ever thought about kids with disabilities who may need bigger words than what’s on a chart paper? Or maybe they need visuals to help them engage. Are you going to print thousands and pay for colored visuals?

Are you going to pay for a trip to Italy?

There is NOTHING wrong with what you listed as long as it’s not for hours.

I have done a 15 minute virtual tour in my classroom, then students did research using books, travel magazines, brochures, etc.

If parents want zero tech send your kid to a private forest school. We have those in this area, they’re cute.

DP but what we are telling you is that it adds up to hours. I wouldn't be surprised if it's more than 10 hours a week once you add in Numberblocks at aftercare, seriously. And my kid gets zero screen time on school days at home, and a few episodes or a movie on the weekend. We used to allow an episode after school but when I saw how much screen time she was getting at school I realized the only counterbalance I could provide was at home - and I have to listen to teachers say kids attention spans are terrible while playing snippets of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 8x a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I would love a tech free classroom. But there are things computers are just far more efficient at. I teach math, so let’s take basic math facts. Sure I can make centers and games and have kids do paper quizzes. But those take time to make and grade and collect data.

Or I can have kids do a program for ten minutes a day that quizzes them on all their facts, identifies which ones they know well and which ones they need to learn, then automatically sets up practice and quizzes on just those facts.

IReady is similar. I teach grade level content, but your kid will be getting limited below or above grade level content from me. Yes I do small groups. But not everyone, everyday. But iReady quizzes your kid on what they know and then gives them lessons on those topics.

If I had more time, I would absolutely love to be able to do more individual planning but by the time I get through everything else I have to do to plan for a regular day, the 50 individualized plans just won’t happen. Hence, computer time.

OP here. Thank you so much for weighing in. This is really interesting, as I hadn't considered either of those use cases specifically, and what you're saying makes a ton of sense - I can see how that's really valuable.

One thing that would make this a bit more tenable for me is if there wasn't 1:1 devices for kids. If you've got, say, 5 (plus one backup for technical issues) devices, the it becomes a circuit - five groups of kids, one is doing math facts on the iPads, one is doing a hands-on project, one is working with the teacher on material, one is doing a worksheet, and one is taking a break to read a book or play with something fairly quiet and you rotate through, great.

But there's so much temptation when you have a 1:1 device is to do as much as you can on it, because, to your point, it's easier. But study after study has shown that little kids (and this thread is specifically about elementary school) don't learn as well on screens. They just don't. So having a 3rd grader on a device for 3 hours a day is insane. And terrible for their gross motor, fine motor, and social skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:During tours of Capitol Hill schools this year during lottery season I witnessed:

- PK-4 class at Maury dancing to a video on the smartboard
- 1st graders at LT working on tablets (1:1)
- A video displaying the words to a story on a smartboard at Payne in a PK or K classroom
- A class watching a video on a smartboard about another country on a “virtual field trip” as the tour guide called it at CHML

And those were things that just happened to be occurring as the tour passed by! I felt pretty disheartened.

Uh huh. 🙄 How much screen time does your kid have at home?
Have you ever thought about kids with disabilities who may need bigger words than what’s on a chart paper? Or maybe they need visuals to help them engage. Are you going to print thousands and pay for colored visuals?

Are you going to pay for a trip to Italy?

There is NOTHING wrong with what you listed as long as it’s not for hours.

I have done a 15 minute virtual tour in my classroom, then students did research using books, travel magazines, brochures, etc.

If parents want zero tech send your kid to a private forest school. We have those in this area, they’re cute.

DP but what we are telling you is that it adds up to hours. I wouldn't be surprised if it's more than 10 hours a week once you add in Numberblocks at aftercare, seriously. And my kid gets zero screen time on school days at home, and a few episodes or a movie on the weekend. We used to allow an episode after school but when I saw how much screen time she was getting at school I realized the only counterbalance I could provide was at home - and I have to listen to teachers say kids attention spans are terrible while playing snippets of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 8x a day.

+1

The problem is not any one of these activities. The problem is that if half the classrooms you see on your tour are on screens than guess what... kids are spending roughly half their day on screens. That's three hours of screen time PER DAY for little kids. That's obscene. And objectively terrible for them. We've ended up doing the same as the above poster - we do zero screens on a day to day basis for our early elementary school kids (we do let them watch a lot when they're home sick, a little on an airplane, and about one family movie every month or two, but that's it) because we know they're getting so much at school.

And I don't think anyone is saying they need zero screens. Heck, even when I was a kid, sometimes they'd bring in that big TV on the rolling cart and you'd watch something. I don't think anyone would blink at under an hour a day. But it's WAY more than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I would love a tech free classroom. But there are things computers are just far more efficient at. I teach math, so let’s take basic math facts. Sure I can make centers and games and have kids do paper quizzes. But those take time to make and grade and collect data.

Or I can have kids do a program for ten minutes a day that quizzes them on all their facts, identifies which ones they know well and which ones they need to learn, then automatically sets up practice and quizzes on just those facts.

IReady is similar. I teach grade level content, but your kid will be getting limited below or above grade level content from me. Yes I do small groups. But not everyone, everyday. But iReady quizzes your kid on what they know and then gives them lessons on those topics.

If I had more time, I would absolutely love to be able to do more individual planning but by the time I get through everything else I have to do to plan for a regular day, the 50 individualized plans just won’t happen. Hence, computer time.

+1. My two children each went to a different DCPS elementary. One went a school where he regularly used Lexia, Reflex, I-Ready, and Zearn. The other school used no programs other than I-Ready.

At the end of elementary, the child using all the apps went to middle school far better prepared than my child who didn’t use apps, because the programs addressed all his weaknesses and made sure he had his math facts memorized, and phonics/grammar/spelling well understood. I’ve had to make up for all the gaps of my other child on my own, and it’s been an uphill road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:During tours of Capitol Hill schools this year during lottery season I witnessed:

- PK-4 class at Maury dancing to a video on the smartboard
- 1st graders at LT working on tablets (1:1)
- A video displaying the words to a story on a smartboard at Payne in a PK or K classroom
- A class watching a video on a smartboard about another country on a “virtual field trip” as the tour guide called it at CHML

And those were things that just happened to be occurring as the tour passed by! I felt pretty disheartened.

Uh huh. 🙄 How much screen time does your kid have at home?
Have you ever thought about kids with disabilities who may need bigger words than what’s on a chart paper? Or maybe they need visuals to help them engage. Are you going to print thousands and pay for colored visuals?

Are you going to pay for a trip to Italy?

There is NOTHING wrong with what you listed as long as it’s not for hours.

I have done a 15 minute virtual tour in my classroom, then students did research using books, travel magazines, brochures, etc.

If parents want zero tech send your kid to a private forest school. We have those in this area, they’re cute.

DP but what we are telling you is that it adds up to hours. I wouldn't be surprised if it's more than 10 hours a week once you add in Numberblocks at aftercare, seriously. And my kid gets zero screen time on school days at home, and a few episodes or a movie on the weekend. We used to allow an episode after school but when I saw how much screen time she was getting at school I realized the only counterbalance I could provide was at home - and I have to listen to teachers say kids attention spans are terrible while playing snippets of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 8x a day.

I can tell the days it's extra excessive because my son comes home so, so irritable. The last month of school was rough.

[Anonymous]

My DD8 has, on her own, made the connection between the irritable and disruptive behavior of boys in her DCPS class and the days with more screens and testing. They have tech issues, they distract each other during tech use, and they feel each others’ stress.

I wholeheartedly agree with the point that a circuit is always going to be less distracting than 1:1. No child needs their own device! Poor Obama has this as his legacy.