How much screen time/technology is used in elementary schools in 2023?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are looking at the Smartboard screen a great deal, because teachers are still teaching with slides, as there aren’t textbooks. Slides give a snapshot of instruction, and then, for example, a few math problems, and that’s the lesson for the day. Reading books and writing by hand on paper allows kids to engage much more fully with the content.

How is a smartboard worse than the blackboards of old??? They are far better in my opinion.
Kids do plenty of reading physical books and writing by hand in our school.

I disagree. There has been little to no reading a physical book, other than 20min at home enforced by a parent. There are no textbooks at school, so there is no material on social studies or science to read. The students only write during a writing prompt time. The Google slide decks from Covid are being used and kids might write in one word answers on a worksheet. There is no dictation. There is no taking notes at all. The notes are given to the students in a packet of worksheets stapled together. There is no textbook to consult with when the student misses some blanks. So, all in all, very little handwriting occurs each day and much less reading.

What pyramid are you in? This has not been our experience in Marshall pyramid. Tech is used but I see lots of work coming home that is handwritten.

DP but same thing in the Oakton pyramid. Both of my kids (2nd and 6th) bring home a ton of paper every day, they also don't bring their laptops home from school. The 2nd grader doesn't even use it every day.

Same in Robinson pyramid.

Marshall, Oakton, Robinson pyramids are primarily paper-based? Not the case at our ES in Oakton. Is this really supposed to be a pyramid-wide policy? I imagine it has more to do with the individual teacher's style than even the ES itself. Our teacher is very young and seems to favor tech.

I think it is school based.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are looking at the Smartboard screen a great deal, because teachers are still teaching with slides, as there aren’t textbooks. Slides give a snapshot of instruction, and then, for example, a few math problems, and that’s the lesson for the day. Reading books and writing by hand on paper allows kids to engage much more fully with the content.

How is a smartboard worse than the blackboards of old??? They are far better in my opinion.
Kids do plenty of reading physical books and writing by hand in our school.

I disagree. There has been little to no reading a physical book, other than 20min at home enforced by a parent. There are no textbooks at school, so there is no material on social studies or science to read. The students only write during a writing prompt time. The Google slide decks from Covid are being used and kids might write in one word answers on a worksheet. There is no dictation. There is no taking notes at all. The notes are given to the students in a packet of worksheets stapled together. There is no textbook to consult with when the student misses some blanks. So, all in all, very little handwriting occurs each day and much less reading.

What pyramid are you in? This has not been our experience in Marshall pyramid. Tech is used but I see lots of work coming home that is handwritten.

DP but same thing in the Oakton pyramid. Both of my kids (2nd and 6th) bring home a ton of paper every day, they also don't bring their laptops home from school. The 2nd grader doesn't even use it every day.

Same in Robinson pyramid.

Marshall, Oakton, Robinson pyramids are primarily paper-based? Not the case at our ES in Oakton. Is this really supposed to be a pyramid-wide policy? I imagine it has more to do with the individual teacher's style than even the ES itself. Our teacher is very young and seems to favor tech.

I think it's more what people have experienced in that pyramid. Some of it is teacher-based, some of it is school-based.

[Anonymous]

It has nothing to do with the pyramid. It is totally each individual teacher--and what each individual school principal lets teachers get away with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't finish - I am curious about what the teachers and principals say when you guys ask them about the high computer usage?

Because surely you're talking to them about it and asking them these questions instead of just complaining here, right??

Families complained at our school last year and this year there is very limited computer usage. So it does help to talk to them.

You know how condescending you sound, right?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Dr. Reid and central off said last year that teachers need to get back to pen and paper. Less google slide assignments and no you tube real alouds, etc. But it is not translating down to the schools and curriculum services hasn’t been able to re write and take out old slide decks from the Covid time.

Teacher here. I wonder if the schools who are mostly on laptops all day are the ones who were 1:1 with FCPSOn before Covid. I don’t know one teacher at my school that has kids on computers all day(virtual notebooks, google slide assignments, etc.) Technology is used but not all day. I would say if I had to estimate by grade level…
K-2- 30 mins a day
3-30-60 mins a day
4-6- 30-120 mins a day. 120 mins is when certain projects are happening or students are getting ready to publish pieces.

Good teachers know how to balance the tech usage.

My older dc went to the same ES as my 3rd. The older 2 they had one laptop cart for the whole grade. They were on laptops very little and did lots of physical projects and handwritten work. After Covid, the same school, youngest was on laptops for 2-3 hours every day in 4th, 5th and now 6th. The bulk of the instructional day. In 4th grade, he brought home maybe 5 pieces of handwritten work ALL YEAR LONG.
Some teachers are still using the "Gatehouse slides" as pp called them.

I don't see what's wrong with using the district's slides if they are tied to the standards and teach the content--why reinvent the wheel? Especially since the teacher shortage has meant they need to hire more provisional licensed teachers/teacher trainees etc. They have enough on their hands managing 26+ kids not to mention doing all the outside work to become licensed. And other teachers are taking up the slack for the beginning teachers. I'd advise you to choose your battles a little more wisely.

Do you think its appropriate for a 4th grader to only bring home say 10 pieces of written work on paper for an entire school year? Yes or no?
Do you think its appropriate for an elementary school student to be on the laptop for 2-3 hours EVERY school day? Think how much of the day is spent out of the classroom at lunch/specials/recess/transitions.

When this happened to us it was because my 3rd grader was just stuffing the paper in her desk and not bringing it home. Have your talked to your child's teacher about this concern you have? Because I don't believe this is actually happening. Post screenshots of your kid's light speed report.

You can't believe someone else's child's 4th grade experience was different than your own child's in a school system with 180k students?
Here's a cut and paste from one of the lightspeed report emails from his 4th grade year (2 years ago):

Browsed

80
Different hosts

Visited an average of

797
Pages each day
Daily
Pages per day
Sun 0
Mon 952
Tue 506
Wed 964
Thu 1534
Fri 463
Sat 0

WOW - was s/he bringing home the laptop and using it at home, too? Or was this just from school usage? What did the teacher and school admin say when you asked them about this? I

That's nuts. Is she not paying attention in class? Have you ever got the comment that she's "not using technology appropriately" on progress reports--which basically means turning on their laptops when they are not supposed to, browsing the internet etc.

This PP isn't coming back because they made those numbers up.

I don't think so. My kid had a year with high numbers and a crappy teacher (4th grade) Why would someone make that up? It gets emailed to you every week.

Daily
Pages per day
Sun 0
Mon 253
Tue 83
Wed 180
Thu 107
Fri 276
Sat 0
--------
Daily
Pages per day
Sun 0
Mon 438
Tue 371
Wed 725
Thu 466
Fri 681
Sat 0

------
Daily
Pages per day
Sun 0
Mon 90
Tue 224
Wed 73
Thu 254
Fri 59
Sat 0

----------
Daily
Pages per day
Sun 0
Mon 0
Tue 622
Wed 173
Thu 875
Fri 156
Sat 0

So what did the teacher or principal say when you asked them why your child's light speed report had such high numbers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are looking at the Smartboard screen a great deal, because teachers are still teaching with slides, as there aren’t textbooks. Slides give a snapshot of instruction, and then, for example, a few math problems, and that’s the lesson for the day. Reading books and writing by hand on paper allows kids to engage much more fully with the content.

How is a smartboard worse than the blackboards of old??? They are far better in my opinion.
Kids do plenty of reading physical books and writing by hand in our school.

I disagree. There has been little to no reading a physical book, other than 20min at home enforced by a parent. There are no textbooks at school, so there is no material on social studies or science to read. The students only write during a writing prompt time. The Google slide decks from Covid are being used and kids might write in one word answers on a worksheet. There is no dictation. There is no taking notes at all. The notes are given to the students in a packet of worksheets stapled together. There is no textbook to consult with when the student misses some blanks. So, all in all, very little handwriting occurs each day and much less reading.

What pyramid are you in? This has not been our experience in Marshall pyramid. Tech is used but I see lots of work coming home that is handwritten.

DP but same thing in the Oakton pyramid. Both of my kids (2nd and 6th) bring home a ton of paper every day, they also don't bring their laptops home from school. The 2nd grader doesn't even use it every day.

Same in Robinson pyramid.

Marshall, Oakton, Robinson pyramids are primarily paper-based? Not the case at our ES in Oakton. Is this really supposed to be a pyramid-wide policy? I imagine it has more to do with the individual teacher's style than even the ES itself. Our teacher is very young and seems to favor tech.

I don't think that's what people have been saying. I think they're just telling you they go to an ES in one of those school pyramids. My child goes to a school in the Marshall pyramid and while her light speed numbers aren't nearly as high as some that people have posted, she uses her laptop a lot and does occasionally work on it at night -- they do a lot of group projects in Google slides, and last year even her personal narrative was in Google sildes. She also does a lot of Lexia, Prodigy, Reflex, ST Math, etc...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't finish - I am curious about what the teachers and principals say when you guys ask them about the high computer usage?

Because surely you're talking to them about it and asking them these questions instead of just complaining here, right??

Families complained at our school last year and this year there is very limited computer usage. So it does help to talk to them.

You know how condescending you sound, right?

So I take it you are one of those parents that just complain but don't actually ask the teacher or admin about their child's computer use?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't finish - I am curious about what the teachers and principals say when you guys ask them about the high computer usage?

Because surely you're talking to them about it and asking them these questions instead of just complaining here, right??

Families complained at our school last year and this year there is very limited computer usage. So it does help to talk to them.

You know how condescending you sound, right?

So I take it you are one of those parents that just complain but don't actually ask the teacher or admin about their child's computer use?

Several people have posted that they raised the issue and nothing changed.
Do you think a teacher is going to change her entire plan or suddenly become a good teacher just b/c one parent complained?

[Anonymous]

Here's the thing. Why should a parent have to complain about this? It is clearly, patently obvious to anyone who is a teacher, parent or school admin that no child should be on the laptop for the amount of time these kids are--and the proof is in the lightspeed reports so there's no hiding it.

So the teacher knows she has the kids online all day, the principals are supposed to know what is going on in their classrooms. Why on earth is it the parent's reponsibility to explain to teachers and principals how to do their jobs correctly?

A teacher having kids on laptops all day long isn't going to suddenly become the Dead Poets Society guy b/c parents complain.

Some of you are ridiculous.
First, the parents are lying about the screentime. You couldn't possibly imagine its true. Your kids class or the class you teach only get the laptops out every other Tuesday for one Kahoot!

Then multiple parents post proof. Oh, now its still the parents fault because they didn't meet with the principal, teacher, God and Gatehouse and politely convince them to magically become Not Terrible At Teaching.