Schools of the New Millennium – Six Part Series to Optimize Attention and Enhance Learning Ability
Part 1

Happy New Year and best wishes for a wonderful 2010!

This article is the first of a six part series on successful school-based strategies to optimize attention and enhance learning ability, and follows the Zone’in Child Development Series December 2009 newsletter advocating for school implementation of the School Operating Safely (SOS) – Child Behavior Management Policy and Procedures. This policy has recently been forwarded to all provincial Education Ministers, as well as members of the Council of Ministers of Education.

1) Schools of the New Millennium – Go Virtual or Go Green? will contrast the outcome on academic performance of two strategies: 1) allocating funds to technology vs. 2) ensuring children access “green space” on a daily basis.  Go Virtual or Go Green? will profile a variety of cost effective strategies for improving green space in school-based settings.

2) Schools of the New Millennium – Sitting Still or Moving to Learn? will review current research on how specific types of organized movement improve attention and learning ability, while sitting still stops children from learning.  Sitting Still or Moving to Learn? will emphasize classroom, gym and playground strategies for incorporating these types of movement into daily routines.

3) Schools of the New Millennium – Drugs and Seclusion or Green Space and Movement? profiles the increasing incidence of schools to diagnose and medicate child behavior, and use seclusion rooms and/or restraints, and contrasts the high risk and cost of this behavior management method to the low risk and cost of improved access to green space and movement.

4) Schools of the New Millennium – “No Touch” – No Learning! will review the neurological benefits of touch and human connection on formation of praxis (planned movement patterns), and reduction of anxiety, and profiles the devastating consequences of “No Touch” policies on learning ability in school environments.  “No Touch” – No Learning! discusses how teachers can use Deep Pressure Touch techniques and strategies in school based settings to enhance attention and learning.

5) Schools of the New Millennium – Computers or Printing? will cover current research on why children need to learn to print to achieve literacy, and how defaulting to computers is creating a generation of illiterate children.  Computers or Printing? profiles “whole school” based printing strategies to improve not only academic performance in every subject, but also improve student behavior of children who have not achieved printing fluency.

6) Schools of the New Millennium – Technology Overuse or Management? will review current research findings on the impact of technology overuse on academic performance, and profile how schools can begin to manage balance between activities children need to grow and succeed with technology use.

Schools of the New Millennium – Go Virtual or Go Green?

Upgrading technology is time consuming and costly, whether in a home, business or school –based setting.  Decisions to upgrade rapidly evolving technology in schools may not serve the best interests of students, nor advance their ability to learn.  Schools are quickly moving into the “age of technology” with limited empirical research to support technology initiatives, and subsequently limited long term planning.  Current research now indicates that the use of computers in school settings actually reduces a student’s ability to focus on task and pay attention, impacting on comprehension and memory, and also impairs student ability to think critically (Mangen 2008).  Long periods immersed in a sedentary, virtual world “overloads” the brain, resulting in energy that is way out of the Zone to Learn, and behaviors that are difficult to manage in classroom settings (Small 2008).  When substantial research now shows that as little as 20 minutes per day access to “green space” restores attention, significantly improving learning ability, why are schools continuing to invest resources and funds into computers and virtual classrooms (Kuo & Faber-Taylor 2004)?

Go Virtual?

Technology consultants, hardware, software, and internet security are just a few of the costs of technology upgrading, which often exceed school budgets, requiring transfer of funds from other areas.  Teachers attending the Foundation Series Workshops report that these technology upgrades frequently come at a cost to the once revered field trips, library services, art and music supplies, and gym and playground equipment.  Workshop participants report that they experience pressure from both school administrations and parents to provide students with the latest technology, or the student will “fall behind”.  Possibly schools might benefit from forming a Balanced Technology Management Committee consisting of not only the school technology consultant, but also teachers and administration who have current knowledge regarding the detrimental effects of technology overuse on academic performance http://www.zoneinworkshops.com/fact-sheet/zonein-fact-sheet/. This committee should also have an understanding of what type of activities children need to engage in to ensure adequate sensory and motor development to achieve eventual literacy skills.  The Balanced Technology Management Committee would subsequently develop a cost effective, long term technology plan that is reflective and consistent with recommendations from current research, and ensures that funds are still available to support healthy activities that optimize student growth and success.

Why Not Go Green?

Schools planning student daily access to “green space” would effectively counteract the “overload” effects of technology use, promoting focused attention and learning.  Green space is defined as nature-based and alive, including plants, shrub, trees, grass, and flowers, and can be created either indoors, or accessed outdoors.

Indoor green space is already accessible to classrooms with a view of nature, which a number of studies have now shown to procure students with lower behavior problems and higher academic performance.  Fresh air breaks either through opening the window or door to the outside, can prove to be essential techniques for afternoon sleepy and zoned out students.  Indoor green space can also be designed and achieved through use of greenhouse-type environments such as arboretums, conservatories and biospheres that contain aspects of nature e.g. plants, small trees, ponds with waterfall, patch of grass.  Funds might be accessed for creation of indoor green space through local community groups and organizations, or alternatively, through application to technology production corporations. One of the goals of the future Children of the New Millennium Foundation will be to promote the channeling of donations from technology production corporations to schools to reverse the negative effects of technology overuse on development and learning, through increasing access to green space.

Outdoor green space can be accessed during recess and lunch breaks, with strict adherence given to the policy of no technology use during these designated time periods.  Accessing outdoor space for a short time prior to tests or more difficult subjects such as math, can prove to be an effective strategy to ensure optimal learning. Starting a school gardening project with daily access to shoveling a bit of dirt would not only provide green space access, but also provide necessary proprioceptive input for calming an aggressive or anxious child.  Weekly field trips to a local park, woods, farm or beach, and/or yearly classroom or school camping trips would provide children with a more significant experience of the soothing aspects of nature.  Accessing Mother Nature feeds not only the body and mind, but also the soul, and is truly the best remedy for problems associated with technology overuse.

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References

  1. Mangen, A. Hypertext fiction reading: haptics and immersion. Journal of Research. 2008; 31(4):404-419.
  2. Small G, Vorgan V. iBrain: Surviving the technological alteration of the modern mind.  2008: HarperCollins, New York, NY.
  3. Kuo FE, Faber Taylor A.  A Potential Natural Treatment for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Evidence from a National Study.  American Journal of Public Health. 2004; 94(9):1580-1586.