Zone’in Workshops

With the rise in computer use in the school setting, Cris Rowan was interested to hear student perceptions regarding computer use at school. Cris interviewed five elementary and one high school student in her daughter’s Francophone school, and discovered some interesting information. Students are allowed unrestricted and unsupervised access to their school’s computer lab during school hours, recess, lunch time, and before/after school. While one might assume students are doing school work during this time, apparently they are not (see below comments). Playing computer games appears to occupy the majority of in- school computer use time.  Another interesting note in Cris’s daughter’s school, is that all grade 3-7 students have been provided with their own laptops, yet the grade 8-12’ s are expected to share a bank of 15 laptops amongst the lot of them.  Cris’s  grade 9 daughter, Katie stated “What would a grade 3 do with a computer!” Texting on cell phones and listening to iPods… are other challenges facing today’s education professionals.  Just how much is too much?

The following comments are a result of interviews with five elementary students who attend a francophone school in British Columbia.

• “We do a bunch of projects on computers, and it takes us away from other work. Like – we haven’t done math in 2 weeks, and French in 3 weeks.”
• “Some of my friend’s were getting straight A’s and now their not. Sometimes they say they can’t concentrate, but I’m not really sure what that’s about.”
• “We get a lot of work to do on computers, and we don’t go outside as much as we used to. I choose to do work on the computers, but most kids just play games. When students work in pairs on projects, stuff doesn’t get done because they are playing games.”
• “Everyone thinks computers make kids smarter, but I think computers make kids dumber. They (computers) keep changing and changing and changing.”
• “Any time they want, kids can get on the computer, but they just play games. Three of them got their computer confiscated because of a “chat” thing, but they just watch others now. They use one hand to eat, and the other to play.”

These student comments bring to light an interesting problem in the education sector – how do education professionals keep up with the times, but also ensure children achieve literacy and academic excellence? Schools are receiving pressure from parents to provide their children with new age technology, yet are also reporting that their children can’t print and read.  Could it be that technology use and attainment of literacy are mutually exclusive?  What resources are available to guide schools through this transition time accommodating the technology explosion? A suggestion would be to form a committee of interested teachers, parents and community members to begin to create regulatory guidelines for managing technology in school settings. Possible areas to consider are: use of computers for non-school related activities e.g. gaming, restrictions regarding use of cell phones and iPods in classrooms, closure of computer lab when lack of staffing prohibits adequate supervision e.g. during lunch, recess and before/after school, and promotion of student participation in organized sports on the playground.

Zone’in Programs Inc. has created two products to assist schools in the area of Balanced Technology Management – the Unplug’in Game and the Live’in Resource Guide. The Unplug’in Game is for elementary aged students to be played in home or school settings, and is designed to build confidence and skill in alternate areas to technology. As players travel through four dimensions of Me, We, Earth and Spirit, they learn more about how they interact with themselves and their environment, gaining confidence and performance skill to “unplug” themself from technology. The Live’in Resource Guide is for parents, teachers and therapists and is designed to provide everything a home or school would need to manage a balance between technology use and requirements for attaining health and academic excellence. The Live’in Resource Guide is full of research based information regarding the impact of technology on child health and academic performance, and contains easy to implement activities with ready to use handouts. Outcome measures for both the Unplug’in Game and the Live’in Resource Guide are improvements in child physical, psychological, behavoral and social health. By Unplug’in, you can start Live’in!