Educators are in a difficult situation when it comes to technology in the classroom, especially smartphones and social media. They use educational technology to make assignments and materials readily available, communicate with parents, distribute information, create engaging content for students, provide support, and support learning activities. are under pressure to promote They also face technology challenges as social media invades and disrupts classrooms. The challenges are real, and there are growing calls from teachers, parents, and policy makers for restrictions and bans as solutions.
Restricting devices can reduce disruption in the classroom, but it doesn’t solve the more fundamental problem of keeping children safe and teaching them to be responsible and ethical technology users.
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While device bans may seem like a āsafety firstā approach, they do not address off-campus digital activities and interactions that begin online and transition to campus. It is unrealistic to expect children to give up their primary source of social connection. Multiple studies have shown that increasing children’s critical thinking skills and self-efficacy is much more likely to lead to self-regulation than prohibition. Here’s how to approach smartphone and social media use in school, which can impact how children use technology when they walk out the classroom door. Here are some tips from educators.
Children’s lives are on a digital continuum
There is no magical border separating the physical and digital worlds. In a recent survey of 90 mostly middle school educators, 87% reported that their social media activity outside of school influenced what happened in the classroom. The most common theme was that online behaviors such as bullying, trash talk, and drama over “who’s in and who’s out” drive children to school, causing hurt feelings and conflict.
This drama is normal (and expected) for tweens and teens. By middle school, children naturally begin to value social skills as part of their healthy development. They begin to undergo physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and psychological changes. There’s a reason why these changes are called “development.” These things don’t happen smoothly all at once, but over time. Changes in hormones and brain development, combined with a strong need for social connection and inclusion, can lead to emotional instability and reactivity, long before children learn coping skills and emotional regulation skills. It could be the way.
Educators saw this every day in their classrooms long before social media. An overly focused focus on blaming social media companies and holding them āaccountableā fails to equip students with the skills to manage their digital behavior. Nor does it provide teachers with strategies to encourage healthy and safe use. However, teachers are in a unique position to incorporate lessons about digital literacy and citizenship into discussions and assignments that are most relevant to students and most likely to be internalized.
5 tips from the front lines
1. Please talk about it
Speaking honestly is an important strategy for both parents and teachers. He says talking about social media with kids has two effects. 1) Children are more likely to come to you for help with problems. 2) Allows teachers to ask questions that encourage critical thinking.
Recognizing that social media is a big part of students’ lives can help you think about the good and bad aspects of social media. It also provides a gateway for sharing images of others without permission and discussing cyberbullying.
Incorporating relevant digital literacies into research projects, such as creating short videos on a topic, opens the door to issues such as how to conduct research and how to spot misinformation. By integrating video assignments, kids can make connections between misinformation when doing research and what they see on apps like TikTok and YouTube.
2. Create clear rules
Rules are set in the classroom and at home. Clear rules let kids know when they can and cannot use their devices. But teens and their teens are at a stage where it’s normal to question authority, even if it’s annoying. Therefore, when you involve students in developing rules and penalties for violations, they are more likely to follow those rules.
Plagiarism is a consistent complaint from educators from elementary school to higher education. Surprisingly, many kids, especially in his ChatGPT days, don’t know the basics of plagiarism, copyright, paraphrasing and quoting, what’s OK and what’s not. Rules are meaningless if children don’t understand them.
social media essentials
3. Get parents involved
Rules regarding smartphone use and social media vary from household to household. However, at school children must follow school rules. Communicating school and classroom policies helps parents know expectations for their child’s behavior. Connecting with parents is also an opportunity to provide digital safety and citizenship strategies that parents can apply at home.
4. Understand what you can (and cannot) do with social media
There are many ways social media can support education if used judiciously. As teachers learn about different apps, they can be more creative with their assignments, make their lessons more meaningful to students, and introduce topics like privacy and copyright.
5. Set a good example
Teachers have lives outside of the classroom, and that may include using social media. Nearly half of all teachers are millennials who grew up with technology, so using smartphones and social media may seem like the norm. Recognizing and establishing personal and professional boundaries is as important for educators as it is for students.
Advance
There are growing concerns about classroom disruption and increased reports of depression and anxiety among students. Many point to social media, but the situation is much more complex. The pandemic has been a traumatic experience, and teachers say they’re seeing an increase in behavioral problems post-pandemic. There will be 82 school shootings in 2023.[i], Also, depending on the school, children may be exposed to various safety measures such as metal detectors, drug and weapon sweeps, surveillance cameras, and target practice.[ii] All of this suggests that the environment is actually unsafe.
Despite conflicting evidence about social media’s impact, research shows that persistent messages disparaging social media lead people to believe that social media is uniformly bad for them. It is shown. Some researchers believe that ongoing messages about the toxicity and negativity of social media can have a greater impact on mental health than social media use itself, creating feelings of shame and defensiveness. We found that (Lanette et al., 2018; Lee & Hancock, 2023; Odgers et al., 2018; Lee & Hancock, 2023; Odgers et al., 2018; Lee & Hancock, 2023; Odgers et al. , 2022).
We know that children are growing up in a digital world. Social media will continue to be a part of their lives. Banning cell phones and social media companies can be pretended to be helpful, but both solutions leave children without the skills to make healthy, responsible decisions about what they see and do online. It will be. Educators are in a crucial position. They help students safely explore online environments and provide them with the digital literacy they need to become better students and citizens.
References
[i]https://www.cnn.com/us/school-shootings-fast-facts-dg
[ii]Percentage of public schools that have various safety and security measures in place.
Lanette, S., Chua, P. K., Hayes, G., and Mazmanian, M. (2018). How much is “too much”? The role of smartphone addiction narratives in individuals’ experiences of use. Procedures ACM Ham – Computing. To interact., 2(CSCW), Article 101. https://doi.org/10.1145/3274370
Lee, A. Y., and Hancock, J. (2023). Social media thinking: A new approach to understanding social media use and psychological well-being. . PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/f8wny
Odgers, C.L., Allen, N.B., Pfeifer, J.H., Dahl, RE., Nesi, J., Schueller, S.M., Williams, J.L., and the National Youth Science Council. (2022). Engaging, safe, and evidence-based: What science tells us about how to foster positive development and reduce risk in online spaces [Report].