Category: Ideas And Opinions

The Pandemic Irreversibly Changed Kids' Relationship with Technology

7/1/2023

In 2010, I finished my PhD in Instructional Technology, and I was on fire to help the 40-year-old elementary school that hired me become a modern, model school for showcasing all the ways that technology integration could make teaching and learning more “Effective, Efficient, Engaging, and Enhanced” (<-- those E-words were the official tech-integration buzzwords of the era. Get ready - another ancient, nostalgia-inducing buzzword is coming up later). My school, like all the others at the time, was investing in interactive boards, cameras, tablets, video studios, “clickers,” and all manner of other tools being invented to revolutionize learning. I was all-in on ensuring that they did exactly that.

Transforming the school experience in 2010.

In 2015, when I returned to classroom teaching, I had that same goal for my classroom, and it worked. By this time, having more access to computers and tablets in each classroom was the trend, and I made the most of every single one I could get my students’ hands on. I had whole lesson formats that leveraged the 8 laptops and 4 tablets I had in the room being in constant use. I was such a regular in the computer lab that they moved me next door to it so my students could use the computers anytime they weren’t reserved. I invented six entirely tech-centric, project-based learning experiences for my students to engage in over the two-year “loop” they spent with me. I dreamed of the day that I might have 1:1 device access for my students so that I’d never have to make compromises or accommodations for lack of enough devices to do exactly what I wanted.

Transforming the school experience in 2015.

And then that dream came true.

In 2020, I moved to a new school, and they literally gave me an unused computer lab for a classroom for two years. And last year, in 2022, when I needed to move out of the computer lab so that a wonderful new program could be launched there, would you believe - that very same year - that my district went 1:1? That’s right - last year, every single student I taught had a district-issued laptop all their own.

Permanently.

At school, at home, everywhere.

And we rarely used them.

Why not, you ask? After dreaming that very dream for twelve long years?

Last year, every student was issued their own laptop, complete with a stylish shoulder case.

The answer is straightforward - the pandemic irreversibly changed kids’ relationship with technology.

And unfortunately, it did so in a way that makes trying to make it an integral part of my classroom experience no longer worth it.

There are four details that explain this change. Here they are, as I see them.

1. The pandemic changed kids’ mindset about what digital devices are used for

Prior to the pandemic, kids largely used digital devices (phones, laptops, tablets) for entertainment. They watched movies, played games, took pictures, and texted friends and family for amusement. Kids who were allowed to may have looked at social media, largely in the same way they might have watched a video or show (as entertainment). Overwhelmingly, when kids got their hands on a device at home, they were doing so to have fun.

Thus, when the devices came out in class, the kids instantly assumed that what we were doing would also be… more fun. More entertaining. The tasks we were doing with the devices largely mirrored what most of them were doing with them at home, so the devices became a sign that we were going to do a more entertaining version of typical school work.

A pre-pandmic child, too entertained by what she's learning to even sit down, in 2019.

And so on. This turned out to be a great lever for me to pull, because entertainment is one (though not nearly the only) way to boost engagement, and engagement is one way to boost motivation, attention, and behavior.

The pandemic changed all of that.

It changed kids’ mindset from "devices are for entertainment" to "devices are for distraction."

Zoom classes were so boring. Even mine.

I tried so unbelievably hard, I really did. I poured and poured and poured into learning how to be a better teacher online. I changed the structure of my classes to keep them fresh. I did everything I could.

But I get it.

It was boring.

I tried really hard to be less boring with Zoom.

When the human mind is bored, and there is a device full of distraction right in front of it, we’re going to use it. I can leave my Zoom-teacher on in one tab, and I can also turn on music, games, videos, chats, and all manner of things I’m not normally allowed to use this computer for in other tabs, because my parents are assuming that I’m in class. Which technically I am - I’m just distracting myself from it, maybe partially, or maybe completely.

And voila, entertainment morphs into distraction.

Let’s be honest, it wasn't just kids - you and I did this, as well. Zoom meetings are just as boring as Zoom classes, so what did we do during them? We opened our favorite distracting websites, looked down at Instragram on our phones, had the TV on behind the computer, etc. We all had our distraction habits when we knew we wouldn’t get caught.

Kids did this, too.

And they did it for so long, it changed their entire mindset about the purpose of technology.

When my students open up their internet browser these days, the distraction tabs are already open and waiting. Game tabs, YouTube tabs, music tabs - the kids don’t even have to seek them out because they’re already open and ready to go from last time they used the computer. Before I can even tell them where to go or what to do, distraction is already there, beckoning.

And that’s what they expect to do - distract themselves.

Prior to the pandemic, if devices came out in the classroom, the mentality was “oh cool, we’re going to do something more entertaining than normal while we learn." Now, if the devices come out in the classroom, the mentality is “oh cool, I can have my favorite distractions running while I pretend to learn.”

It isn’t worth the fight. Or the excuses. Oh, the excuses. “I learn BETTER when I listen to music” (no, you don’t). “The social studies teacher lets us play games if we finish our work early” (no, she doesn’t, and if she does, she should stop).” “I’m using this google doc to chat with my best friend about a project we’re doing in another class, and totally not to cheat or bully” (of course you are).

This extends beyond the classroom and beyond kids, too. We have all largely transitioned our digital devices to be instruments of distraction. Waiting at a traffic light?- out comes the phone to distract us from the boredom. Brief silence during a conversation with friends or family? - out come both phones for distraction. Work to do? - Netflix is on in the background to distract us.

We used to look at devices as sources of entertainment. Now we look at them as sources of distraction. Kids do, too.

Sometimes, we even use one device to distract us from another.

2. Every kid got a personal device (or two)

The shift from entertainment to distraction got accelerated because, during the pandemic, every kid got at least one personal device all their own - their own computer or tablet, their own phone, or both.

Using personal devices as opposed to borrowed or shared devices changed kids’ relationship with technology drastically. Let’s start at home.

As a pre-pandemic kid, maybe I have to ask my mom to use her iPad or phone when I want to entertain myself. When this is the case, sometimes I can and sometimes I can’t, so I have to have a plan to make the most of that time (maximize my entertainment) when I get to use it. There is a permission gateway, which limits my time on the device. There is also some level of built-in monitoring of what I’m doing, so I have to be selective about where I go and what I leave open.

With my own phone or tablet or laptop, however, there is no permission gateway and there is no built-in monitoring. I can use the device whenever I want to, and I can do whatever I want to do on it, which radically changes what I do online and how often I get to do it. Without the scarcity of time and permission, and with the walls of monitoring down, I’m now free to use my device for all manner of distraction and inappropriate online behavior.

The same, now, is true at school. As I said above, since the students have their own computers now (rather than sharing the ones in my classroom), their distraction tabs are all pre-opened and ready to go when they fire them up. They also have their own G-suite accounts, which are fertile grounds for chatting, bullying, and cheating since nobody is monitoring them.

Before the pandemic, devices in class worked great because what we were doing with them largely mirrored what they were doing with them at home, and they were just using my devices instead of mom’s. Now, not only is what I want them doing at school miles away from what they have grown accustomed to doing with their devices at home, but I’m also asking them to do it on their own technology, where they make the rules.

Learning on a shared laptop, 2019.

3. Screen time limits went extinct

Do you remember, in the 2010’s, when we used the word “screen time limits” when we talked about kids? A blast from the past, I know! What a nostalgic term.

Screen time limits created a scarcity of time when it came to devices for kids. Knowing that I only got Netflix or my ipad or the Playstation or whatever device for a certain amount of time each day meant that, when that time came, “I’d better not waste it and I’d better not lose it.” When something is scarce, it cannot be frittered away. Limited screen time was precious, and kids learned to use it for only the best entertainment they truly desired.

Unlimited, however, screen time is a different resource altogether. No longer scarce, it can be wasted on endless, mindless distractions - trivial videos, long strings of entirely uninteresting social media posts, eight seasons of a show I don’t even like, whatever. I no longer have to make the most of my time and prioritize the most entertaining possible content. It’s all just distraction now.

At school, when the devices come out, there is no longer the same energy and excitement that there once was; the "I'd better not waste it, and I'd better not lose it" mindset is long gone. Since time on devices is unlimited for most kids outside of school, they just don’t really have an interest in using them for learning at school. I’m no longer giving them “extra” device time by integrating it into our learning - I’m just asking them to do something focused and important on a device that they associate as existing for the exact opposite kinds of tasks.

4. Devices Came to represent disconnection rather than connection

Prior to the pandemic, one of the the things we thought of first when it came to technology and devices was connection. These devices could connect us to old friends and far-away family members. They could connect us to ideas and perspectives from across the globe. They could connect us to information, books, and music we would never have been able to access otherwise. They could connect us to someone who could teach us to fix our dishwasher on our own. Anything!

During the pandemic, technology grew to symbolize the opposite - it grew to serve as a symbol of how disconnected Covid-19 had made us.

Just imagine being a kid during the lockdown. Zoom is your daily reminder that you are completely isolated from your peers. Playing video games with friends online, while it technically connects you, also points out how physically disconnected you are and will continue to be indefinitely.

Once instruments of connection, devices are now instruments of precisely the opposite.

And distraction (#1) becomes about disconnecting, too - it disconnects us from boredom, from people, and from experiences. How often have we all seen people looking at their phones instead of the people they're with or recording an experience they're having instead of living it?

In addition to having to fight distraction when devices come out in class now, I also have to fight disconnection. Once we fire them up, its MY favorite distractions (#1) on MY device (#2).

When I see this device, I expect to disconnect.

Students ahead of their time in 2018.

We say often, that in the pandemic's wake, it is vital for kids to reconnect with each other, with their schools, and with their communities. They aren't yet ready to do that with technology. They associate it with just the opposite.

The whole relationship has changed, so I’ve had to as well

Last year, the computers came out only when there was something so good for learning that I couldn’t reproduce the experience otherwise. Phones came out… never. My nice, fancy doctorate degree that I get paid so well for having is going largely unused. My kids finally have unlimited access to devices, and here I am avoiding using them whenever possible.

Unlimited access changed the relationship kids have with those devices.

A computer make a rare appearance in 2023.

Once a scarce resource with time and permission limits that they had to borrow from someone else for entertainment they truly looked forward to, now they’re something else entirely.

And for me, they’re rarely worth it anymore.