Students Distracted by Technology in School

[SandhillshuskerW]

I had this as a status update and was asked to make a thread. I am going to copy and paste what has been talked about already. I know that my opinions will probably vary from a lot of people that aren't in education, but if you are a parent you need to be aware that technology is a great thing, but it is also distracting many students from getting an education.

 

 

As a teacher, I am really beginning to hate technology. My students are way too addicted to their cell phones and iPads(which the district has provided for them) If you are a parent, please educate your kids to try to learn something in school and put down their technology for a little while.

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ShawnWatson

Try to incorporate technology to your classroom if the district has provided it. New technology isn't going away, sounds like you need to adapt or get a different job.

SandhillshuskerW

I'm not talking about incorporating it, I do that already. I'm talking about students that are addicted to their cell phones and using their iPads for social media nonstop. I know that technology isn't going away, but parents need to do a better job of educating their kids the appropriate time to text their friends.

knapplc

There should be some way the school can block social media. That seems like a no-brainer for school-provided tech.

huskermike84

I believe that there are apps that will block social media, I know for a fact that Apple has apps, don't know about android. Maybe you should send out a flyer to parents to make them aware of the issue.

Creighton Duke

^^^^+1 to knapp

SandhillshuskerW

They have tried to block it and the kids are smart enough to get around it. They blocked Facebook and Snapchat and Twitter this year and the kids already found a way around it.

jaws

Doesn't the school block it on the network? I mean that shouldn't be that hard to do. Also, is there any studies out there that actually suggest that all this technology helps with learning. I say that as a person that works and IT and the husband of a teacher.

SandhillshuskerW

They do block it jaws, the kids have figured out how to get around it. Also, I really don't know if there are any studies done. All I know is that technology is a wonderful thing when it's used correctly, but most of our students don't choose to use it correctly.

teachercd

In a public high school I could not even imagine how annoying it would be...lets face it, its even that its technology...its that they are just texting and snapping each other all day.

SandhillshuskerW

Very true teachercd, I don't mind technology at all, but it's the texting and snapchatting that gets annoying.

C N Red

They probably have there phone set up as a hot spot so they don't need the school network. Schools need to outlaw all outside tech unless approved IMO. The kids don't need their own phones, ipods, ipads, etc in school.

SandhillshuskerW

I agree C N Red. The kids can also get around the blocks that the school has on their iPads though. It's amazing how smart most of the kids are if they just apply themselves.

It'sNotAFakeID

Wonder if there was a way you could truly integrate technology, learning, and their respective interests.

It'sNotAFakeID

Yeah, we don't need phones in school. Love to see how that works out during a crisis.

teachercd

Huh? Dude, no phones in schools worked out just fine for 100 years. Lets not go crazy here.

SandhillshuskerW

There is always a way to integrate technology but the problem comes with the students that abuse technology. The ones that are on their phones and snapchatting instead of doing the work in the classroom. I will also say that phones in the kids hands are terrible in a crisis. If we have a lockdown in our school we are supposed to keep students off of their phones so they don't make the situation worse.

STL Husker

Same problem teachers have had for ages. It's not the tech, it's the boredom and disinterest teachers have to fight. Take the tech away and they will find something else to play with. You have to find a way to make what you are teaching more interesting than updating their facebook status.

teachercd

Bro beans...kids under 18 don't use facebook...they think its for "old people" trust me! They use Vine, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. My kids laugh and giggle if I mention FB...then they say "Yeah, my mom/dad uses it, they try to get me to start a FB profile too, its for old people"

SandhillshuskerW

The only problem that I have with that is that I get tired of students playing the interesting card. School is not always supposed to be entertaining. I remember being bored in school at times, but I still did my job.

Creighton Duke

Sandhill, I commend you for taking up such an honorable profession, but this is just one aspect of the incredibly broken education system in this country. I'm sorry that, as difficult as your job already is, you have to compete with this nonsense on a daily basis. This generation of kids doesn't know how screwed it is.

STL Husker

It's not a generational thing. I don't know your age, but you never played games on a graphing calculator, passed notes, talked to your friends, drew pictures in a notebook, or any other things kids did to fight boredom? Since your district is wealthy enough to provide ipads, then I also assume that you don't have many students struggling to make it to the next grade. If you relaly want your students to be engaged, then you have to make it interesting for them.

RedRedJarvisRedwhine

Don't tell me how to raise my kids! Now back to our Xbox marathon.

Creighton Duke

This whole "make it interesting" bit needs to stop. This generation is so tuned out to what is around them, preferring the non-judging world of cyberspace the human interaction. In addition, how is the HS teacher supposed to compete with the vastness of the internet?

STL Husker

Duke, this is a serious question, but are you at work right now? I find your comment very interesting coming from someone who is so actively involved with an internet forum. I also think your school needs a new IT person if they are able to get around the safeguards and are can have access to the entire internet. It's really not that hard to block content on the network and/or the ipad.

EbylHusker

It doesn't need to stop, because it's a real problem. A great many teachers are completely unable to teach in a manner that has any attempt at holding kids' interest. Sometimes it is the teacher, sometimes it is the system the school admins have in place, many times both. So it doesn't need to stop, it's a real problem. But that doesn't negate the fact that there is another side to the problem - parenting.

SandhillshuskerW

Thank you Creighton Duke, I am glad that some people outside of education also see the "make it interesting" arguement as crazy. STL Husker, I'm not saying that I was never distracted in school, but I still focussed when I needed to and got my work done. Even the students in my school that struggled with school still got their work done. Society needs to stop making excuses for students and hold them accountable for their own actions and make them take responsibility for their...

EbylHusker

It's not crazy. It's one part of the equation, and a part that needs to be addressed.

saunders45

Blocking stuff on the local network is useless when the kids all have smartphones...

SandhillshuskerW

My only question for people that are fans of the "make it interesting and the kids will learn" arguement.......If your job is not interesting that day, do you not do it? Kids need to learn that life isn't always interesting and they need to still do their job. Their job right now is learning and striving towards a high school diploma. It's not always interesting, but then again the real world isn't always interesting either.

EbylHusker

If you want to start a thread, I'll be more than happy to address all the points you bring up. So if you want to have a real discussion about this, go for it. I'm not going to do it here, though.

STL Husker

I agree. Too much to say without it's own thread.

Creighton Duke

No, I am not at work. I don't see the relevance of the question.
In regards to "making it interesting", teachers have their hands tied. 1. Teach to the test; gotta make AYP 2. Allow millions of distractions in the classroom With so much competition and such little discretion, "making it interesting" seems like an incredibly tall task.

EbylHusker

Politics would probably be the best place. Make a long post, describe the situation and your thoughts on it. Include what restrictions are placed on the ipads, both in class and systemically through the IT guy, etc. I'd like to get the whole picture, because every school is different with these situations.

[STL Husker]

Thanks for setting it up. Can you give more background on the situation? Are they using their own phones, or is it the school provided ipads that are causing the distraction. What is the actual problem - is this causing them to get bad grades, bad test scores, or just not paying attention? What grade level do you teach?

[SandhillshuskerW]

There are many distractions. They are using their own phones and iPods and the school issued iPads. The powers that be have decided that iPads are the greatest thing in the world and a great educational tool. I have come to believe that the iPad is a gaming device that can be used for social media. The school has blocked a lot of things like Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter but the kids have all found a way around a block. I spend most of my day asking students to put away their phones, or to take their earbuds out or to stop chatting with people on their iPads.

 

Technology is a wonderful thing, but it's not being used the way it should be used and the administration doesn't want to hear it. They like to be able to tell the media that we are one to one iPads and they dont' seem to care that they students are just distracted by them. I teach high school and yes it is leading to poor grades on everything. They don't want to complete homework because they would rather be on thier technology. If you don't do the homework, you don't learn the material and you get poor test grades. We are always in contact with people from the community and there are many employers that have stopped hiring students from our school because they know that they are easily distracted and won't put in much effort in their job.

 

It's becoming a real issue with the youth in our country today and if we just ignore it, it will only get worse. We need parents help in this. Parents need to educate their kids on how to use technology and when they should be using it. They should also have consequences for their kids that help to reinforce the rules they put in to place. It's a problem that has only gotten worse in the last few years and is getting worse all the time.

[NUance]

I'll bet they post on Huskerboard. Slackers!

[SandhillshuskerW]

I knew that someone was going to bring that up eventually. I'm actually home today with a sick kid and he's sleeping right now, so you can't really use that one.

[STL Husker]

I don't mean to be harsh, but my first thought is that your students don't respect you. Why can't you take away their phones or ipods if they are out in class. When I was in school 10 years ago, our teachers would take our devices if they even saw them sitting out. They had to be completely out of sight. My second thought is that you need a new IT person. It really isn't hard to lockdown an ipad to only allow approved apps. Your school needs to do a better job of locking down the ipad to school specific apps. Apple has built in software to do this and it's not that simple to get around it. Yes, I think that parents need to play their part in this as well, but I'm sure you know that you can't rely on them. I still don't see why technology is causing the problems. It's not like kids enjoyed doing homework before smartphones existed.

 

It sounds like you have just as much of a problem with your administration as you do with your students.

Edited September 10, 2014 by STL Husker

[SandhillshuskerW]

That's ok that you first thought about the respect thing, and I would like to think that most of my students do respect me. The main people that they don't respect is the administration. They know that there aren't any consequences if they get in trouble. Our IT person is quite capable, the students are just smart enough with technology that they get around it. The only way they can lock the iPads down further is to lock down each individual iPad and make it so that teachers have to punch in the passcodes themselves and that would take forever. I'm not naive enough to think that students ever really enjoyed to do homework, but most students still did it because it was a part of school and they knew that they had to do it. Trust me when I say, technology is becoming a huge distraction to the classroom.

[Creighton Duke]

Why do these children HAVE to have their devices on them at all times? Emergencies? Give me a break; use the office phone if you need to get in contact.

 

Schools have bought in to the consumer culture and are getting the children hooked on the devices from a young age, creating an obedient set of worker bees who are completely ok with respecting their almighty smartphones, Ipads, etc. Unfortunately, most of these kids aren't smart enough or don't have the work ethic to put their knowledge of this technology to practical use in a work environment and will instead join the masses in service sector professions. Having to wait longer for your Big Mac because the kid at the counter needs to finish his text message? Blame the state of education in this country.

[STL Husker]

That's ok that you first thought about the respect thing, and I would like to think that most of my students do respect me. The main people that they don't respect is the administration. They know that there aren't any consequences if they get in trouble. Our IT person is quite capable, the students are just smart enough with technology that they get around it. The only way they can lock the iPads down further is to lock down each individual iPad and make it so that teachers have to punch in the passcodes themselves and that would take forever. I'm not naive enough to think that students ever really enjoyed to do homework, but most students still did it because it was a part of school and they knew that they had to do it. Trust me when I say, technology is becoming a huge distraction to the classroom.

 

Well I have to say it again then, your problem seems to be more with the administration than the technology. Why should they follow rules if there are no consequences? Yes, there should be standards set by the parents, but you should also have support of the administration to be able to do what needs to be done. Kids need to know where their limits are and it doesn't seem like anyone is setting them.

 

Why do these children HAVE to have their devices on them at all times? Emergencies? Give me a break; use the office phone if you need to get in contact.

 

Schools have bought in to the consumer culture and are getting the children hooked on the devices from a young age, creating an obedient set of worker bees who are completely ok with respecting their almighty smartphones, Ipads, etc. Unfortunately, most of these kids aren't smart enough or don't have the work ethic to put their knowledge of this technology to practical use in a work environment and will instead join the masses in service sector professions. Having to wait longer for your Big Mac because the kid at the counter needs to finish his text message? Blame the state of education in this country.

 

I think it's better to teach kids how to appropriately use their devices instead of banning them all together. I don't have a problem with a kid using his phone to listen to music on the bus or in a study hall. The problem is when they bring them out when they shouldn't. I remember making sure our teachers couldn't see our mp3 players, cell phones, or graphing calculators because they would be taken away and we could only pick them up at the end of the day. I think the bigger problem is that the adults in our society don't know the proper etiquette with their devices and kids pick up on that.

[SandhillshuskerW]

 

 

Well I have to say it again then, your problem seems to be more with the administration than the technology. Why should they follow rules if there are no consequences? Yes, there should be standards set by the parents, but you should also have support of the administration to be able to do what needs to be done. Kids need to know where their limits are and it doesn't seem like anyone is setting them.

 

I will agree that the administration needs to do a better job, but that doesn't automatically get the students off the hook.

 

I think it's better to teach kids how to appropriately use their devices instead of banning them all together. I don't have a problem with a kid using his phone to listen to music on the bus or in a study hall. The problem is when they bring them out when they shouldn't. I remember making sure our teachers couldn't see our mp3 players, cell phones, or graphing calculators because they would be taken away and we could only pick them up at the end of the day. I think the bigger problem is that the adults in our society don't know the proper etiquette with their devices and kids pick up on that.

 

We teach them how to use them appropriately all the time. I would agree too that adults don't use proper etiquette either. It bothers me also when I see adults on their cell phones at times when they should be paying attention to thier surroundings. I hate seeing parents at a park on their cell phones texting away rather than watching their kids play and interacting with them.

[Creighton Duke]

 

 

I think the bigger problem is that the adults in our society don't know the proper etiquette with their devices and kids pick up on that.

I believe that this hits on the problem to a large degree and that is why I put the lion's share of the blame on the entire system as opposed to individual teachers, administrators, etc. When irresponsible behavior is tolerated (essentially encouraged, in my opinion), but also when teachers' hands are tied due to "regulations" that are "in the best interest" of the children, there are few options for recourse.

[SandhillshuskerW]

 

 

 

I think the bigger problem is that the adults in our society don't know the proper etiquette with their devices and kids pick up on that.

I believe that this hits on the problem to a large degree and that is why I put the lion's share of the blame on the entire system as opposed to individual teachers, administrators, etc. When irresponsible behavior is tolerated (essentially encouraged, in my opinion), but also when teachers' hands are tied due to "regulations" that are "in the best interest" of the children, there are few options for recourse.

 

I would agree with that. I know that technology isn't ever going away, but people need to learn how and when to use it appropriately.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

There are many distractions. They are using their own phones and iPods and the school issued iPads. The powers that be have decided that iPads are the greatest thing in the world and a great educational tool. I have come to believe that the iPad is a gaming device that can be used for social media. The school has blocked a lot of things like Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter but the kids have all found a way around a block. I spend most of my day asking students to put away their phones, or to take their earbuds out or to stop chatting with people on their iPads.

 

Technology is a wonderful thing, but it's not being used the way it should be used and the administration doesn't want to hear it. They like to be able to tell the media that we are one to one iPads and they dont' seem to care that they students are just distracted by them. I teach high school and yes it is leading to poor grades on everything. They don't want to complete homework because they would rather be on thier technology. If you don't do the homework, you don't learn the material and you get poor test grades. We are always in contact with people from the community and there are many employers that have stopped hiring students from our school because they know that they are easily distracted and won't put in much effort in their job.

 

It's been mentioned earlier but it bears repeating: this is an administration problem. Sure, the kids could responsibly use their iPads. But why do they even have iPads in the first place? Who made those decisions? Who continues to support those decisions even in the face of declining academic performance? By the way, if you want to sorta test the effect of iPads on academic performance, create two classes teaching the same subject and taught by the same teacher: a class where iPads are allowed and a class where iPads are not allowed. Use whatever performance measure you want and compare the two classes. Whatever you find would be interesting (and I'm sure there have been studies like this done).

 

By the way, just doing the homework doesn't equate to learning. But I think I get what you're saying.

 

It's becoming a real issue with the youth in our country today and if we just ignore it, it will only get worse. We need parents help in this. Parents need to educate their kids on how to use technology and when they should be using it. They should also have consequences for their kids that help to reinforce the rules they put in to place. It's a problem that has only gotten worse in the last few years and is getting worse all the time.

 

There's a big elephant in the room that might have been mentioned before but needs to be mentioned again: Teaching towards a test stifles creativity. Creativity is what makes learning interesting. School can be an enjoyable place to be if the curriculum allows for enticing projects instead of just learning the stuff that's going to be on the test. Projects allow for critical thinking as well. But creative, critical thinkers are not desirable according to the curriculum makers.

 

Think about it, you learn the most when you are engaged the most. Why aren't kids engaged? I'll argue that it's primarily due to a dull curriculum.

[SandhillshuskerW]

I'm not going to say that our curriculum is extremely exciting, but once again it would be another excuse that we can make for our students trying to be on their phones and iPods and iPads constantly rather than doing their job in the classroom. The real world isn't always exciting, but you still have to do your job. I'm not picking on you personally, but I get tired of people making all of the excuses for kids rather than just trying to help them tow the line and do their job.

 

I also get that doing the homework doesn't automatically lead to learning, but I'm a math teacher and they can't learn if they don't do the homework and practice what they need to do.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

I'm not going to say that our curriculum is extremely exciting, but once again it would be another excuse that we can make for our students trying to be on their phones and iPods and iPads constantly rather than doing their job in the classroom. The real world isn't always exciting, but you still have to do your job. I'm not picking on you personally, but I get tired of people making all of the excuses for kids rather than just trying to help them tow the line and do their job.

 

I also get that doing the homework doesn't automatically lead to learning, but I'm a math teacher and they can't learn if they don't do the homework and practice what they need to do.

 

1) You're a high school math teacher, so you're obviously not teaching basic computational knowledge. What do you teach?

 

2) What about math do you find exciting?

 

3) We're on the same page: effective practice leads to effective performance