For Educators
“You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.”
Calling all school leaders!
Families today are struggling to navigate tech choices for their families. Parents’ personal choices around tech adoption (e.g., when to get a smartphone for their child or when to allow social media) are deeply affected by local community norms. It’s nearly impossible for families to resist the pressure of “everyone else has one!” Parents desperately need a community-based solution.
Schools are key community structures that families are part of. School leaders can therefore be tremendously helpful by proactively guiding the school community towards suggested tech norms, giving parents permission to blame the school for new norms, and in turn taking the social pressure off parents and students.
Reach out to ScreenSense (info@screensense.org) if you’d like help rolling out suggested tech guidelines to your school community!
SPOTLIGHT - how one K-8 school is addressing digital wellbeing:
At the start of the 2023-24 school year, Mount Tamalpais School’s Head of School added “digital wellbeing” to the school’s strategic plan. A new concrete priority became to “support students and families in developing a productive, intentional, and healthy relationship with technology both on and off campus.”
The school's efforts are three-fold:
An audit of tech use on campus
Parent and student education events
Suggested guidelines for technology use at home. [Here’s a generic adaptation anyone is welcome to distribute.]
You can learn more details on the school’s Technology webpage and in the video below. The Head of School has essentially offered for parents to “blame the school” while providing healthier community norms for a course correction. This kind of community leadership and collective action is making all the difference for MTS families!
Digital Wellbeing and the Role of Schools
ABOUT THE VIDEO: Andrew Davis, Head of School at Mount Tamalpais School (K-8), shares how he is steering his school community towards healthier tech use norms. During the presentation, Andrew explains why he as a school leader stepped in to improve digital wellbeing, why we should anchor digital wellbeing in schools, what he implemented at his K-8 school, and how it's all landing (spoiler: really well with no pushback).
This presentation was part of a Marin County Schools Symposium hosted in May 2024 by ScreenSense, the Mill Valley Community Center, and Mount Tamalpais School.
Struggling with smartphones at your school?
In this new era of ubiquitous personal devices, students are easily distracted away from academics and in-person socialization by the nonstop temptation of games and social media in their pockets. Educators meanwhile face the frustrating task of enforcing phone policies at school. Both deserve better. As a result, tremendous momentum is growing around making schools phone-free to preserve this context for learning and healthy development, and to teach young people they don’t need access to their phones all the time. Reach out to ScreenSense (info@screensense.org) for support while navigating this thorny issue!
Need a rationale? Watch The Case for Phone Free Schools (March 2024) and read Get Phones Out of Schools Now by Jonathan Haidt (June 2023). Another go-to resource is Away for the Day, founded by Delaney Ruston, the filmmaker behind Screenagers.
Need a creative solution? Invest in phone lockers or Yondr, lockable phone pouches. You’ll need to partner with parents, get teachers on board, and explain why this is essential to students.
Distributing school devices to families?
We can also custom-create an orientation handout for families that you can send home along with each distributed device.
Our top recommendation? Have students give their parents a “tour” of their school device. Also, please make sure your school devices do not allow access to time-zapping apps and platforms like YouTube, SnapChat, Instagram, and TikTok.
If so, please make sure you are supporting parents and caregivers when they bring these new devices into their homes. Reach out to ScreenSense (info@screensense.org) if you need help providing a training program for families so they can effectively manage a school-issued device at home. Families do much better with school devices if they are informed about how built-in tools work (like Apple Screen Time), how to optimize notifications and reduce needless disruptions, and how to set rules and limits to support their child’s wellbeing.
Teaching digital wellbeing?
ScreenSense can help you develop or refine a plan for teaching digital wellbeing. Some of our favorite lessons used by schools are:
Common Sense Media’s Digital Citizenship - a K-12 curriculum for a vertical approach to digital wellbeing
Kids Brains and Screens - a 278-page workbook with lessons and activities for students (ages 10+) to learn how screen use affects their brain development. Gives readers the much-needed buy-in to make healthy changes for themselves.
Cyber Civics by Cyberwise - a comprehensive middle school digital literacy curriculum
Khan Academy’s Social Media Literacy course co-developed with the Center for Humane Technology - a course high school teachers can facilitate to help their students become savvier consumers of social media
Harvard University’s Center for Digital Thriving - printable resources and lesson plans to facilitate better conversations with teens about technology that are both critical and optimistic.
Project Reboot - great for teens! A collection of lessons, workshops, an assembly, and more.
Drowning in EdTech and need a new approach?
It’s helpful to pause and reconsider how you approach EdTech so your school is being intentional and selective. Do you have a tech use philosophy and plan in place? Reach out to ScreenSense if you need a thinking partner. Some of our go-to resources include:
The Ed Tech Triangle, a research-based EdTech framework with guardrails by Everyschool;
Fairplay’s Screens in Schools Action Kit, a toolkit to educate and advocate for changes in EdTech use.
The Center for Humane Technology (CHT) suggests, among other things, that schools should:
Audit their use of tech — e.g., is what they’re implementing achieving what it was meant to?
Pay attention to what they’re potentially losing as they’re gaining tech.
Approach tech in schools with a skeptical eye — i.e., don’t assume it will necessarily improve the learning experience just because it’s tech.
The Ed Tech Triangle by Everyschool.org
Where to Next?
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For Parent Groups
Start a grassroots ripple of change at your school.
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Giving a Phone
Considering a phone for your child? Explore your options.
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Getting a New Device
Contemplating an iPad or gaming console? Start here.