I'm wondering if during your next tech meeting you could bring up the smart boards - my son's pre-k teacher had the smart board on all day every day (used for morning meeting but then all day playing music videos or photo slide shows). Even when the kids were engaged in other activities in the classroom, the screen was still on. I've seen this in music classes too, where the smart board screen is playing a video of a music teacher lol and same thing for teachers playing videos of a read-aloud.
I spoke to Dr. Kyriazis this morning who said she'll pass along my concerns to the technology group about smart boards, use of 1:1 devices as babysitters when teachers are absent or during "inside recess," availability of printed texts in the classroom, prioritizing opportunities for handwriting and hands-on/peer-interactive learning, and especially the equity issue, such that low-income students far and way exceed upper-income students in time spent on screens, both while in school and at home.
She does continue to insist that their lawyers say the school has every right to bypass informed parental consent (but did not explain their reasoning). She does not seem to want to acknowledge how Chromebooks are cloud-based internet devices of the lowest quality that track every move a child makes while using it, or that the sensory receptors in our brains cannot distinguish between "educational" and "entertainment" screen time in terms of impact on sleep, visual health, emotional regulation, corrupted attention, etc (even though a lot of educational screen time masquerades as entertainment anyways).
She does make it sound like there has been some progress from last year to this year, which I hope is true. She also claims she'll send me the research they use to make decisions about EdTech..... which will probably require some following up.
I'm wondering if during your next tech meeting you could bring up the smart boards - my son's pre-k teacher had the smart board on all day every day (used for morning meeting but then all day playing music videos or photo slide shows). Even when the kids were engaged in other activities in the classroom, the screen was still on. I've seen this in music classes too, where the smart board screen is playing a video of a music teacher lol and same thing for teachers playing videos of a read-aloud.
I spoke to Dr. Kyriazis this morning who said she'll pass along my concerns to the technology group about smart boards, use of 1:1 devices as babysitters when teachers are absent or during "inside recess," availability of printed texts in the classroom, prioritizing opportunities for handwriting and hands-on/peer-interactive learning, and especially the equity issue, such that low-income students far and way exceed upper-income students in time spent on screens, both while in school and at home.
She does continue to insist that their lawyers say the school has every right to bypass informed parental consent (but did not explain their reasoning). She does not seem to want to acknowledge how Chromebooks are cloud-based internet devices of the lowest quality that track every move a child makes while using it, or that the sensory receptors in our brains cannot distinguish between "educational" and "entertainment" screen time in terms of impact on sleep, visual health, emotional regulation, corrupted attention, etc (even though a lot of educational screen time masquerades as entertainment anyways).
She does make it sound like there has been some progress from last year to this year, which I hope is true. She also claims she'll send me the research they use to make decisions about EdTech..... which will probably require some following up.
Thanks for your comments Cat!