I was recently asked to write an article about addiction, technology, and what Dr. Nicholas Kardaras coined “Digital Heroin.” I have included the article below. Enjoy! Reach out with questions, comments, or ideas!
Digital Addiction and 6 ways to Combat it with your students!
In this digital age in which our kids spend, on average, seven to ten hours a day interacting with some sort of screen, we must be vigilant in our pursuit to teach them humanity as well as how to be tech savvy. It isn’t an easy feat, but with procedures in place, and engaging lessons planned, as teachers, we can band together and do what often seems impossible.
It is all about having balance in your schools and classrooms. Post-pandemic teaching has almost every school district with a one-to-one device policy for students. Meaning all kids have access to a school-issued device in case of inevitable, virtual days. This also means we can ban the cell phones in our classrooms. They don’t need them for educational purposes.
- Ban the Cell phone. Have team procedures in place, classroom procedures in place, and school procedures in place surrounding the phones. Of course our kids have phones; it is 2023. I’m not unreasonable. I give a student a warning to put them up or I allow a frantic kid to call/text home if they are worried about something pertinent.
A child’s brain on a screen, images the exact way a drug addict’s brain scans. It is about teaching our kids balance. Also, without the ever-present notifications, out of sight, out of mind digital distractions, our kids learn better when phones are not present in the classroom. If students even have their phones on their desks turned upside down, education research shows that their IQ is still lowered by ten points because of how distracting their phones are buzzing every 30 seconds in order to avert their attention from the matter at hand, learning. Goodness, that is the antithesis of our mission in educating kids. That also means, you have to put yours up too, teachers. Be present with the babies sitting in front of you each day.
2. Create team/school procedures around school-issued devices. This could include a time limit with screens in each class. What is the consequence when a student decides to use their device for something inappropriate and not school related?
It is so much easier to enforce procedures when everyone is on board. That includes superintendents, principals, instructional coaches, teachers, teacher assistants, substitutes, and parents.
3. Always have a backup, non-digital assignment in your back pocket for the kid who ‘forgot their device at home,’ the kid who ‘lost their privilege of having one,’ and any other foreseeable issues. The day you have planned an amazing digital lesson, you know the electricity and the wifi will be out! That is just how it goes.
4. Teach your students how to speak to one another in a professional manner. They are coming to us post-pandemic without the ability to communicate properly. A skill we must teach, as educators, is how to disagree and discuss topics in an educated and useful way. Utilize the Socratic Seminar, and utilize it often.
5. Teach students how to spot bias in their research, how to properly use a cool, gamey app, and how to create and collaborate using technology. However, don’t just throw a worksheet on an iPad; that isn’t innovative; that is a worksheet on an iPad.
6. Embed both technology and humanity in your lessons. Teaching our kids about how to have balance between these worlds, in both worlds, in life is paramount to their success, mental wellness, and happiness. Balance in my classroom might look like this: Split the class into debate teams, one side is pro, the other side con. They get 20 minutes to research with their teams for their sides. Reputable sources, strong debate points, and kindness above all else reigns in my room. Then, the tech goes up, and the debate is on. I like to get my kids up and moving in a four-corners debate.
It isn’t easy, and it will not always be perfect. Doing what is relentlessly right for kids IS having high expectations for them, but it is also knowing that this career is human, and messy at times. Educators, sometimes as we continue on our journey together, it is important to find ways to connect with each other, with kids, and help them connect to one another. We are made for connection, and we may be the only thread keeping some of our children from deep, isolating loneliness. In ten years, in fifty, your face will pop up in the minds of students as a person who helped them get through, a person who cared enough to walk beside them in moments of both hardship and happiness. That is never something we should take lightly.
If your whole staff needs a workshop on Classroom Management, Innovation, AI Integration, Digital Addiction and How to Combat it, Engagement Strategies, Brain Based Classrooms or a custom topic of your choosing, please reach out, and let’s set up your school’s professional learning session. You won’t regret it. We will laugh, learn, cry, and get real together.
Teach on, beautiful warriors. I’m rooting for you.
-Katie Kinder
Katie-Kinder.com
untoldteachingtruths@gmail.com
Twitter: @KatieKinder1
Instagram: @untoldteachingtruths
Katie Kinder, author of Untold Teaching Truths and Hallway Leadership, is a professional learning facilitator, and she has been an educator since 2006. She brings her message of hope, fun, and real strategies to educators all over the nation. She believes that life is fun, and learning should most definitely be fun. A teacher of the year, top five district finalist, Speaker, Author, Professional Development Leader, a Mom, a Wife, a Fierce Advocate for Education, and grant award winner, Katie has learned a trick or two in the classroom, so come on in, and have some fun, and hook your students from day one!
Katie Kinder 