The Downfall of Digital Technology in the Classroom

What most parents don’t know about the use of digital technology in classrooms today is that schools and teachers don’t have as much control over student use as parents assume. Here are 3 concerns about technology use in classrooms today that parents should be aware of:

1. Contrary to popular belief, school Chromebooks don’t have magical software that prevents students from playing games or looking up inappropriate things online during the school day. Yes, there are some basic website blockers installed, but the reality is that teachers often have students using their Chromebooks for curriculum related content (YouTube videos, math apps, Googling definitions, etc) and that means MANY THINGS ARE ALLOWED. (Sorry, your kid’s school district tech department is not a secret team of ex-Google engineers. It is probably just your school’s lone computer teacher trying desperately to stem the tide of apps and inappropriate content pouring into the servers while balancing teaching computer classes and providing tech support to 30-50 school employees during the day!). We’ve heard of students playing Minecraft on their Chromebooks or using Google docs or slides to “message” each other in class. Next time your child’s Chromebook is open, take a look yourself at what is readily accessible.
   

2. Most teachers have not been professionally trained to teach technology (besides what they learned on their own). When Covid hit, a lot of parents at our learning center in Elk Grove complained to us about how their children’s school teachers were struggling with using Zoom, uploading assignments online, sharing documents on the cloud, etc. The parents were surprised, but we weren’t. It’s just a simple fact - your teachers went to school to learn how to teach your children academics (phonics, reading, vocabulary, spelling, writing, and math) - NOT closely supervise the tech usage of 25-30 crafty students on their cell phones and Chromebooks!

   
   While supporting students with homework at our tutoring center in Elk Grove, we’ve encountered many situations where technology is poorly used. One student struggled with his math homework because the teacher had the students enter their answers onto a Google slide deck. Our student had a hard time maneuvering to the small textboxes (each math question had its own slide naturally!) with the wonky trackpad of his small Chromebook. The teacher had no idea this was an issue because she created the (albeit beautiful!) slides at home on her big screen monitor with a mouse to maneuver from slide to slide. Thankfully, she allowed the student to submit his assignments on paper once we identified the issue.
   

3. Not all technology is good for your child’s education. Sometimes technology is actually a hindrance to learning!

   
   Often students are distracted by other things on their Chromebook (who here has caught their kid playing a game on another tab when they were supposed to be working on a writing assignment?). There’s nothing to prevent students from opening other tabs during class and not surprisingly, kids are endlessly crafty when it comes to things they can do online instead of work.

   
   The other issue we see a lot of are assignments or work that take more time with the tech component than the actual brain/learning part. A common assignment is a spelling “menu” that allows students to choose activities each week for their spelling homework. A very popular choice for students is typing out the words in crazy fonts (obviously much preferred over looking up definitions or writing a poem with spelling words!). I’ve watched students spend 15 min searching for fun and “crazy” fonts to fulfill this task - and still not learn how to spell any of the words in the end.

   
   Or when students have to create several slides about a book they read, and most of the time isn’t spent on analyzing the story but on finding funny pics or memes for their slides. What is the purpose of assignments that look beautiful (adorable theme, beautiful designs, cute fonts) if your kids aren’t learning anything meaningful from them? Or the majority of student time is spent on technology and aesthetics, not thinking and understanding?
   

These are things that we as parents need to be aware of and to step in to provide support and guidance. Unfortunately, there is a wide divergence in classroom supervision and recognition of these issues!