Parents Beware: Is Our Schools' Over Dependence on Technology Hurting Our Youth?

Last week my wife and I had an experience I would like to share with you. It’s that time of year and, along with all the other parents out there, we attended our Parent-Teacher conferences to learn about how things are going with our two grade school children.

After meeting the third teacher, the trend was clear. Our children’s school had fallen hook, line, and sinker for the technology revolution that has taken strong root in classrooms across the globe. Websites and mobile applications are now the de facto platforms for the children to interact and submit work inside and outside of class.

With the advancement of technology across the board, one can see the appeal from an educational and institutional standpoint. Both websites and mobile applications are well-known conduits to transmit information and advances in the User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) have significantly improved over the past five years. In addition, the platforms are generally stable and able to provide interactive activities that can be digitally tracked.

What’s not to like?

People generally have positive personal experiences interacting with their websites and mobile applications. It’s become a part of their daily lives. Individually, they are part of the ever-growing customer demand for mobile applications. This naturally bleeds over to the business where schools are pressured to use this technology and these platforms in large part to “keep up” with other schools. Moreover, some schools actually advertise the use of technology as the discriminator to (supposedly) make them more attractive in comparison to other schools that elect to use less.

My wife and I get it. We really do.

But here’s the thing, having to navigate the wide range of website and mobile applications to actually understand, perform, and submit their work is mind blowing...for an adult. And this phenomenon appears to be going largely unnoticed by teachers and school administrators.

Let me explain in an actual example what we experienced last week. Here are the different platforms and applications the kids need to use on a daily basis, along with their intended purposes, in order to meet teacher’s expectations. There are more but these cover the platforms most used.

1). School website - calendar with assignment (where most teachers post their assignments)

2). Google classroom - Place where teachers post assignments and students submit work

3). Seesaw - Social media platform where teachers & students post work and receive comments

4). JumpRope - Platform where students’ grades are posted

As adults, my wife and I try to keep an eye on our kids and how they are navigating their learning experience. Our goal is simple: we want our kids to encode good, productive habits they can begin developing now and carry on into their teen years and adulthood.

With the education delivery so disjointed at this point with technology, I am not confident our kids are better off. Nor are the teachers. They also expressed frustration with the number of platforms they must use to do their jobs in both giving assignments and reading the submittals. Should they really be surprised when most kids are not fully engaging with each platform?

Remember when we were kids? The teacher wrote the assignment and due date on the board for all to see. You copied it down in your book. Good to go. Simple.

We all understand that technology is here to stay but what level of expectation are we putting on our elementary school kids to weather the disorganization created by schools abdicating content delivery and interaction to this new website and app space?  Young brains have a hard enough time with simply digesting and organizing their lives, let alone attempting to organize the multiple platforms and applications before knowledge transfer meets its intended objective.

Bear in mind, some parents will not notice this shift change. As a result, the burden will fall completely on their child. What are the consequences of this phenomenon if the numbers are many?

So, over the weekend I put my lifelong education to work and designed a process to help simplify the technology confusion and set expectations for our kids. It took a few hours and was well worth the investment. However, I am still scratching my head wondering if we are fully understanding the impact this disjointed space is having on our youth.

Anyone else having the same or similar challenges?