We are complicit in the digital damage being inflicted upon our children.

-

As a young teacher who had dabbled in 'programming' - harbouring an obsession with evolving computer technologies (that persists still) - I have always been an early adopter of technology. Coming from an era when my first dissertation was researched in a library using microfiche, when my first school reports were type written (on an actual typewriter!) with comments written in black fountain pen - when tablet technology and ubiquitous connectivity emerged in the market place, I (and many others like me) recognised this as a pivotal moment in education. A moment where technology transformed the classroom through connectivity, clever Apps, online interaction, AI, ubiquitous knowledge, and gamification. 

 

Classrooms were transformed into connected places where device use was commonplace, and a whole pedagogy emerged to harness the incredible new tools that we had at our disposal. And it was good - the notoriously slow evolution of teaching and learning took a quantum leap forward. 

 

I often wonder how it must feel to be living in a moment that historians will look back upon and pass judgement based on their reflective distance. I have realised that this is such a moment, and am scared that the ubiquity of technology in the lives of children and its unfettered use in the classroom and at home will be judged to have caused incalculable harm.

 

We dream of creating students that are autonomous critical thinkers, yet we stand idly as they scroll through endless inanities on TikTok and other algorithmic dopamine manipulators. We dream of creating flourishing children but we set them free in the world of approval seeking, scathing judgement, and fake lifestyles of social media. We dream of teaching them to be good humans, yet resignedly acknowledge the ubiquity of online pornography (progressively extreme) and violent gaming and do nothing - after all, 'boys will be boys'. 

 

We teach healthy lifestyles yet take no view as the internet peddles dopamine on a scale that has no precedent. 

 

And we attend conferences and listen to experts warning us that levels of anxiety, depression, sleep deprivation, prescriptions of mental health 'meds', and other mental health indicators are at record highs amongst our young - quickly checking our own phones in a desperate pretence that these things are unrelated, that these things are somehow beyond our control, external, and societal. For we are not unaffected by this schoolyard scourge - addicts ourselves, we are the blind leading the blind. 

 

“Because we’ve transformed the world from a place of scarcity to a place of overwhelming abundance: Drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting . . . the increased numbers, variety, and potency of highly rewarding stimuli today is staggering. The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation.” 
― Anna Lembke, Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

 

Educators exist to change the world, to shape society for the good, and to equip children with knowledge, skills, and character to be successful humans according to their own strengths and giftedness. Having allowed the pendulum to swing so far it is time to realise that taking a stand with regards to the 'intelligent use' of technology is not retrogressive or uncool - it is, in fact, desperately overdue and thoroughly modern. The 'unintelligent' use of technology and its effects on our humanity should be overtly taught in schools, and access to technology and devices limited. Ubiquitous Wifi connectivity in schools is unnecessary and distracting, and the impact of social media, online porn, gaming (and other dopamine manipulators) on mental wellbeing is as important a teaching point as is calculus. 

 

Used correctly and intentionally, technology is an indispensable tool. History will show that it has made us and our children slaves, and will judge us as to how we respond. 

 

 

 

Popular posts from this blog

Why Exams Matter - and Don't Matter at All

-
As I walk around the end-of-year exam venue in silent, unhurried stealth, I am at the same time awed by the intensity of the experience that 'final exams' presents, amazed by the logistical complexity of ensuring exam integrity (which, ironically, relies on administrators assuming that none of us has any), and sobered by the fact that, after around 12 years of formal schooling there are some that will stumble at this most significant (and simultaneously completely irrelevant) hurdle - for when a child fails a final exam she or he is as much failed as they themselves have failed.    Exams are, at once, a critical benchmark that holds systemized education together, and a completely meaningless measure of momentary knowledge. Exams act as a systemic gate-keeper, designed to fit young people into boxes. I often wonder why cattle walk so willingly into an abattoir, compliant and oblivious of the system that is there to chop them, box them, and ship them off for sale. A cynic may re...
Read more

Lessons that Last Forever

-
It dawned on me the other day that I am of an age where I have met with thousands of teachers in my time, observed countless teacher-pupil interactions, and observed the very best and the very worst of this most noble of callings.   And while there are many teachers who conscientiously teach their subject as if that were the whole point of their calling, every now and again there is the true gem - the teacher that first builds the child, and then, through relational inspiration, orientates the child into their specific subject. I don’t really remember anything specific about my high-school Science lessons as a child, but I remember everything about my teacher, and there are lessons that he taught us as a class of human souls that I hold fast to still and in a life-time of my own Science teaching, emulate daily.  Acclaimed Irish psychologist Tony Humphreys has been instrumental in my growth as an teacher, and taught me a great truth that has informed my understanding of the...
Read more

Generosity of Spirit - invaluable concepts that are rarely taught in schools.

-
In the course of a lifetime we will encounter all manner of humanity in all of its most diverse forms. The problem with humanity, though, is that what we see outwardly does not always accurately reflect the inner story unfolding in that person's life. From good people dealing with difficult issues putting on a brave face, to evil people hiding dark secrets behind a benign facade - in the deeply human enterprise of education the quote (mis-attributed to Plato, but thought to have originated with one Ian Maclaren in 1897 (paraphrased here))  “Everyone is fighting a silent battle you know nothing about, just be kind.” could never be more appropriate. No message is more needed in our days of stress and storm, of selfish striving and merciless competition.   In any group dynamic (such as a classroom), there are individuals that stand out through their shadow behaviour - behaviour that tells a story to the observant: the bully, over-compensating for feelings of inadequacy by project...
Read more