Engaging Hearts & Minds: Finding a Balance with Technology

By Kristina O’Connor

It’s no secret that devices are distracting and addictive. Balancing technology use is an ever-evolving topic for parents and educators alike.

Educators have a duty to be careful to both consider the cognitive development of our students and be intentional about technology use in our classrooms. When done right, technology in the classroom is a powerful tool to foster collaboration, inspire new ideas and shift students from consumers into creators. 

What technology use should look like in a classroom varies greatly from second grade to sixth grade to 10th grade. In a positive way, technology is incorporated into the school day to create something new and transform learning. Instructional technology experts are focused on transformational experiences versus transactional. When lessons and projects focus on content, and technology is used to enhance the student experience, there are endless possibilities for students to be creative.

An English teacher at The Seven Hills School uses Lucid software to transform novel discussions into collaborative experiences.

Students take shared notes that build upon one another’s ideas while ensuring every voice is represented. Technology use in this way benefits all students, allowing for truly equitable classroom participation. Students as active collaborators rather than passive consumers is the goal. 

In another example, high schoolers in the entrepreneurship class partnered with third graders to help them create logos and commercials using the graphic design platform Canva and the video editing software iMovie for the products they created for their market day projects.

This assignment checked a lot of boxes. It was a fun, collaborative, creative and transformative way to use tech across different grade levels in the classroom. Equally important, it taught the older students about responsible and age-appropriate technology use because they had to consider how their technology usage differs from a third grader’s.

Being a role model around technology is a lesson we can all take to heart. If parents have a healthy relationship with technology, their children notice that. If parents are seen outside, reading books or using their phones to FaceTime with a family member, children are more likely to do similar things.

Many parents understand the need to limit technology, and books like The Anxious Generation by Johnathan Haidt and others have raised awareness about the need. Students of all ages, including our oldest students in high school, need to engage in conversations about healthy technology use.

The Tech Solution by Shimi K. Kang offers practical tips and advice for parents on how to balance technology use at home with their children. Being present and being a role model around technology is important because children are paying attention, even when we think they aren’t.

Schools can help students navigate technology through constant conversations with individual students, groups of students, parents and faculty. And parents can do the same. We need to make time to share what is working and what isn’t working. Technology is constantly evolving, so we need to stay in contact, be in conversation and share ideas and information with each other. 

Teamwork and partnership lead to healthy interactions with each other and with technology. It is out there; it is not going away. It is all about balance.

Kristina O’Connor is the director of Curriculum and Instruction at The Seven Hills School

Book Recommendations from Kristina O’Connor

iGen” by Jeanne Twenge

10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People by Dr. David Yeager

The Tech Solution by Shimi K. Kang, MD

Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention by Johan Hari

The Disengaged Teen by Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt