WICHITA, Kansas — When the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools and sent kids home for remote learning, many Kansas districts used federal emergency funding to boost technology, buying more laptops and other web-enabled devices.
Four years later, concerns about too much screen time have some schools rethinking the value of computers in the classroom.
“We know technology is the future,” said Wichita Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld. “But we also know it may not be the most appropriate thing for them to be using hours on end.”
The Kansas State Board of Education recently convened a task force to address cell phones and other devices in classrooms. The group will develop policy recommendations and present them to the board later this year.
“I think everyone is recognizing the harmful effects smart phones are having on our children,” said Kansas Education Commissioner Randy Watson. “The question is, what are we as parents, educators and elected officials willing to do about it? I’m hoping we will start to find some answers soon.”
In Wichita, the state’s largest school district, leaders announced they will scale back on technology in elementary schools this school year and ban it altogether in kindergarten and pre-K.
Part of the reason is money. When the pandemic hit in 2020, Wichita spent more than $24 million of federal COVID-relief money to buy a laptop or tablet for every student in the district. Now those devices are out of warranty and too expensive to replace.
But Rob Dickson, the district’s chief information officer, said money isn’t the only concern. New research shows that too much screen time — as well as unfettered access to social media — can affect kids’ social and emotional development and can lead to higher rates of aggressive behavior and anxiety.
In June, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for a tobacco-style warning label to be added to social media apps as a reminder that those platforms have caused harm to young people, especially adolescents.
“Many parents from elementary and middle (school) … had some concerns about the level of screen time that our kids have,” Dickson said.
“The pandemic really accelerated us to one-to-one devices. But acceleration isn’t necessarily good if you can’t put in the right digital citizenship and digital literacy, both for staff and for students.”
Noel Lucero, a pre-kindergarten teacher at Jackson Elementary School in Wichita, says screens have become a normal part of life for even young children.
“When you see kids, if you’re in the grocery store and they’re in the cart, they have the iPhone,” she said. “Or if they’re in the car and they’re driving from place to place, the kids are on a phone or an iPad.”
Lucero said she understands that parents sometimes use devices to keep kids entertained while they get things done. But that cuts down on direct conversations and other learning activities.
Over the past two decades, she said, she has noticed a difference in her students.
“Their language usage has decreased. Their ability to have … back-and-forth conversations,” she said. “Emotional regulation, all of those kinds of things.”
Some students have to be taught how to use classic toys like building blocks, and some aren’t used to playing outside, Lucero said. Others lack the fine motor skills to hold a pencil or use scissors, and they frustrate quickly.
“They’re more prone to say, ‘I’m done’ and just give up immediately,” she said.
Lucero said she doesn’t use much technology in her classroom, so she welcomed the Wichita district’s directive to phase out tablets and other devices.
But not all teachers feel that way.
Valerie Wills, who teaches kindergarten at Wichita’s Gammon Elementary School, says she panicked a little when she learned her students would no longer have tablets to work with.
“I was really upset and disappointed because we use technology a lot for small groups, and now that’s going to be very challenging,” Wills said.
In her classroom, Wills sets up centers where students rotate through different activities. When she works with three or four students on intense math or reading lessons, the others use iPads with headphones for self-directed learning.
She said some students especially like interactive computer games because they can practice letter sounds or math problems with less pressure from classmates.
“There’s no one judging them. It’s just them and the iPad, so if they made a mistake, it was OK,” Wills said. “And they knew if they needed help, they could just raise their hand, and I would come over and we would talk it through.”
Last year her kindergartners did research projects using an online program called PebbleGo. They looked up various animals, learned about their habitats and presented the information to their classmates and parents.
Without technology — or another teacher in her classroom to help with small-group instruction — Wills said it will be hard to keep kids on task and learning.
“The pendulum has shifted way too far the other way,” she said. “I’m just worried about how I’m going to meet the needs of my kids.”
Wichita school leaders said their sudden pullback from technology in early grades was primarily a budget decision There simply aren’t enough devices and software licenses to supply every elementary classroom. But it does echo efforts happening in other states.
In Minnesota, students in publicly funded early education classrooms can’t use a screen without teacher engagement. The 2022 law aims to ensure that classroom screen use is active and engaging.
When it comes to older students, at least three states — Florida, Indiana and South Carolina — have banned cell phones in schools, and others are considering statewide policies around cell phones and social media.
“This will be a time where we experiment and find out where it works and where it doesn’t,” said Dickson, Wichita’s technology director. “And we’ll try to fill in those gaps as much as we can.”
Wichita school board president Stan Reeser says he’s heard from lots of parents who want the district to limit screen time. But he also knows that for teachers, it’s a sudden shift from what they’ve been advocating and pushing for decades.
The trick, he said, will be striking a balance between technology and student well-being, and cutting back without going too far.
“The board definitely wants to follow up with teachers and get their feedback,” Reeser said. “Did this create problems that we didn’t anticipate?”
Suzanne Perez reports on education for KMUW in Wichita and the Kansas News Service. You can follow her on Twitter @SuzPerezICT.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KMUW, KCUR, Kansas Public Radio and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.
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