Chrome Bumpers

Technology doesn’t just do things for us. It does things to us, changing not just what we do but who we are.

–Sherry Turkle

In technology-filled schools around the world, there’s intense debate about student cell phone use and its impact on mental health and learning. So, many schools now limit or ban them altogether during the school day.

My daughter entered high school a few months ago. On the first day, she was sternly warned to lock her cell phone away in a ‘Yondr pouch’ where it couldn’t be accessed during the school day.

I’m old enough to remember classrooms devoid of computers and other devices. Calculators existed but were expensive, and few teachers allowed them since they were considered ‘cheating’. The most high-tech device was a slide projector. If you’re older like me, you probably remember the hum of the projector lamp and the ka-chunk of the slides changing. Discussions with the teacher happened in class, or just before or after. Teachers gave you written feedback on your assignment on paper or in person. And when I moved from middle school to high school, the biggest change was the venue; I had to learn my way around campus (and the teachers), but the paper, pencils, notebooks and textbooks were all familiar tools.

But for my teenage daughter who just started high school, it’s all different.

From Kindergarten through 8th grade, her school experience did not include technology. No laptops, phones, calculators, tablets, anything. She wrote and drew and did math and other subjects by hand, and was outside often. Students had written evaluations, but there were no letter grades. Throughout the year, students compiled a ‘main lesson book’ of all their meaningful work, and bound it themselves at the end of the year to take home. All by hand. In many ways, it resembled my own experience from decades before.

Despite this (or because of it), she arrived at a public high school well-prepared–except for the firehose of technology. She was immediately given a Chromebook, an email account, multiple software applications–and an expectation that she already knew how to use all of it to learn, communicate, and do her work.

My daughter had to immediately grapple with a stack of technological tools to communicate with teachers, learn assigment details, complete forms, read and post messages, and do work and turn it in. Chromebooks for everything. ‘Google Classroom’ for class assignments and communication (with both students and teachers) and watching deadlines. ‘StudentVue’ for information about grades, schedules, buses, course plans, student profiles. And more.

She was overwhelmed, of, course. Stressed out. Assignments and messages and laptop work came rapid-fire for eight different classes. Teachers posted note after note, videos to watch, lengthy instructions.

She was assigned a locker–but with only six minutes between classes, she never uses it. Need to use the bathroom, get water, go across campus to your class? No time to visit the locker. So, she (like most other kids) carries everything on her back–Chromebook, lunch, water bottle, books, anything she needs for the day. The lockers silently line the hallways, mostly unused.

In her classes, many students are veterans of all this. The ubiquity of technology in school and the backpack life is commonplace to them. But not her.

And so she carries, uses and wrestles with technology constantly for most of the school day–but not phones. Her phone sits quietly in a locked pouch in her backpack, singled out for exclusion.

My entire professional life has been about technology. I’m not a anti-technology, and know well the costs and benefits of it. But why do we ban cell phones in school for reasons of health and distraction, while ignoring the real impacts of all the other technology we foist upon children? My daughter saw through (and felt) this cognitive dissonance immediately; I’m sure many of the other kids do too.

I don’t buy the arguments of “they’re getting ready for the ‘real’ world”. Should school be a vocational practice of the ‘real’ world? Is that what it’s for?

I’m not an educator, but my wife is. She’s seen the slow creep of technology into classrooms, and from what I hear most teachers if given the chance would gladly collect the Chromebooks and put them in the dumpster.

I have a feeling that given the choice and the opportunity to experience a more ‘low tech’ education, kids might do the same.

I recently read a story of a man who decided to change careers late in life and start repairing and selling typewriters. Noticing the clientele who seemed most excited about his machines, he said:

“The kids get it. They’re not trying to be nostalgic for something they never experienced. They’re trying to escape what they experience every day.”

And I agree. I think the kids get it, and maybe its time we got it too.

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.

–Pablo Picasso