Connect Canyons
Ep 76: Digital Diet: Helpful Conversations for Families to Regulate Screen Time
In Canyon District, we teach and model digital safety and citizenship every day in our classrooms. Our goal is to empower students to use technology responsibly. More than that, we want them to use it to create, investigate, collaborate, and analyze - and we view parents as valuable partners in this endeavor.
In a recent episode of Connect Canyons, we hear from teacher specialists Katie Gebhardt and Jonathan Stewart who work to support teachers and parents alike in this endeavor.
In Canyon District, we teach and model digital safety and citizenship every day in our classrooms. Our goal is to empower students to use technology responsibly. More than that, we want them to use it to create, investigate, collaborate, and analyze - and we view parents as valuable partners in this endeavor.
In a recent episode of Connect Canyons, we hear from teacher specialists Katie Gebhardt and Jonathan Stewart who work to support teachers and parents alike in this endeavor.
Welcome to Connect Canyons, a podcast sponsored by Canyon School District. This is a show about what we teach, how we teach and why we get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great Students, teachers, principals, parents and more. We meet national experts too. Learning is about making connections, so connect with us.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Connect Canyons. I'm your host, kirsten Stewart, and I'm here today with two digital teaching and learning experts to discuss a topic that gets a lot of attention in our schools, and that is technology. In Canyon District, we teach in model digital safety and citizenship every day in our classrooms, and our goal really is to empower students to use technology responsibly and more than that, we want them to use it to create, investigate, collaborate, analyze, and we view parents as really valuable partners in this endeavor. So again, here with us today are two teacher specialists who support teachers and parents in this work Katie Getpart and Jonathan Stewart. Welcome to Connect Canyons, thanks.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having us.
Speaker 2:So maybe let's start by having you introduce yourselves. Tell me a little bit about how long you've been in education and then kind of what is you know what teacher's skills, what's your role?
Speaker 4:Great. I'm Katie Getpart. I work in the instructional supports department here at Canyons. I'm a digital teaching and learning specialist and I've been in education for 17 years. I started out as a high school teacher and then I was an instructional coach in Canyons and now in ISD. I work with digital citizenship, as well as a couple of other projects in our department.
Speaker 3:Wonderful, and I'm Jonathan Stewart. I am a teacher specialist, dtl specialist, pbis, behavior specialist and on and on and on. My 22nd year in education Wow, my background is actually not as a teacher, my background is as a school psychologist.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:So I worked in that, doing the special education, for a long time, but I also did a lot of working with positive behavior and trying to get a good school climate and culture and it was in that role that I ended up coming to Canyons several years ago and I feel like a lot of these issues around digital citizenship and understanding that there's a lot of crossover with what we see with students Mental health, how they comport themselves, how we set a good culture, we this is kind of the evolution of that, but in the technology world. So that's kind of why it's a good passion of mine.
Speaker 2:Sure, oh, great, great fit. Yeah, all very important things. Well, thank you for being here again. So let's start by maybe talking about some of the tips and tools that we use in our classrooms to help students build and maintain healthy relationships with technology.
Speaker 3:Sure, some of the tools that we use we have. We have several tools that we use to try and like, monitor and keep track of what students are doing. So we have a program called land school that's used by all our teachers. In fact, usually we'll have, we'll be in some sort of meeting or professional development or opportunity where teachers are outside of the classroom and I'll notice that teachers pulled up with their classes doing so. It actually helps to keep them on track, but it does more than that. It helps them to limit screen times, kind of turn it off. They can access certain websites or push out websites that they want the students to use. We of course have, like content keeper and the district, filters and things like that.
Speaker 4:Well, another piece would just be our curriculum that we have in our K through eight schools with threat thrive time, and then also in our high schools throughout digital citizenship week, just to promote that positive use of technology In addition to the other tools that are used by our classroom teachers.
Speaker 3:And that's more of the teaching element and we try and give tips and tricks and we also have digital citizenship coordinators that will send messages out to parents but also to train faculty and staff to try and help give ideas for ways to integrate technology in a positive way but also be careful of, you know, maybe some dangerous things or ways to kind of curb excessive technology use.
Speaker 2:Sure, sure, I mean really there. Technology is not going to replace a teacher, right? Teachers are using technology to advance education, help students collaborate on a project or even a question right in the classroom, or perform a math equation or whatever. Yeah, so it is pretty pervasive, though, and schools can't do it alone. You know, really, parents are a big part of this equation, and you know, speaking as a parent myself, I can attest to how difficult it is to help your kids manage their screen time and kind of put guardrails on things, and recently you two did a workshop for parents just about that very topic. I think it was probably one of the more popular canyoneering academy events ever. What is it about this subject that makes it so top of mind for people right now?
Speaker 4:I think for a lot of parents myself included I sometimes struggle with managing my screen time and balancing my cell phone use, and I think that other parents are feeling the same, that they feel that struggle themselves. So therefore it can be kind of difficult when you see your kid struggling with it and maybe they're letting go some homework that they need to be working on to play a game and so they're seeing it at home. But as parents we also don't have a great many of us don't have a great frame of reference of seeing this from our parents, because technology was very different. I got my first cell phone I think I was starting college, so I didn't have a parent at home telling me how to use it, and so we don't have a great frame of reference from our parents showing us how to do it. So it's kind of new territory for some of us in how to handle this with our children.
Speaker 2:That's a great point, and I mean, these little things are ubiquitous, right.
Speaker 4:Exactly, and it's like constantly wanting my attention.
Speaker 2:In fact, I have it right here during our interview, and you know, like to your point, we didn't grow up with it and so we're learning, and we're learning on the fly, because everything's changing so fast. Every time I turn around there's something else wanting my attention on that little device. What do we know about screen time? What do we know about how much time kids are spending on screens? And then you know, is all screen time created equals, or good versus bad screen time? Talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's a great question. Well, first, some of the some of the statistics that we talked about when we had that canyoning night and I think it's their interesting things to really note. So, common sense media, who will talk about a couple of times. We're a common sense media certified district. They, they do, they do a lot. They provide curriculum that's where we get our information, that we teach the kids about how to use technology responsibly. But they also do research, and some of the most recent research so this is from 2023. So this is from last year said that for kids between the ages of 11 and 17, the majority spent three to four hours on their phone a day, and that's our range. So some of them spent less and some of them were much more. But then I think the statistic of both of us found really alarming, especially because we're both parents, is that over half of teams were on their phones overnight, and overnight means on a school night between the hours of midnight and 5 am.
Speaker 2:Oh goodness.
Speaker 3:So at some point in that stretch in some point in that stretch of time they either pick up their phone or notice a notification. That's a lot of interrupted sleep, which leads to mental health mood regulation problem.
Speaker 2:So that seems like one area kind of a low hanging fruit area where parents could actually make a difference. I mean something as simple as saying to your children you know what? I want you to check in the device here at the central place in the home during night after 10 o'clock. We're not on our devices, I'm not on my devices, you know, as a family, we've agreed to that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that is a great place to start. You charge your phone overnight, have it in a central location, and then you know at least you're not asleep. And also usually in those hours probably the less healthy behaviors are happening, and so you avoid some of those as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my mom used to always say nothing good happens after 10 o'clock, yes. So, katie, talk to me about, though, the difference of screen time, right yeah?
Speaker 4:I always like to connect it to food. I said that I was a high school teacher and I actually taught foods and one thing that we did in our foods class was talk about the my plate. It's an update to the food guide pyramid, and the reason I like relating screen time to food is because it would be absolutely ridiculous if I said you can have as many Twinkies as you want, as long as you eat them within one hour. Yeah, but with screen time, a lot of times we do that conversation gets posed in that way Like so many minutes a day is okay, but really there's a lot more to the conversation. We have to think about how they're using screen time Do are they getting balanced? And, just like with food, there are some instances where we make some exceptions.
Speaker 4:If I'm going to be in the car for eight hours for a road trip, I'm probably going to have more screen time. Just like I'm going to have a piece of cake when it's my birthday, yeah, but having those conversations to think about, is it active or passive? So many. Much of the research that recommended a number of minutes from 20 years ago for screen time was based on TV viewing, and with that TV viewing, if you think about it, was very passive. They just watch, they're consuming and that's it. Technology used today can be a lot more active. Students are creating, they're communicating with others, they're collaborating with people to create these awesome things. So it's much more active and that makes a huge difference in what the quality of that screen time is.
Speaker 4:So, we always recommend focusing more on quality rather than quantity. Is there a recommended?
Speaker 2:balance Like.
Speaker 3:I mean it's kind of again. It's similar to like is there a recommended balance with food? Like you probably want to have something that's more active and more engaging, but also, like Katie said, with the junk food. Like Fortnite for a 10-year-old is very active and engaging, but maybe not necessarily the same quality as, as, say you know, as say, calling your grandma who lives in the state away and having a conversation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, or having a read a book or something Right right or maybe, or maybe having read a book, engaging in a community, that's talking about more about the book and story building beyond the book and that sort of thing, so that, and that's where I think parents need to kind of figure out.
Speaker 3:Like in education we talk about it as high education and low education value, but I would say more high quality content versus low quality content. That's actually why one of the things that we do is we recommend to parents that reach out to resources and make sure to research and know what your child may be using and consuming. We recommend Common Sense because they have a very comprehensive library and it covers books, magazines, Podcasts, television shows, streaming services I mean you name it in the media realm, they Gaming, even Gaming, mm-hmm games apps. They can kind of tell you and what they do is they look at different categories of things so you can kind of make an informed decision as a parent. Well, I will have prop vanity or their positive role models how inclusive is the material? So both like other appropriateness of the content, but they're also like is it sending a good message? Is it too commercialized? Those are some of the factors that it looks at so that that can kind of help guide parents on whether something is digital junk food or maybe more digital vegetables.
Speaker 2:Have a little bit of both, right, Well and then. So how I mean, what does that look like? What does that conversation look like with parents? Do you think you know helping them focus more on quality than quantity?
Speaker 4:I think in many ways it's an ongoing conversation. I like to model things as I do it, so, for instance, I might say like hey, can you put in this address for this place we're going? I don't want to use my phone while I'm driving. Oh. Or just as you are making those positive choices in your everyday life, you're narrating them out loud to demonstrate that you're doing, you are showing balance and you're making those choices With balance can go a long way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think just actually being up front and having a conversation with your children, I think as a family, and, I think, being vulnerable to include yourself as the adult in the conversation. Obviously, you know there are things meant for children, there are things meant for teens and things meant for adults, so not everything needs to necessarily fall in that spectrum. But I think, like we were talking about with the cell phones earlier, there's some research that we actually looked at and shared that talks about they looked at if a parent has what they rated themselves as excessive use of cell phones, becomes a bigger conflict and much more difficult for them to then try and have limits with their children on their cell phone use. I mean it's pretty obvious study has actually done in Austria.
Speaker 2:Looks a little hypocritical, right.
Speaker 3:Right and you're right, and so I think, including ourselves in the conversation of you know what? I am putting my phone down at the table and we're all going to put our phones down at the table so we can actually look each other in the eye and talk about things. But I think those are honest conversations that need to be had and talking about is this appropriate, is this not? Or maybe what are some of the alternatives? I think oftentimes, if we get into the fight about yes, no on certain things and don't give alternatives, that's where that's where it can become a problematic thing. But if we're talking about like okay, you know after an hour, like, what are we gonna do? Are we gonna read a book? Are we gonna go out down the street and play with a friend? Are we gonna ride our bikes, do something physically active? Yeah, talking about those range of choices but weaving in screens into that so that it's part of the whole conversation.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of like it's more of like a philosophy or approach right that you have as a family, and you talked about the family media plan. Talk about that. That sounds kind of like putting that philosophy into a framework that everyone can like turn to right when they have questions about technology use.
Speaker 4:Definitely so.
Speaker 4:With our family media plan we have some examples that can kind of get you started as a parent on our family connection site, oh great, on CanyonSistrictorg To.
Speaker 4:In general it's the who, what, where, when, why and how of technology. So who should I be communicating with? What should I be doing with my device? So it's kind of those conversation starters that you can have as a family of what your expectations are and then it sets a basis for all the conversations that come up or issues that might come up. So when you do notice that maybe your child is doing their homework or not doing their homework, you can say, hey, remember how we talked about balance and and it's appropriate for you to use your device for these things, but we're gonna do it after homework because that's something we set up in our family media plan. It just gives that connection that you can come back of. This was an agreement that we made all together. I always recommend that the family media plan is created With the whole family so you just sit down, have a conversation and try to agree on some expectations that are set in your family culture.
Speaker 2:Well, let's be honest, like sometimes, kids know a heck of a lot more about the technology that they're using than I do, right? So, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely yeah, and and it doesn't have to be it can be kind of an ongoing Conversation that's gonna change as a child gets older. For example, my youngest is 14. When I when we say the word homework with her, it's going to involve using its screen, it's gonna involve using a device, but we've had to have conversations about when are you using it, because if you're using it in a, in a more public space, not in your room, then I am able to kind of supervise and have more of a make sure that you are using it for homework and not for some of the other things you like to do in the kitchen or something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, in the kitchen, in the living room, maybe have maybe say I need to make sure your sound is up so you know they're listening to music while they're working, or if they're watching cat videos on YouTube, not saying that's ever happened before.
Speaker 2:Well, and I know, as a district too, that we have we have created some tools for parents to sort of assist them with, like, the monitoring of their child's screen time Browsing habits on the internet, that kind of thing. We recently just launched a couple of tools, one being parents can submit, like, if there's a website that they're concerned about, they think should be blocked for all children District-wide, they can submit that URL to us. That's one example. I know, too, that if you feel your child really does have a hard time sort of Self-policing their browsing habits and you're really worried about it, you can actually further put place them on a lower sort of or a tighter form of restriction, right, mm-hmm. So, and then we also, I believe, talk to me about how every device, every Chromebook that we check out and we only check them out to middle schools and high school students, right, but every device keeps a record of the browsing history correct and parents can check that at any time.
Speaker 4:Many times. I recommend having that sharing of passwords part of your family media agreement that you make of like. What expectations are there for sharing passwords For our parents and Kenyans? They have access to the passwords in their parent skyward account so they are able to sign in as the student and view any browsing history of their student at any time.
Speaker 2:And I know we've got a lot of great resources at the Parent Connections page. We're going to link to those in the show notes. But, yeah, continue.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think. But I think, along with just looking at the browsing history and things like that, I think understanding how notification management works can be really critical. Another fact from all the same research that we had is that the average student, average child between the ages 11 and 17 gets 237 notifications a day.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that is average. There's less and there's more. So, understanding how and when you get notified for apps it can happen through a Chromebook, this generally happens on a phone but how you can control those notifications. Understanding that there are do not disturb settings that you can set on your phone or focus time scheduling those in, so those happen, going into different apps and saying I don't like. You know, when we were doing our presentation we started looking through and going wait, what am I getting notified that I don't really want anymore as an adult? Sure, and I don't know if you remember, there's a KSL story a couple of years ago where they looked at the average number of notifications in the classroom. I did see that. Yeah, it was over 537, over 500 or 600.
Speaker 2:Right, so students are sitting in class and their phones just going off in their pocket.
Speaker 3:Uh-huh, and it wasn't always from other kids. Sure, it was from parents and things too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or a doctor appointment, or who knows right, who knows yeah, calendar yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, or more like game notifications I'd throw that in Uh so, so again, I think that's another thing that parents can absolutely do is go in and let's and that's could be part of the conversation with happier kids Like what are the notifications you're getting and which ones are helpful and which ones are annoying and which ones are distracting, and kind of setting up because you can set up rules on different devices on managing those notifications. So like, if you have a schedule time for homework, let's, let's make sure that you have a focus time built in so that you don't get those notifications, don't get distracted when you're trying to work.
Speaker 2:Um, well, this is great, fantastic advice. Anything else you want to add that I've overlooked? Um, was there something from the Canyon Erring Academy that just you felt like was really struck, struck home with parents?
Speaker 4:I would just say, um, with that family media plan and with talking about balance with your kids, I think a great activity for our older kids is just asking them to write down what are the ways that you use your screens, or what do you use your screens for, and then start classifying those. Are those active or passive, and are they a good quality? Are they a good use of your time? Are they helping you meet your goals? And then, when you have that, it helps to identify how am I doing with balance? And then it's easier to have those conversations later, even as an adult, of like oh, candy Crush is really pulling me in lately, I need to do better. And when you're modeling it yourself, it's easier to have those conversations with kids about their balance. Sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think, again, just that ongoing conversation. It was very, it was very interesting in the Canyon Erring night because we had several families there. They actually came with their kids and as we're posing these questions you could see all the looks around each other. Like you know, you talk about that, but it wasn't just the parents saying that, some of the kids saying that too Sure. So you know, just having that, I think, just making it an open conversation and an ongoing conversation, you can set up notification settings and kind of look at a browsing history once. But if it's a regular part of your conversation, then I think your kids are also going to be more comfortable to talk to you about what's going on in their electronic world.
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, no, that's really important advice and, like you said, I think that we could all be a little bit more thoughtful about how we're using technology. Right, absolutely, yeah. Well, thanks again for being here. Thanks to the audience You've been with us today at Connect Canyons. If you have any ideas for future subjects you'd like us to tackle, or if you have questions, don't hesitate to reach us at communications at canyonsdistrictorg.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to this episode of Connect Canyons. Connect with us on Twitter, facebook or Instagram at canyonsdistrict, or on our website, canyonsdistrictorg.