Educators, as a collective of teachers, paraeducators and administrators, face significant challenges with high school students using social media during instructional time. With social media access unblocked or lenient cell phone policies, we are losing precious minutes meant for learning. Even when a smartphone or device is out of sight, the cognitive hook for a digital distraction, luring a student away from the lesson, can take 23 minutes to recover. In short, we must protect instructional time. Protecting instructional time requires establishing clear boundaries with students, which may involve implementing or adopting new policies around 1:1 programs, filtering on the device, and more. This could further include guidelines for parental communication, especially in cases where parents encourage using social media to connect with their children.
At the same time, as we consider limiting or blocking social media and making various policy adjustments, we need to focus our efforts on restricting online dangers such as bullying, offensive content, and grooming—issues that can rival those faced by adults on these social media platforms (and elsewhere). Most school districts can access tools from vendors like Linewize or Securly, which offer solutions to enhance visibility and effectively address these risks. Adopting and deploying these tools to protect students is admirable, where the positives far outweigh any perceived drawbacks.
Educators often overestimate dangers in the physical world while underestimating the risks of the digital one. To keep students safe, we must learn, protect, and monitor what they do on school-issued accounts and devices. We expose ourselves to liability without proper safeguards—not from using tools designed to protect students but from failing to implement them. Again, the cost of not activating these protections far outweighs any perceived drawbacks. Just as we supervise students in cafeterias and classrooms to ensure their safety, we must extend that supervision into the online space.
We must address a core question: What is the intended purpose of laptop, Chromebook, and iPad programs? These devices should be tools for academic growth and provide educational value and growth, not avenues for social media, doom-scrolling, or impulsive behavior. Without proper safeguards, they risk becoming focal points of significant issues rather than resources for learning. We must align our practices, goals, efforts, and professional development, ensuring our devices serve as assets to education, not distractions.
Photo Credit: https://unsplash.com/@dizzyd718