I had a pivotal moment last year when I walked into Beit Bialik at the end of the day. About a dozen students in Grades 3 and up were on their school-issued Chromebooks. Another dozen younger students were surrounding them, watching them play educational games online. The scene stood out to me because the students were totally passive as they watched the games, eyes glazed over. I remember walking up to my own children and saying it was time to go and no one moved an inch. It was as if they couldn’t even hear me. Where was the laughter? Where were the kids stacking reused ice cream cups from floor to ceiling? Where was the perler bead explosion all over the floor? I felt so disheartened. I realized that we are robbing our children of their childhood.
The Engagement Trap
I realized then that by allowing the students to be on their Chromebooks after school, we were simply denying them opportunities for creativity, fun and playing together. And our staff could not control the attraction and the numbing effect of digital games on the kids.
We have heard from our staff that students are more apathetic than ever before and that they are finding it harder to engage them and keep them motivated.
Upon reflection, this is not surprising. Our kids are growing up in a society where we keep them busy constantly. Boredom is feared and everything is custom tailored to their wants and needs. It’s easier, and seemingly more effective, to feed the beast by offering up apps and online platforms to keep them pacified, and we are justifying our choices because they’re labelled “educational.”
But research over the past five years tells us something alarming: these educational tools often don’t deliver on their promises. Test scores across North America are dropping and children are struggling to make eye contact or hold conversations. Their brains simply aren’t wired to learn effectively through screens, and too often what could be learned in five minutes offline takes an hour online.
Dopamine: The Hidden Driver
Many of these apps are designed for maximum engagement. They use sounds, colours, badges and rewards to keep kids hooked — literally. These triggers flood the brain with dopamine, the “feel good” chemical, which creates dependency over time. There is nothing wrong with feeling good, but when the body receives this flood of dopamine from extrinsic reward, it creates a dependency, similar to a drug addiction.
Do you ever find yourself watching a TV show, but also feel the need to scroll social media on your phone at the same time? This double screening tendency is a sign that one source of stimulation isn’t enough anymore. We crave more.
For our children, dependency on screens means boredom, frustration and sadness become almost intolerable. They crave constant stimulation, which affects their focus, resilience and emotional regulation. You know that “Hulk moment” when you pull your child off a screen? That’s withdrawal in real time. If we reach for a screen every time we want to appease or engage our children, they aren’t given the opportunity to develop the coping mechanism to handle stress or boredom. They are at risk of never learning these skills, which can greatly affect mental health and anxiety.
Sadly, we are seeing children at Bialik, younger than ever before, who are struggling in these areas. As educators, part of our work is to teach greater problem solving, resilience, self-motivation and grit so we need to make sure that our lessons and resources are not counter-productive to our goals.
False Engagement Vs. Real Learning
It’s not that I’m encouraging teachers to offer “boring” lessons, but education technology offers a lot of bells and whistles that we are finding aren’t necessary for student engagement. In fact, we actually need a bit of boredom to achieve our greatest accomplishments. Think about when you have your best ideas. Often they happen when you are in the shower, on a walk or when you are trying to fall asleep. The brain often needs to be at rest in order to come up with innovative and complex ideas or solutions. We should not take this for granted.
Quiet, still students with their eyes glued to screens may look as if they are engaged, but that’s often a false indicator. When we ask students about their most meaningful learning moments at Bialik, not one mentions time spent on a Chromebook. Instead, they talk about hands-on projects, experiments, field trips and collaboration with friends. Children are meant to learn by actually doing — by getting messy, taking things apart, putting them back together again, playing, negotiating, developing relationships and being present in the physical world around them. This is, arguably, what makes childhood the best years of life.
Learning From Our Mistakes
It is absolutely true that not all technology is made equal and certain ones have greater value than others. In fact, assistive technology, such as text to speech, is essential for individuals with specific learning challenges. Learning to code or do film editing or digital animation offers transformative learning experiences that allow for wonderful skill development, problem solving and critical thinking. These types of programs are not the ones I’m talking about.
Upon exploration of our use of educational technology at Bialik, we began to rethink the use of apps or sites that gamified learning or that replaced hands-on or collaborative learning experiences that were able to teach a concept better than a digital tool. We discovered that many uses of educational technology were not truly enhancing learning. Instead, they were distracting from meaningful learning experiences and were actually supporting time off-task.
I think about the students in Grades 3-5 who were previously given Google Calendar as their digital agenda. Instead of opening a book and flipping to the correct date to write down their assigned task, they were struggling to recall the login info, to locate the correct tab on their browser, getting distracted by the screen that they didn’t close from the previous night or to close the pop-up window. When they finally found the correct spot to type their homework, many began to fiddle with their settings, changing the font or colours. What should have taken 30 seconds was taking five or more minutes of class time. The process became more about tech management than learning responsibility.
It wasn’t easy to admit that we made mistakes, but we are far more concerned with getting it right now than sticking to our guns. We have always prided ourselves on being cutting edge and innovative, especially when COVID forced us to shift our entire program online. What was necessary in the COVID years no longer applies and we need to scale back on digital tools that are not developmentally appropriate or detract from learning essential skills.
Before we give our students a digital agenda, we need to teach the foundational skills of planning and organization. We need to teach them the responsibility of writing down their own test dates and assignments, as opposed to the teacher populating their Google calendars for them with deadlines. We need to teach them how to backwards plan, highlight important information and prioritize their to-do lists. So, we’re refocusing. Before introducing digital tools, we’re teaching the skills that make those tools effective.
Bialik’s Approach Moving Forward
Educational technology is a massive industry and many of the apps, tools and platforms have not been created by educators. While I like to think that anyone associated with education has the best intentions, it's clear that not all educational tech companies know kids and how they learn best.
Educational technology has been a big focus of our professional development with our teachers over the last year and I have no doubt that it will continue to be debated in the next few years ahead. We have been so impressed with our teachers who have embraced this area of focus and have implemented changes. Already, they have reported that their students are more driven, demonstrating authentic engagement during classroom learning and looking forward to being truly present with their peers in the real world.
We are fortunate that our IT Department’s mission aligns with the educational values of our school. They’ve implemented safeguards against ads, data collection and unsafe online exposure. We are so proud that members of our IT team sit on our EdTech committee and support our administration and teachers in offering access to quality programs that support and enhance learning.
Some of our parents have questioned how we can be preparing their children for a digital world by reducing their digital opportunities. Paradoxically, that is exactly how we do it. Technology is not inherently bad and we certainly don’t hide from it. Rather, it's about making intentional use of technology. This often means using less technology and ensuring it is provided at the right age and stage in child development. It’s about teaching children how their brains and bodies work in response to technology. It’s about helping them to develop essential skills and habits on and offline. This is what will adequately prepare our children for the digital world ahead.
What Parents Can Do
So how can you as parents support the work that we are doing at school? For one, it is hugely impactful to model your own positive and productive relationships with technology. When I'm with my children, I am trying to be fully present (easier said than done). I am trying to prioritize family moments over Instagram scrolling or checking work emails. I am asking myself what the impacts of tech platforms are having on my own life and how I’m now influencing my children to follow in my footsteps.
I strongly recommend that you have technology limits that fit with your family’s values and lifestyle. Lest you think that my home is screen- or tech-free, I assure you we are not. My children watch TV, movies and play video games, but on specific days with time limits and rules. In our household, we don't allow YouTube unless there is something very specific the children want to look up. We’re less concerned about the content and more concerned about the addictive “dopamine loop” of endless short clips. We’d rather they watch a full movie with a storyline than ten five-minute videos. We also don’t play “educational” digital games because we don’t see the point of them.
Are we really strict about our boundaries 100% of the time? No. We can’t control what happens at the grandparents’ house or on a playdate and that's perfectly okay. Life isn't black or white and we are striving for progress over perfection. I know nothing is going to happen if my kids spend a day here or there with excessive or mindless technology.
Moving Toward a Healthier Balance
The point of all of this is that we know more today than we did yesterday. As an educator and as a parent at our school, I want all of our children to have school days filled with laughter, exploration, and creativity and not just quiet clicks on a screen. At Bialik, we’re committed to helping our students rediscover the joy of learning through curiosity, play and genuine human connection. The digital world isn’t going anywhere, but with intention, awareness and balance, we can make sure our children grow up ready to thrive in it, not consumed by it.
Karen Lidor
Principal, Viewmount Branch