School administrators presented preliminary results of a study on screen usage in class, as the School Committee considers restricting computer use in elementary school.
Most in-school screen time is instructional, the study found, with the heaviest use in high school, according to Heather Francis, the district’s executive director of academics. She presented at Tuesday’s School Committee meeting, which the district conducted in collaboration with the Academics and Education Technology departments. The screen usage report, first requested by the previous School Committee in December, was conducted on all grade years over several months this spring.
One aspect of the study was the use of Chromebooks, which the district issues to students in all grades. Data gathered during a 23-day period spanning April and May of this year showed median daily use of Chromebooks was around 17 minutes for Kindergarteners and 25 minutes for first and second graders. Time in use increases steadily by grade year until students reach high school, where their daily estimated use in classes is 71 minutes.
Mostly used for instruction
The usage audit looked at instructional time, and found that for grades K-5, Chromebook usage was 98 to 99 percent for instruction. In middle school it is 95 percent instructional, but at the high school level that falls to 85 percent.
Vice chair Caitlin Dube had co-sponsored a resolution at the April 17 meeting to pause non-essential screen usage in younger classrooms until the audit was released. The resolution was ultimately deferred to Superintendent Dave Murphy and screen usage was not paused.
Dube on Tuesday again pushed against all elementary screen use. “I think there’s an operating assumption in this report that screens are necessary in CPS classrooms,” Dube said. “Screens are not neutral, especially for early childhood learners.”
Different uses at different ages
Computers are used for different purposes, the report found, drawing on also qualitative observations of 16 elementary classrooms and 18 upper school classrooms, as well as educator and student feedback.
In elementary years, technology is used for “literacy support” and “instructional visuals and math practice,” while students at the upper and high school levels “engage with technologies in ways that are much more integrated into their work,” Francis said, pointing to different software older kids use to manage assignments.
Does tech increase learning?
Member Luisa de Paula Santos drew attention to some of the data’s limitations, namely that the data on Chromebook usage does not account for smartboards and other in-classroom screens and devices that may contribute to a student’s total screen exposure.
“The study doesn’t actually yet arrive at whether the screen time actually helps students learn,” Santos added. Several committee members agreed that more information is needed about the impacts of the technology before they vote on whether to restrict it.
Santos also brought up the use of screens in special education classrooms, where technology can be important for “modifying curricula” but could “be potentially more harmful for that population if misused.” Francis acknowledged the need to do a specific study on a special education classroom in the district.
The report is one piece of a larger reckoning on screen use that seems to be happening in Cambridge, and in public schools throughout the country. The district’s high school, Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, sealed away student cell phones for the first time last fall. (The screen usage study began after that shift and did not assess the effects of that policy).
Artificial intelligence is another piece of the puzzle, especially for Cambridge’s high schoolers.
High schoolers “didn’t advocate for eliminating technology, but they really talked about intentionality, balance, and the approach,” in the report’s student feedback section, Francis said.
Conversations around artificial intelligence began under the previous School Committee in August, when they requested a recommendation on its use from the Superintendent. There is currently no district-wide policy regulating the technology, but Murphy said a district working group is assessing the matter.
The full report on screen usage will be released in June. Francis said it will have more data about personal and instructional screen use, technology in special education classrooms, and the connection between mental health and screen use.
Committee Member Elizabeth Hudson asked for more immediate action steps. Murphy suggested that the committee could enforce a guidance that has already been distributed to early childhood educators, which places restrictions on certain usage, such as screens as a behavioral reward.
A stronger
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