Mitigating Technology Overuse Among Elementary School Students

EAB partners report that as students increase technology use, they increase their vulnerability to problems related to online safety, information literacy, and technology use. Research suggests that technology overuse correlates with health problems such as childhood obesity and social and behavioral problems.

To respond to these concerns, profiled districts implement digital citizenship curriculum, which teaches students to use technology safely and responsibly. Digital citizenship interventions can be used to mitigate technology overuse in elementary school students and teach students how to use technology responsibly.

In this report, learn how districts implement digital citizenship curricula, use specific lessons and interventions, and how to support teachers as they deliver digital citizenship instruction to students.

Implementing digital citizenship curricula

All profiled districts partner with Common Sense to acquire digital citizenship coursework, parent resources, and teacher guides. Contacts at District E note that Common Sense provides more comprehensive resources than other vendors (e.g., Google). For example, Common Sense provides lessons for grades K-12, whereas Google focuses on upper elementary and middle school grades. Contacts at District B, District C, and District E note that Common Sense revises lessons as the needs of students change. Contacts report that Common Sense released revised lessons for grades three through eight in 2018 and will release revised lessons for grades K-2 in 2019.

At most profiled districts, digital citizenship staff create a scope and sequence map that outlines which lessons students must complete at each grade level. These maps serve as models for school sites as they implement digital citizenship curricula. At District D, staff created the scope and sequence map in a spreadsheet, which they use to track implementation at school sites.

Student technology interventions

At District E and District D, teachers, media specialists, and/or counselors lead digital citizenship lessons that ask students in grades four and five to audit their technology use. Contacts note that technology audits allow students to comprehend the extent to which they use technology. Students record when and for how long they use different technologies (e.g., video games, television, mobile phones). Instructors engage students in discussions regarding how they feel about their technology use, suggest techniques to balance technology use with other activities, and convey negative health effects of technology overuse. For example, counselors at District D highlight how technology use before bedtime reduces sleep quality.

Though contacts at both districts currently do not ask early elementary students to audit their technology use, they suggest that audits transfer to early elementary students. Contacts at District E recommend instructors replace the take-home journal with an icon-based worksheet because early elementary school students possess limited writing abilities. Contacts suggest that staff structure the worksheet similarly to a reading log, which teachers already ask early elementary school students to complete.

Sample icon-based worksheet for early elementary school students

Technology	Did I Use It?	What Time?	For How Many Minutes?
		3:30 p.m.	45 minutes
		5:00 p.m.	15 minutes
		8:00 p.m.	30 minutes

 

Engaging parents

Engaging teachers

Contacts at District D encourage teachers to establish technology rules at the beginning of the school year and to distinguish between technology-based and nontechnology-based classroom activities. At District F, contacts encourage teachers to model adherence to classroom technology rules (e.g., not using technology when speaking with students).

At District B, technology integration staff promote the Substitution-AugmentationModification-Redefinition (SAMR) model to help teachers understand when and how to use technology in the classroom. Staff encourage teachers to use technology to augment, modify, or redefine instruction and lessons, rather than use technology as a substitute for instruction (e.g., ask students to write notes on a laptop, rather than with a pen and paper).