Impact of Technology on Students – A teacher’s perspective Erasmus Project

Project Title

Impact of Technology on Students – A teacher’s perspective

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Social dialogue; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

The use of technology has become worrying as smartphones/tablets/consoles are accessible to children at a younger age. The dangers we pointed to in our project “Students Online Safety”, in 2014, seem outdated. Children and parents are better equipped today to deal with the darker side of the internet. However, has peace of mind given rise to another negative effect? Has allowing our children to use technology freely and for longer had a detrimental effect on learning?
Returning to school after the summer holidays, parents were relieved as children spent the holidays online. Children were sleeping way past midnight, immersed in online games. Tablets were left open next to them. Meals were missed or eaten in front of a device. Junk food was being consumed. Parents realized they had to repeat things as children were unable to focus.
The problems did not end when children returned to school. The only difference was teachers were complaining about student’s lack of concentration, tiredness. Finally, research articles began to appear on the topic. We realized the plague was universal. Almost everyone owns a tablet/smartphone. Wi-Fi/4G is everywhere. Any child at any time could be online. Parents allow them as it was a new age pacifier. The epidemic had spread.
The main objective of the project is to raise awareness. We noticed at school that lower academic achievement is directly related to time spent online. In discussions with parents, many confirmed this. More worrisome were parents unaware of the time their children spent online.
A second effect is that children are not sleeping long/deeply enough. Sleep is interrupted due to notifications. They are anxious that something is happening online they are missing out on. Our objective is parents begin observing this and tackle it.
A third problem is lack of exercise. Parents are partially to blame as we feel it is safer to keep children indoors. Furthermore, if parents are at work, there is no one to supervise what children are snacking on while online. The objective is to educate the parents and encourage the children to spend more time exercising.
Finally, it is obvious that children find it harder to communicate orally and appear socially awkward. They find it easier to communicate through messaging and have difficulty expressing themselves in real life. This will impact their ability to handle public speaking or interview skills.
Thus it is our responsibility to raise awareness to avoid children who lack basic social skills and are incapable of conversing. Using emoji’s is an inappropriate way to express feelings!
The project will have six participants. We used various criteria in our selection process. We chose schools who were enthusiastic about our topic and shared our concerns. Secondly, we wanted schools with students aged between 10-15. It appears that children in this group were most connected. Also, for mobilities, we did not want to take younger children as they are harder to control and have them hosted as parents are less likely to allow them. We were not concerned about schools having previous experience as we felt that we could assist them. Coincidentally, we found 3 other schools with experience and 2 without. The final criteria was geographic location. We wanted schools that were accessible as it will reduce costs and lead to easier travel arrangements. A mix of private and public schools was also coincidental.
We plan to use various tools to obtain our objectives. Firstly, we will gauge the seriousness of the problem. We plan to construct a questionnaire to get answers as to how much time is spent online, sleep habits, time spent outdoors, etc. Using statistical analysis for the results can determine how widespread the problem is. Lectures by specialists will help point out the issues and their effects. Once we manage to raise awareness, we will educate all involved how to effectively use technology to help in children’s education. As children will ask us what the alternative to being connected is, we will introduce them to various outdoor/physical activities that can promote social skills and exercise.
Educators are in favour of technology being used to enhance a child’s learning experience. Gone are the days where teachers were the only source of information and students were passive listeners. Technology does not deter a student’s ability to develop critical thinking. However, the sheer amount of time spent online, for reasons that have no educational value, is the root of the problem. If parents can monitor the time spent online and help children use devices with educational value, then we will succeed. Teachers would provide lists of helpful apps, or direct children and parents to them. Proposals such as a Screen Free Week annually will push children towards healthier options to fill their time, as well as developing their ability to socialize. We hope that by getting children outdoors, they will become more aware of the world around them.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 38472,79 Eur

Project Coordinator

Private Grammar and Modern Schools (Limassol) LTD & Country: CY

Project Partners

• Neue NÖ Mittelschule für Wirtschaft und Technik
• Agrupamento de Escolas do Barreiro
• IES FIDIANA
• EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION ANATOLIA
• Fondazione Sant’Agostino