Statewide: Schools and screentime

Like many parents, Julie Hill tried to be intentional about screens when her kids were small.

She's a mom of two in Wheaton, and when the pandemic hit, their schools went one-to-one, meaning every student was assigned a Chromebook so they could learn at home.

It made sense, but over time it became more and more of a distraction.

every time i opened up someone's chromebook the first tab was a game or a shopping site or something like that

it was especially tough for her daughter in middle school

my daughter had all these missing assignments we thought she was doing all this homework and she wasn't

screen time was such a concern that hill pulled her daughter out of public school this year according to the cdc just over 50 percent of teens report four or more hours of screen time per day And that's not including schoolwork.

At the same time, her sister Jill Nicoli, a few towns over at Elmhurst, had the same issue.

She tried to opt her kids out of one-to-one devices, but was told it wasn't possible.

They were too entwined with the curriculum and state testing.

Frustrated, she posted on Facebook and found a lot of parents felt the same.

I don't want my children to be guinea pigs anymore for ed tech.

Nicole now has a WhatsApp group with over 100 parents, a local schools beyond screens chapter and a petition with over 1000 signatures asking their district to roll back one to one devices.

They know it's a big change and could take time, especially in a big district that invests millions in equipment and software.

But she says their Superintendent was open to listening and they did shift policies for the youngest students.

This year, our pre-K has given them the option to, once it's given to you, you get the device, you can then opt out and get it back to the school.

Hinkley-Big Rock is a much smaller school district, and a few years ago, they were one of the first northern Illinois districts to ban cell phones.

Now, Superintendent Jessica Sontag says she believes they're the first district in the region to end their one-to-one Chromebook policy.

It really was impacting teaching and learning.

And so we have gone back to Chromebooks on carts that teachers can check out when they want to utilize technology in the classroom.

Teachers can check out Chromebooks for their class or go to their school library's computer lab, but they don't take them home.

And she says the Chromebook just replaced the phone in a lot of ways.

But she says this is the culmination of years of conversation about what a distraction it was.

Students gaming on their laptops and chatting with friends in class and keeping track of it was distracting for the teachers, too.

We were spending money on monitoring software, so teachers would have to teach behind their desks so they could also watch their own computers, which would tell them if anybody in the classroom is on a tab that isn't relevant to their instruction.

Like many parents, Julie Hill tried to be intentional about screens when her kids were small.

She's a mom of two in Wheaton, and when the pandemic hit, their schools went one-to-one, meaning every student was assigned a Chromebook so they could learn at home.

It made sense, but over time it became more and more of a distraction.

every time i opened up someone's chromebook the first tab was a game or a shopping site or something like that

it was especially tough for her daughter in middle school

my daughter had all these missing assignments we thought she was doing all this homework and she wasn't

screen time was such a concern that hill pulled her daughter out of public school this year according to the cdc just over 50 percent of teens report four or more hours of screen time per day And that's not including schoolwork.

At the same time, her sister Jill Nicoli, a few towns over at Elmhurst, had the same issue.

She tried to opt her kids out of one-to-one devices, but was told it wasn't possible.

They were too entwined with the curriculum and state testing.

Frustrated, she posted on Facebook and found a lot of parents felt the same.

I don't want my children to be guinea pigs anymore for ed tech.

Nicole now has a WhatsApp group with over 100 parents, a local schools beyond screens chapter and a petition with over 1000 signatures asking their district to roll back one to one devices.

They know it's a big change and could take time, especially in a big district that invests millions in equipment and software.

But she says their Superintendent was open to listening and they did shift policies for the youngest students.

This year, our pre-K has given them the option to, once it's given to you, you get the device, you can then opt out and get it back to the school.

Hinkley-Big Rock is a much smaller school district, and a few years ago, they were one of the first northern Illinois districts to ban cell phones.

Now, Superintendent Jessica Sontag says she believes they're the first district in the region to end their one-to-one Chromebook policy.

It really was impacting teaching and learning.

And so we have gone back to Chromebooks on carts that teachers can check out when they want to utilize technology in the classroom.

Teachers can check out Chromebooks for their class or go to their school library's computer lab, but they don't take them home.

And she says the Chromebook just replaced the phone in a lot of ways.

But she says this is the culmination of years of conversation about what a distraction it was.

Students gaming on their laptops and chatting with friends in class and keeping track of it was distracting for the teachers, too.

We were spending money on monitoring software, so teachers would have to teach behind their desks so they could also watch their own computers, which would tell them if anybody in the classroom is on a tab that isn't relevant to their instruction.