Today (thanks to a colleague), I came across an interesting article from OpenCulture.com which included a series of short videos from the BBC Radio 4 and The Open University. The collection featured in this article is titled "Has Technology Changed Us?" and includes 4 short animations narrated by Gillian Anderson (from cult tv show fame). The X-Files link immediately grabbed my attention (I have two personal connections with the tv show, but those are different stories ;-), as did the title of the series. These are well worth taking the few minutes to watch them in order, but the one that really spurred me to share is the first episode titled "Rewiring the Brain" (embedded below).
With our 1:1 Laptop Program, there is a lot of talk/discussion/inquiry/angst surrounding screen time, computer/gaming addiction, distractions, finding balance, multi-tasking and a general decline in student attention spans. After watching this video this morning, I think it's time to revisit hosting an Unplugged Day in the HS again. I did this two years ago (see the original blog posting here as well as the follow-up reflection posting here and a second reflection here) with mixed results, but it is time to come back to this idea of going without technology for a day to better understand its impact on our daily life, and how deep our "need to be connected" runs. With HS students, I think discussions about total screen time in a day, and making home agreements about computer usage come into direct conflict with the realities of school life and the curricular requirements of programs like the IB DP. My experience has been that some of our students today have little or no awareness of just how wired they really are, and unplugging them from the web/net is the only way to give them some perspective.
After my first Unplugged Day, I really thought that this is something that we all need to do as a community - both teachers and students across the board. We all need to seek balance in our lives, especially when it comes to our technology use. Some people are better at it than others, and some people are totally addicted to their devices and don't even know it. One of my best friends is completely attached to his mobile (he frequently checks it while you are actively engaged in a conversation, or when eating a meal) but seemingly has no idea about how others perceive his mobile addiction. How many others are totally addicted to their devices and don't even know it?
Last year and this year (right now during the month of March, actually), I have challenged students to participate in the UNICEF World TAP Project where people can raise clean drinking water for the needy by not using their mobile phones (click here to see my blog posting on this project too). This project has been pretty successful within the school, but again, has been limited to those students and teachers who elect to engage with it and learn about themselves. It needs to be pushed out to the entire community and done together, whether they think they need it or not. So it's time to go back to 1984 but as an entire HS this time.
I just had an initial conversation with my principal about doing a school-wide Unplugged Day either in April or May this year, and he is all for it. After talking through the possibilities for the day, we decided that there are a number of learning outcomes associated with this project that will make it bigger and better, such as:
With our 1:1 Laptop Program, there is a lot of talk/discussion/inquiry/angst surrounding screen time, computer/gaming addiction, distractions, finding balance, multi-tasking and a general decline in student attention spans. After watching this video this morning, I think it's time to revisit hosting an Unplugged Day in the HS again. I did this two years ago (see the original blog posting here as well as the follow-up reflection posting here and a second reflection here) with mixed results, but it is time to come back to this idea of going without technology for a day to better understand its impact on our daily life, and how deep our "need to be connected" runs. With HS students, I think discussions about total screen time in a day, and making home agreements about computer usage come into direct conflict with the realities of school life and the curricular requirements of programs like the IB DP. My experience has been that some of our students today have little or no awareness of just how wired they really are, and unplugging them from the web/net is the only way to give them some perspective.
After my first Unplugged Day, I really thought that this is something that we all need to do as a community - both teachers and students across the board. We all need to seek balance in our lives, especially when it comes to our technology use. Some people are better at it than others, and some people are totally addicted to their devices and don't even know it. One of my best friends is completely attached to his mobile (he frequently checks it while you are actively engaged in a conversation, or when eating a meal) but seemingly has no idea about how others perceive his mobile addiction. How many others are totally addicted to their devices and don't even know it?
Last year and this year (right now during the month of March, actually), I have challenged students to participate in the UNICEF World TAP Project where people can raise clean drinking water for the needy by not using their mobile phones (click here to see my blog posting on this project too). This project has been pretty successful within the school, but again, has been limited to those students and teachers who elect to engage with it and learn about themselves. It needs to be pushed out to the entire community and done together, whether they think they need it or not. So it's time to go back to 1984 but as an entire HS this time.
I just had an initial conversation with my principal about doing a school-wide Unplugged Day either in April or May this year, and he is all for it. After talking through the possibilities for the day, we decided that there are a number of learning outcomes associated with this project that will make it bigger and better, such as:
- Connecting the day to the IB Learner Profile, where April for us focuses on "Thinkers" (which is a perfect fit with "We use critical and creative thinking skills to analyse and take responsible action on complex problems.")
- Digital Citizenship to generate staff/student self-awareness of their own tech usage
- Make this into a school wide Spirit Day, including an 80's dress-up, Unplugged Coffee House lunch time performances, Advisory competition, and other themed "touches" to give it life and to make it fun
- Get student leadership involved to make this into a CAS project
- Most importantly - have everyone in the school participate this time . . . we are all in this together! Connect and reflect on the process through grade level Advisory classes.
Getting everyone on-board is the next step, so I had better get started with the planning and communication with the staff . . . I hope a month is enough advanced notice! Or we will have to rebrand it as "1985 on 8/5" and move it to May . . . but that would leave out the seniors as they will be in the middle of exams. Hope it doesn't come to that! Have you ever hosted an Unplugged or Blackout Day in your school? What made it successful? What made it flop? What kinds of learning and self-reflection took place as a result?
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