There is something funny about the word “device”. It has vague meaning but, like “technology”, the word is used more to be vague than to be meaningful, to fess up to what is really going on. See Tom Lehrer for a black funny use of “device”. In any case, the Victorian Government has just taken a very good step in the management of “devices”.
Yesterday, the Victorian Premier issued a media release, announcing a daily limit on the use of “devices” in school:
LESS TIME ON DEVICES MEANS MORE TIME LEARNING
Well, duh, but it is really really pleasing to have someone in power say it and act accordingly.
From Term 1, 2027 all secondary schools will be asked to include planned device-free time in their learning. Where devices are used, they must be used intentionally.
One imagines the usage is already pretty intentional, but sure.
This might look like using whiteboards or paper, group debates, practical experiments or performances instead. It builds on our work to limit digital devices to 90 minutes for Years 3-6 and minimal use in Prep to Year 2.
Yeah, perhaps. It also might simply look like plain old proper teaching. But we don’t want to be nitpicky. This is a very good thing.
Premier Allen and Education Minister Carroll held a joint media stop yesterday, and said the right things:
“There shouldn’t be any more than two hours. We want eyes up, screens down,” Carroll said.
“A full reset in the classroom is so important – for behaviour, for calmness, for the students’ own mental health – the focus needs to be on the most important adult in the classroom, and that’s the teacher, and that’s why we are moving down this [path] with a relentless focus on excellence inside every classroom.”
Even with the details still to come, this cannot be a bad thing, but the details will also be interesting. It is probably too much to hope that CAS counts might count as a “device”, but hope springs eternal.
The major question is whether the device limiting will target the true addicts. It’s fine and good to limit the students, but will secondary teachers also be restricted to two hours per day? It’s not clear The New Church of Righteous Teaching would permit it, but, God, it’d be a great step forward.
Would these new rules apply to showing videos in class?
Would that use a “device”?
The teacher uses the device and the students watch the screen.
Which causes the problem, the use of the device or the watching the screen?
In classic fashion, the government announces a policy set to start at the beginning of next year approximately six months before schools need to start implementing it… without outlining how the hell they expect schools to do this
For the last decade (and perhaps longer), they have forced Victorian schools to ensure all students have access to devices, required schools to transfer as much learning as possible onto an LMS, catered to the ’21st Century Learner’ tripe – now they want to undo that reliance on technology in two terms?
My suggestion to a friend was start it at prep (assuming they use devices at all) so that one whole year level is ‘undigitised’ and then they carry that through. So, all current students are still free to use their devices as they have been but the next generation of students does not. This blanket ban is only going to cause behavioural issues to skyrocket… not that the DET cares
Also, I love the get-out-of-jail clause they put in with ‘special needs and students with disabilities’ still being allowed to use devices. As if schools won’t just let all the ‘too difficult’ kids stay on their laptops so they don’t cause trouble
Great policy in theory. We will have to wait and see how it is actually implemented (not that I am at all optimistic)
I take your point, but any time a leader is saying “Get off your damn computers, you idiots”, I’m gonna applaud.
Oh, absolutely. It is a welcome change (as was the smartphone ban)
Now let us hope that they do the same with the CAS entirely, not just UDFs!
Marty, you have made my day sharing this. When I started teaching back in 2018, every kid had a physical textbook, a workbook and a pencil. Now, we have digital textbooks and tech evangelist leading teachers who like to make us feel like dinosaurs for not using laptops at every opportunity. If I had my way, I’d pile up all the kids laptops and set them on fire.
I think we need a Clint Eastwood to be making some people’s day.
I’ll be interested to hear how the 2hrs of screen time is monitored and shared between classes. It seems deeply impractical to try, so perhaps this will be more about the spirit than the letter of the policy. Either way, this feels like a return to sanity.
A very good point, and I couldn’t care less. If teachers are getting the message to get their students (and themselves) off their damn computers, it cannot be bad.
I would be interested to hear how the ban on phones in your school is working.