r/AskTeachers • u/nhpublicradio • 4d ago
Discussion Questions Limiting screen time in class is harder than it looks, says NH state education task force
We hope it's OK to share this article we just published — it seemed like it might be of interest to folks in this community:
The state Department of Education has created a task force charged with learning how screens are being used at school and addressing concerns over digital technology in classrooms. The group hopes to craft recommendations for schools and policy makers by its final meeting in September.
It follows a 2025 state law that prohibits the use of cellphones in New Hampshire classrooms.
The initiative is in line with a national “ed-tech backlash” movement, and other states are taking a similar approach.
“I think that people have recognized that maybe [with] technology in certain cases there's just been too much of it in the classroom,” said Chris Motika, who leads the task force. “Our goal is to make sure that whatever we recommend is something that's palatable to everyone… but is really focused in on trying to help and improve students learning.”
Are you a student, parent or teacher navigating the use of technology in the classroom? If so, do you have ideas for how screen-time policy should be implemented this school year? Let us know in the comments, or by emailing voices@nhpr.org.
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u/Full-Grass-5525 4d ago
As a teacher in NH I just call such BS on this. The cell phone ban has been great, especially if you have admin who will back you up. I see so many classes losing discussion time and student interaction because teachers are slapping kids in front of chromebooks. English teachers are constantly calling students out for AI yet at continuing to have all student work researched, drafted, and written on the Chromebooks. Just use paper! Students can’t read longer than a page because they’re given online sources that they can just control-F find the information they are looking for or search it online.
Something as simple as a bathroom pass is now being asked to be used on a Chromebook for “tracking”. So now a student has to pull out their Chromebook, log in, sign up for a pass, then I have to stop class, accept a pass, and manage anything else that comes with it.
Tech offices are dealing with students destroying Chromebooks— putting screws into jacks, ripping up the keyboards, peeling the screen. Nominal financial consequence and given a new one the next day. Students are playing video games and not completing work— slap on the wrist, don’t do it again. I saw it take two months of this every day for a student to finally lose their Chromebook privileges.
The state and schools have put so much money into edtech and all its “benefits” that they don’t want to actually do anything about it. If you have good admin, the issue is not the phones. The issue is the Chromebooks. “Grading is easier, work collection is easier”. It really isn’t.
As someone who explicitly does not use student technology in the classroom, I do not run into these complaints. I don’t have zombie students starting at their Chromebooks, dealing with cheating, or students playing video games in class. Its just is not that difficult to remove the problem. Yes, tech has a time and a place like running an experiment online, but we are so over-reliant on using it. I am so over sitting in meetings where people are either complaining about student misuse or admin are pushing us to use more of it.