Encourage the Joy of Learning … and Preventing Obstacles to That Pursuit
I was reading some of my previous writing which was arguing that enjoyment and exposure are keys to learning a language. I think this is true in general with learning. For example, I am seeing that exposure and enjoyment with mathematics play a good part in learning mathematics. I have all of my students signed up for an online mathematics program that is a gamified version of learning mathematics, and it gives the students a diagnostic to determine the students’ levels and continuously works to provide learning within the students’ zone of proximal development. I can see how this program will be very useful for the students and to give them the needed fluency with mathematics. Hopefully, students enjoy it and can spend a good amount of time challenging themselves and progressing. But I think the main barrier to students using the program is that there is “enjoyment inflation” created by video games, tv, and junk food. The students would rather spend their time on these non-productive pursuits. It does not matter how fun a teacher or online program have designed their learning if a student is absorbed in Fortnite, brain rot YouTube videos, and soda/candy/chips.
Learning should not have to compete with these activities that bring down our collective intelligence. Let’s stop “printing” non-productive dopamine highs that shorten our kids’ attention spans, which then creates “enjoyment inflation”. We have some great mathematics software for helping our kids learn mathematics in a fun way. We have awesome teachers who create engaging and transformative lessons. But all of that is lost on the kids, and these valuable opportunities are seen as cheap peanuts in their perspectives … when they falsely compare them to the junk food of the mind they have been consuming.
As adults, we must control what our kids consume mentally just like we must control what they consume in an edible way. One way we can do this is by using a web filtering service like GoGuardian or Securly. In generally, I think Securly works best for parents and smaller private schools and GoGuardian for larger schools. Here are some YouTube videos that explain the product:
For parents, it can also do many other things like set a bedtime, which prevents students from staying up late on their devices. These links could be sent to parents to explain the software to them:
Securly Home – Start Guide for Parents
This is one strategy for protecting our kids’ and helping our kids enjoy their learning. The overall purpose is to encourage the joy of learning. That is not just brought about by striving to create enjoyable learning experiences but also preventing obstacles to that pursuit. I have oriented my classroom around more pencil and paper assignments to prevent students from device distraction and to create a more social-learning environment in which peers are engaged in the learning process - instead of devices being the center of attention. When we use computers, I have started taking my students to the computer lab in which it is much easier for me to monitor everyone’s computer at the same time.
Still, as a teacher I cannot control how students spend their time outside of my classroom (during breaks, at home, etc.). That is where a web filtering service that is sponsored by the parents and the school would help. Ideally, an educational community would all be on the same page so that all students would have a similar wise use of device policy with the according enforcement. It would be hard to see that fully realized in most schools, but some schools may be able to create a niche for themselves with this aspiration - and maybe some smaller schools or family educational co-ops can make this happen.