Students and Screen Time: A Research-Based Response
The Covid-19 pandemic dramatically changed the way schools, families, and children experience education, with most schools moving to remote or hybrid teaching methods over the past year. As a result of this experience, parents may be eager to get their kids back into in-person classrooms and off of screens. When it comes to screen time, it’s important to consider the type and length of screen time and whether it has an educational purpose.
Defining Screen Time
To understand the impact of screen time on child health and learning outcomes, we need first to define what screen time is. Screen time includes any time spent on a virtual device such as a computer, tv, phone, or gaming console. Studies suggest that children’s screen time nearly doubled during the pandemic. Researchers have found associations between increased screen time and health outcomes, including anxiety and depression. (1)
Educational Screen Time
Unlike screen time spent playing video games or on phone apps like TikTok, using screen time for educational purposes can have a positive impact on student learning and development by:
Fostering executive functioning skills. (2)
Supporting vocabulary and counting skills. (3)
Increasing understanding. (4)
Encouraging collaboration and social connection. (5)
Screen Time Best Practices
When it comes to screen time, the medium and length of time matter.
The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends limiting child screen time to 2 hours per day; 1 hour for children 5 and under.
The Mayo Clinic suggests that children can benefit from screen time that incorporates music, movement, and stories.
Studies show that short videos are best; student engagement drops after 6 minutes. (6)
How the Modern Classrooms Instructional Model Aligns with Best Practices
Short, condensed screen time: Students watch videos that are less than 8 minutes, followed by engaging, collaborative, and interactive activities for learning.
Leveraging Technology to Free up Teacher Time: Teachers can step away from whole-class instruction and provide individual and small-group supports in the classroom.
Engaging students in active learning: Students take notes while watching videos and answer check-for-understanding questions to promote critical thinking, metacognition, and reflection.
Increasing accessibility and equity: Students can move through videos at their own pace or rewind/pause videos to meet their individual learning needs.
Supporting long-term learning: Students can re-watch videos after an absence or in preparation for an exam, allowing for access to learning inside and outside of the classroom.
References
Richtel (2021). Children’s screen time has soared in the pandemic, alarming parents and researchers.
Common Sense Media (2020). The Common Sense census: Media use by kids age zero to eight, 2020.
Bogartz & Ball (1971). The Second Year of Sesame Street: a Continuing Evaluation: A Report to the Children's Television Workshop.
Calvert et al. (2007). Interaction and participation for young Hispanic and Caucasian children’s learning of media content.
Hirsh-Pasek et al. (2015). Putting education in “educational” apps: Lessons from the science of learning.
Guo et al. (2014). How video production affects student engagement: An empirical study of MOOC videos.