For School Leaders
“You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.”
Calling all school leaders!
Families today are struggling to navigate tech choices for their families. Parents’ personal choices around tech adoption (e.g., when to get a smartphone for their child or when to allow social media) are deeply affected by local community norms. It’s nearly impossible for families to resist the pressure of “everyone else has one!” Parents desperately need a community-based solution.
Schools are key community structures that families are part of. School leaders can therefore be tremendously helpful by proactively guiding the school community towards suggested tech norms, giving parents permission to blame the school for new norms, and in turn taking the social pressure off parents and students.
Digital Wellbeing & The Role of Schools:
In an effort to support local schools in their role as leaders for our community, ScreenSense hosted a symposium for Marin County school leaders in May 2024 with the generous help of the Mill Valley Community Center. Andrew Davis, the Head of School at Mount Tamalpais School, shared the digital wellbeing strategy and guidelines for families that he implemented at his K-8 school in Fall of 2023 and why he thinks schools can play a pivotal role in creating community norms and values.
You can watch the video recording of his presentation here:
IN THIS VIDEO: Andrew Davis, Head of School at Mount Tamalpais School (K-8), shares how he is steering his school community towards healthier tech use norms. During the presentation, Andrew explains why he as a school leader stepped in to improve digital wellbeing, why we should anchor digital wellbeing in schools, what he implemented at his K-8 school, and how it's all landing (spoiler: really well with no pushback).
This presentation was part of a Marin County Schools Symposium hosted in May 2024 by ScreenSense, the Mill Valley Community Center, and Mount Tamalpais School.
Embracing Digital Well-Being as a school.
At the start of the 2023–24 school year, Andrew Davis, Head of Mount Tamalpais School, recognized that change was needed. In a bold and forward-thinking move, he added “digital wellbeing” to the school’s strategic plan—acknowledging the profound impact technology has on our lives, regardless of where we live or who we are. This new, concrete priority—supporting students and families in cultivating a productive, intentional, and healthy relationship with technology both on and off campus—was woven into every aspect of school life.
At the start of the 2023-24 school year, Mount Tamalpais School’s Head of School added “digital wellbeing” to the school’s strategic plan. A new concrete priority became to “support students and families in developing a productive, intentional, and healthy relationship with technology both on and off campus.”
The school's efforts are three-fold:
An audit of tech use on campus
Parent and student education events
Suggested guidelines for technology use at home. [Here’s a generic adaptation anyone is welcome to distribute.]
You can learn more details on the school’s Technology webpage and in the video above. The Head of School essentially offers for parents to “blame the school” while providing healthier community norms for a course correction. This kind of community leadership and collective action is making all the difference for MTS families!
Reach out to ScreenSense (info@screensense.org) if you’d like help rolling out suggested tech guidelines to your school community!
Distributing school devices to families?
If so, please make sure you are supporting parents and caregivers when they bring these new devices into their homes. Reach out to ScreenSense (info@screensense.org) if you need help providing a training program for families so they can effectively manage a school-issued device at home. Families do much better with school devices if they are informed about how built-in tools work (like Apple Screen Time), how to optimize notifications and reduce needless disruptions, and how to set rules and limits to support their child’s wellbeing.
We can also custom-create an orientation handout for families that you can send home along with each distributed device.
Our top recommendation? Have students give their parents a “tour” of their school device. Also, please make sure your school devices do not allow access to time-zapping apps and platforms like YouTube, SnapChat, Instagram, and TikTok.
Teaching digital wellbeing?
ScreenSense can help you develop or refine a plan for teaching digital wellbeing. Some of our favorite lessons used by schools are:
Common Sense Media’s Digital Citizenship - a K-12 curriculum for a vertical approach to digital wellbeing
Kids Brains and Screens - a 278-page workbook with lessons and activities for students (ages 10+) to learn how screen use affects their brain development. Gives readers the much-needed buy-in to make healthy changes for themselves.
Cyber Civics by Cyberwise - a comprehensive middle school digital literacy curriculum
Khan Academy’s Social Media Literacy course co-developed with the Center for Humane Technology - a course high school teachers can facilitate to help their students become savvier consumers of social media
Harvard University’s Center for Digital Thriving - printable resources and lesson plans to facilitate better conversations with teens about technology that are both critical and optimistic.
Project Reboot - great for teens! A collection of lessons, workshops, an assembly, and more.
Drowning in EdTech and need a new approach?
It’s helpful to pause and reconsider how you approach EdTech so your school is being intentional and selective. Do you have a tech use philosophy and plan in place? Reach out to ScreenSense if you need a thinking partner. Some of our go-to resources include:
The Ed Tech Triangle by Everyschool.org
The Ed Tech Triangle, a research-based EdTech framework with guardrails by Everyschool;
Fairplay’s Screens in Schools Action Kit, a toolkit to educate and advocate for changes in EdTech use.
The Center for Humane Technology (CHT) suggests, among other things, that schools should:
Audit their use of tech — e.g., is what they’re implementing achieving what it was meant to?
Pay attention to what they’re potentially losing as they’re gaining tech.
Approach tech in schools with a skeptical eye — i.e., don’t assume it will necessarily improve the learning experience just because it’s tech.
Where to Next?
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Services
We offer Parent-Ed presentations as well as custom consulting for schools.
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Phone-Free Schools
Resources for implementing personal device policies at your school.
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OneStep Blog
Monthly tips for teaching healthy tech use. Great resource to share with parents