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  • 1.  Middle School Social Media use, distraction, and network filtering

    Posted 11-07-2024 11:25 AM

    Please forgive the shotgun of questions around this topic, as I am trying to get a sense of things to help guide our conversations.

    For those with Middle Schools, what are your policies on social media, gaming, and other "distractions" in your school? 

    What do you allow or filter?

    How much of what you do or don't allow is guided by your classroom management or open work period guidelines? 

    Is this seen as a problem for technology to solve or a shared responsibility between teachers, administration, and technology?

    How are infractions treated?

    What other conversations are you having in this area?


    #General
    #TeachingandLearning

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    William Stites
    Montclair Kimberley Academy
    Montclair NJ
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  • 2.  RE: Middle School Social Media use, distraction, and network filtering

    Posted 11-11-2024 08:42 AM

    Thanks for starting this conversation.  I stepped into a new role this summer at our school, and with that, there likely will be some changes in the coming months and 25-26 school year.  Some of which might make me the "bad guy" on campus, especially for our older girls.  (We're an all girls school K-12, coed for our pre-school.) 

    For our our students in grades 5-6 we have 1:1 Chromebooks and all social media sites have been blocked.  However, those ages aren't a problem.

    Currently our students in grades 7-12 sign in via a firewall on their own devices but we don't have enough blocks in place.  We are looking to revamp the firewall/access to limit usage greatly while girls are on campus.  We aren't there yet but that's our plan.  For example, we're looking at GoGuardian and appreciate the levels of security and limits that can be put in place.

    All girls are required to check-in their phones at the start of the day, except seniors.  During study hall, there are "rules" and expectations.  If students don't do either of these things, we assign infractions through Blackbaud's LMS.  We have various consequences once students meet infraction thresholds of 5, 7 or 9 points, such as Friday morning "detention", a meeting with the director and parents, etc.  

    We find that even without phones, the girls can find a way to chat via other tools online.  And without stronger restrictions in place for the BYOD, the girls will go to sites that we don't want them to be on during the school day. Therefore, we're hoping to reign this in.  In addition, we will enhance our online assessment tools to include Digiexam.  

    Our teachers are frustrated, and I hear them.  While I might be very old school, I want the classroom to be like it was when I was growing up.  You're there to listen to the teacher, and if it's study hall, work on your school work, it's not a time to roam the internet like the wild west.  Obviously there will be exceptions.  

    In short, we don't have it fully figured out but are in the process of making changes.  I also look forward to hear how other schools are addressing this.  



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    Betsy Sidebottom
    Director of Information Services
    Ashley Hall School
    Charleston, SC
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  • 3.  RE: Middle School Social Media use, distraction, and network filtering

    Posted 11-13-2024 10:40 PM

    Bill,

    Your post is timely.  We continue to wrestle with these situations and I believe that we'll be reviewing our policies carefully over the next several months which may result in some changes for 2025-2026.  Grades 1-5 use school managed iPads where they connect to our network and so we make sure that they can't go places we don't want them to go.  

    It's different for grades 6-12 where we have a BYOD program.  We also have an on prem web filter and we have RFPs on the street for a core switch, firewall and web filter.  Things seem to have changed quite a bit since our current hardware was purchased which has us looking at something we haven't considered before - a single-vendor solution for these products.

    Back to your question, though, we have found that our biggest challenge this year is the students gaining access to VPNs via our school network.  They do this so that they can bypass our filter which blocks gaming sites, YouTube and social media.  Our MS and US students are not supposed to use their phones during the day - but that doesn't mean they don't try.  They don't turn them in anywhere, so they walk around school with them all day.  When they have their phones, they can also hotspot and avoid our filters.  

    If we had a 1:1 program, I think we'd be able to eliminate the VPN and hotspot issues - at least I hope we can.  There will need to be some better measures in place for managing the phone policy.  Personally, if you can't have a phone during the day, they should have to stow them away (not in their pockets or backpacks), because otherwise, they will find a way to slip away to a dark corner (usually in the "quiet section" of the library...right outside my office door!)

    I am eager to know what policies are outlined in your AUPs for students.  Are your schools prohibiting phones?  Do you allow students to use VPNs?  Are you 1:1?  If you are 1:1, do you filter at home as well as at school?  My personal view is that if we went to 1:1, we would filter at home.  We are providing (or they are buying our school-issued device) the laptop for use in school.  We're not providing it for entertainment, etc., and we don't want to be in a position to provide a device that allows students to use it in a way at home that violates policies on campus.  

    Interested in hearing about other school policies.



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    Susan Fuhs, Director of IT Services
    Norfolk Academy
    Norfolk VA
    swfuhs@norfolkacademy.org
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  • 4.  RE: Middle School Social Media use, distraction, and network filtering

    Posted 11-14-2024 04:02 PM

    To set the stage, we have a 1:1 MacBook program in grades 4-12.  The devices are school-owned and allowed to go home with the students staring in 6th grade.

    By rule, MS students are not permitted to engage in gaming or social media during the school day on any device.  On our MacBooks, gaming and social media are blocked by filter and MDM.  I am quick to point out that the filter is more of a fence than a wall.  Personal devices cannot be used at any point in the school day.  Gaming is the bigger issue for us.

    Our filtering plan is mostly standard for schools though we do block additional sites as requested by faculty or admin.

    Most all of student use is governed by classroom management guidelines, though enforcement will always lie in the application by the classroom teacher.  We, as a school, do believe devices should be in use with a purpose.  Laptops are expected to remain closed unless directed by the teacher.

    As our program has matured, I would say that we have moved from it being a technology problem to a shared responsibility.  Using our conduct program to cite students under the topic of "Electronic Device Violation (Self-Discipline)" has provided greater awareness and feedback internally and keeps the family in the loop.  Our MS admin team has emphasized this practice.  Personally, I am thankful for the inclusion of the phrase - Self Discipline.

    Apologies for the length of the response.  I suspect that we are all in a similar place.



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    Jason Hiett
    Ensworth
    Nashville TN
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  • 5.  RE: Middle School Social Media use, distraction, and network filtering

    Posted 11-22-2024 10:43 AM

    This is a very timely topic around here as we have been engaged with many parents at our Middle School this year who are hyper-focused on their child's access to technology both at school and outside of the school day. Like everyone else, they have been reading Jonathan Haidt, who recently started sharing articles on his Substack questioning the use of devices in the classroom:

    https://www.afterbabel.com/p/false-promise-of-device-based-ed

    https://www.afterbabel.com/p/the-edtech-revolution-has-failed

    So, whereas before parents seemed focused more on dealing with distractions at home, they are now moving on to even school devices themselves being a distraction from learning at school and adding to already unhealthy amounts of screentime. 

    We have used school-managed iPads 1:1 at our Middle School (grades 5-8) since 2011 and over time (and as mobile device management became more advanced) we have ramped up the ways in which we manage and restrict the iPads so they hopefully don't become a distraction. Students can only install apps we have vetted via JAMF Self Service and all iPads are filtered at school and at home using the Lightspeed Relay system. We block all social media, gaming, and streaming sites (even YouTube, we use Playposit if students need to access content on YT). Teachers all have the ability to use Apple Classroom to manage devices in the classroom, and parents can use JAMF Parent to manage the devices at home if they want to. And all personal tech devices (cell phones, smart watches) have to be turned in to the homeroom advisor first thing in the morning so they are not available during the school day.

    Gaming has become such a difficult area to deal with. Last year, students were finding games everywhere on Google Sites and we had to restrict that service completely. This year, students are figuring out they can access games hosted on Git repositories which we haven't really wanted to block (students often learn to code by creating games and re-using code, so there is an educational aspect of it). I had a parent tell me the other day their child is playing chess too much and they wanted all chess games blocked on their child's school iPad (we don't install chess apps, and it would be impossible to block every instance of it on the Internet). Another parent doesn't like the Sora reading app because he thinks there are too many books (esp graphic novels) on that service that are of questionable quality (he's not wrong). Of course, we've seen for years that students will use Google Docs for live chats. So no matter how much restricting and filtering you do and setting expectations, there is no getting around the fact that these devices can easily be used for distraction if a student has the time and desire to look for those distractions. 

    The whole experience has made us really think much more carefully about how we are using technology during the school day, and we are becoming much more discerning about the types of apps, web sites, and services that we allow teachers to use with students. We're taking a fresh look especially at apps that are heavily gamified. Digital books can be helpful in lightening the backpack load but then they lead to more screen time, so that's another area we're investigating. We've also done homeroom activities with the students where we have them turn on Screen Time on their iPads and periodically discuss their stats on how much they are using their iPads. I will say Screen Time is an imperfect technology and it sometimes exaggerates use of certain apps so you really do have to dig down in to the details of what you are doing and not just look at the overall number. But this exercise has been very helpful and we're finding so far that most students stay within the 1-3 hour range of iPad use during the school day, which we think is reasonable. And where we see high levels of screen time with a particular student, it becomes a helpful starting point for a conversation between the teacher, student and parents about what exactly is going on.

    Thanks to those who have replied here and to Bill for starting the thread, I have found the conversation to be very helpful!



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    Trevor Hoyt
    Durham Academy
    Durham NC
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