"Screen Time" in the Age of Covid-19: Reports from the Home Front (Part 3)
/Liana Gamber-Thompson:
Before I write anything else, I want to second your endorsement of Joe Dillon’s work. I worked at the national office of the National Writing Project from 2015 to 2018, and I learned so much from him in that span, including a wonderfully inventive webinar protocol based on Peter Elbow’s Doubting/Believing game that I’ve been trying to find a chance to recreate for years.
I’ve also filed away all your graphic novel recommendations! Another of Wesley’s birthday presents was a set of Dogman books, and the reception was chilly at best. I’m hoping they’ll grow on him. While we’re on the topic of graphic novels, I can’t recommend the March trilogy enough, which, like a lot of parents, we bought after John Lewis died back in July. You might have seen the widely circulated pictures of Lewis recreating his iconic march across the Edmund Pettus bridge at Comic-Con 2015. He was there promoting March, co-authored with Andrew Aydin and illustrated by Nate Powell, which chronicles the history of the Civil Rights Movement in beautiful and frank detail. We’ve been reading it with the kids nightly, and it’s been a great way for us and them to make connections to what’s happening now with Black Lives Matter. The only downside has been the need to slightly increase our already outsized grocery budget, as Helen, our three-year-old, has decided she needs to eat an apple during every reading (and who am I to argue!?).
I’ve been thinking a lot about your suggestion that perhaps what makes parents like us so nervous about games is simply a fear of the unknown and our general absence of familiarity with that world. It’s a super sharp observation and one that I think also applies to the lack of control parents (myself included) are feeling about not being able to fully monitor/engage with/participate in screen time of all sorts with their kids right now. Media scholars like Mimi Ito have been saying for some time that the key to healthy screen time is not really about setting time limits on it but about building parents’ capacity to be good digital mentors. That is, screen time is better when it’s something parents can enjoy with their kids, talk to their kids about, or connect to other learning opportunities.
But as parents try to do their own jobs and manage remote learning, sometimes tending to multiple children of varying ages, it’s very hard to be present and engaged with all screen time. The truth is, sometimes I need Daniel Tiger to babysit my kid while I take an important call, and I may or may not have a meaningful conversation about it at the dinner table later on. Of course, digital mentorship is still an important goal, but I also think it’s essential to be realistic about the fact that some of the scenarios in which we’re utilizing screen time are exclusively about triage.
Your suggestion, Jessica, about peer mentorship, is a good one here. Working parents have minimal bandwidth, and I also see that it’s a struggle for Wesley’s teacher to captivate a group of between twenty and twenty-five first graders on Google Meet when the small group options are limited and there is pressure to get through as much instruction as possible during the synchronous teaching periods. Having kids serve as experts during in-class instruction seems like a great way to bridge learners’ own interests and affinities with the need to foster community during remote learning. There’s a lot of untapped potential there, and it wouldn’t necessarily have to come exclusively from the kids; I’m thinking particularly of a permanent aid, Mr. Andrew, who helps with learning and classwork for one of my son’s classmates. He was there before COVID-19, and he’s a fixture now on Zoom, and I know from talking to him that he has an encyclopedic knowledge of Pokémon!
The idea of leveraging peer expertise also underscores something that’s easy to forget: we and our kids are not defined by this pandemic. I look forward to the day when we can all fully pursue our passions again and when my kids can play online and in-person with their friends. I feel this way especially when I think about Helen, our three-year-old, who loves making mud pies in the backyard and watercoloring and dancing. She happens to be plugged into the iPad on the floor right now, watching Avatar: The Last Airbender for the millionth time; but unlike my son, screen time is much less of a remedy for her in these tough times. While we’re doing our best by signing her up for Outschool circle times (shout out to Ms. Libby!) and downloading asynchronous preschool art curriculum, it’s no substitute for her friends and the playground and the Pinterest-worthy teacher activities to which she’s accustomed. For her, no amount of screen time can set things straight.
What I hope the most is that, after all this is over, and we do go back to a world where close human interaction is part of our everyday lives again, we won’t lose what we’ve learned during this time. As a parent, I don’t want to forget how I’ve given myself permission to relax on my screen time rules and about all the cool things my kids have learned because of it. While it’s been a process, I also see the innovation by so many teachers out there, who have had to learn to adapt at lightning speed. I hope we remember what’s possible when it comes to learning online and that we hold our school and district leaders accountable when it comes to making sure these technological and pedagogical gains aren’t lost to the annals of history. We can’t just go back to the way things were when everyone returns to the classroom, nor should we. Let’s always remember both the creativity and struggle of parenting, teaching, and learning during this time. If we do, I believe we’ll change education for the better.
It’s been such a pleasure thinking and writing with you, Jessica! I hope we can do it again some time. Solidarity!
Jessie Early: Liana, I love what you say above about the way we, as working parents, are, at times, using screen time for our kids as a form of triage. This is the truth. I don’t know a single parent, working or otherwise, who isn’t performing some form of triage right now. As overly occupied parents, we put so much pressure on ourselves to do better than we are. I know I’m always battling an idealized vision of a no-screen childhood for my kids. However, part of being in the world today is learning to use, learn from, and regulate screens. Wouldn't it be easier if we stopped fighting unrealistic visions of simplicity and gave ourselves permission to do our best right now, whatever that may be (#goals)? Perhaps this time will bring about change in the way we all think about screen time and the many unfolding ways it can be used as a rich and transformative endeavor when embedded carefully and observantly into teaching, learning, and living.
When I step back to reflect on this shared conversation between two working moms during this pandemic, what stands out most is the way our experiences highlight forms of privilege that so many are not experiencing. As we describe our kids playing on their Xboxes and Ipads, I know there are so many kids living without reliable or any internet access. Many teachers are spending most of their days teaching online struggling with basic internet connectivity issues for their students. A fourth-grade teacher-friend shared with me last week a typical day in her teaching life: She begins by giving her students a mini lesson and instructions, then half the students will start working and the other will drop off the screen after losing internet connectivity. The students who lost connectivity will slowly log on again, and then my friend will repeat the directions she started with and new students will drop off the screen again. This is her reality teaching right now. All day. Every day.
As Liana and I exchange graphic novel suggestions for our children in this blog, I know many kids do not have access to books with public and school libraries closed. I also know many are choosing to leave their children at home alone to do online school so they may go to work to earn a living. Parents and caregivers are making choices no one should have to make right now. We are all compromising or being compromised and we are all enacting forms of triage, but some are having to do so in ways that will be more lasting and scarring than others. If kids are cared for and loved and safe and spend too much time on their screens right now, they are more than lucky.
My hope is this time highlights the ways our society has set children up again and again to succeed and others to fail, not because of ability, intelligence, willingness, or commitment, but because of zip code, skin color, and economic status. I hope this time will bring real change to the way our society values, support, and attends to children, teachers, schools, and families from all walks of life. As you, Liana, so brilliantly write above, “We can’t just go back to the way things were when everyone returns to the classroom, nor should we.”
Jessica Early, Professor of English at Arizona State University, is a scholar of English education and secondary literacy. She is the director of English Education and the Central Arizona Writing Project, a local site of the National Writing Project, at ASU. She began her career in the field of education as a high school English language arts teacher.
Jessica Early, Professor of English at Arizona State University, is a scholar of English education and secondary literacy. She is the director of English Education and the Central Arizona Writing Project, a local site of the National Writing Project, at ASU. She began her career in the field of education as a high school English language arts teacher.
Liana Gamber-Thompson is Digital Project and Operations Manager at EdSurge, an award-winning education news organization that reports on the people, ideas and technologies that shape the future of learning. EdSurge is now part of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Previously, Liana was a researcher on youth and politics at USC, Community Manager at Connected Camps, and Program Associate at the National Writing Project. She is co-author of By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activism and holds a Ph.D. in Sociology.
John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell — March
