More Movement, Less Media in the Classroom

A Case for Low-Media Education

By Zoe Wilcox

More Movement, Less Media in the Classroom

As I work outreach booths across Santa Fe to promote our Waldorf-inspired charter school, Sun Mountain Community School, and our low-media approach to education, parents repeatedly lean toward me and disclose, “My kindergartener is staring at a computer all day.” Something in our parenting and our teachers’ intuition tells us this doesn’t feel right.

As a parent of a 17-year-old, I have lost the war against limiting media, but I fought a good fight. As a trained Waldorf teacher, I know all the reasons why that effort is important. A 2018 Kaiser Family Foundation study found that 8–18 year olds in the U.S. spend 7.5 hours per day using media, not including use in the classroom. The study reported that almost half of all heavy media users (47%) versus fewer than one quarter of light media users (23%) said they earned mostly C’s or lower. Furthermore, over-exposure to electronic media hampers the development of the child’s imagination, memory, and overall well-being. Research indicates children use less mental effort processing information from electronic media than they do from print. Children who experience substantial doses of electronic media may never learn to process information in the complex way that promotes creative academic achievement.

Today, parents and students face a new onslaught of media use in the child’s classroom. The temporary shift to remote learning during COVID could condition us to permanently shift our acceptance of digital learning. Now that most students have their own tablets at school, computer use in the classroom is increasing dramatically. Studies show elementary school students are learning on computers for an hour or more a day (this ranges widely from teacher to teacher and does not include awarded computer games for tasks accomplished). In a survey of technology use in schools, 70% of surveyed teachers said that they use technology to a moderate or large extent for work normally done in classrooms, though only about a third said that it helped students to become more independent and self-directed.

Sun Mountain Community School is not anti-technology. It is important to acknowledge the benefits of technology in a classroom. Researchers Maya Escueta and her team extensively reviewed research on education technology and found positive findings including a slight uptick in testing scores for seventh-grade math students in Maine who used an online homework tool for less than 10 minutes a night, three-four nights a week. They also explained that in the classroom, computer programs may help teachers when confronted with a wide range of student ability, suggesting great benefits to students with IEPs, both gifted and special ed students. They also showed computer programs could successfully supplement world language instruction.

However, with all the research of the negative effects of media use, schools can support students and parents by providing treasured time away from screens and be models for non-media use habits. Educators are beginning to respond to the swing toward more and more use of computers in the classroom by promoting “direct instruction.” This, of course, was once the only option but now that we have contrast, we see that direct instruction helps develop students’ vocabulary, their listening skills, and their social skills.

The value of technology is essential today, and schools should use it for these special times when evidence shows its benefit.  However, at no point can computers take the place of the teacher, especially if we are teaching children not only the 3 R’s but how to be a whole human being. As in every other aspect of this demanding job, the teacher models for the students appropriate use of media – using their cell phone for emergency use only in the classroom, explaining why they are diverting their attention to look at their phone before they habitually do so, and navigating the web and social media in ethical and thoughtful ways. Relationships remain at the foundation of learning, with or without technology.

Frequent Physical Activity and Time Outdoors

We at Sun Mountain Community School believe students not only learn best when they engage in frequent physical activity, but that they actually learn through movement. Scientific understanding of how the brain influences the body is shedding light on the role movement plays in learning and memory. Incorporating movement has a significant impact on what students remember as compared to taking in concepts just auditorily or visually. In Waldorf education, for example, we use movement as a teaching tool throughout our curriculum. Students skip to a poem they are memorizing, jump rope to their multiplication tables, spell to the rhythm of walking or jumping, learn grammar by walking a prose, pausing during the commas, stopping at the periods and jumping at the exclamation mark.

A SEER study (Oksana, B., 2003) determined that students participating in an environmental education curriculum increased academic performance. The study compared eight paired sets of student classes, some with an integrated outdoor program, and some without. They came from different, neighboring schools with closely matched demographics and socioeconomic characteristics. Two classes were even in the same school. The authors compared standardized testing scores in reading, writing, math, science, social studies attendance. The frequency that students with an outdoor education program did better was:

• 76% in Language Arts
• 63% in Math
• 64% in Science
• 73% in Social Studies
• 77% in attendance for taking assessments

Researchers collected data from site visits, teacher surveys, and interviews. Outdoor education students showed fewer discipline problems, increased enthusiasm for learning, and greater pride in their accomplishments.

The evidence that outdoor education helps students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is particularly strong. The world’s increasing dependence on technology simultaneously increases time indoors, sitting at desks, and focusing on tasks which have no physical outlet. Between 2003 and 2017, ADHD diagnoses in children in the United States have nearly doubled, with stimulant medication increased by 50% (Piperetal, 2018). These studies suggest that time spent in green space (such as fields, parks or other natural spaces where nature dominates over built structures) can aid in reducing hallmark ADHD symptoms such as impulsivity and inattention, both in short and long-term. American Journal of Public Health (Kuo et al, 2004) found that these benefits applied to children regardless of age, gender, income, geographic location, and diagnosis (inattentive, hyperac combined). The reduction in inattention and impulsivity symptoms have been demonstrated various settings and activities, such as walking, in play spaces, and during after school an activities.

While computers are valuable tools and can be used to promote learning in schools, nothing can replace a teacher or experiencing the world for whole-life learning. Deep, holistic education is learned through human connections, the connection with our own bodies, and our connection to the world.

Zoe Wilcox is a Waldorf educator for 13 years and a founding member of the Sun Mountain Community School, a K-8th grade charter school in Santa Fe. She is now serving as the interim head of school. Learn more about the program at sunmountaincommunityschool.org.