Not a day goes by that I don’t have a conversation with my own kids about screens: No screen time tonight. Close the laptop. Please close the laptop. Five more minutes and it’s off. No, you can’t get a phone. These phrases pour out of my mouth with the same ease as an I love you or a sleep tight, goodnight, or a more honest – please hurry up. 

Screen time and all that comes with it is an incessant struggle for modern day parents. At The Village School, these kinds of questions land on our desk daily: “Just how much screen time will my child have?” “How much time are the kids on their laptops?” “Do you have built-in screen breaks during the day?” “Are the kids just on their computers the whole day?” 

Wonderings around our school’s technology policy have always come up, but over the  past several months we’ve noticed an exponential increase. This newfound awareness over screen time might have something to do with Jonathan Haidt’s latest book, The Anxious Generation and the passionate following that has ensued since its release. Inspiring parents and policy-makers alike, the book has resulted in 17 states including Virginia passing school cell phone bans, and Australia passing legislation restricting access to social media for children under the age of 16. 

Haidt’s book was a Parent Book Club pick last year and our Guide Team read several excerpts that validated and inspired some of our learning design regarding healthy tech boundaries. As a learner-centered school many assume we rely on technology more than a more traditional, teacher-centered environment. If there is no “teacher” then the kids must be relying on their tech to learn…right? 

When it comes to our approach to technology use we are guided by the same throughlines that shape all parts of our school: research-based, developmental appropriateness, and thoughtful design. Despite perception, our learners spend the majority of their time at school away from the screen, and the time they do have tech access is intentional. 

This example schedule is a helpful gauge of the screen and screen free time our learners have. Out of the 35 hour school week, learners in our elementary and middle school have access to their computers for 9 hours, which makes up 25% of their time at school. Early childhood learners have even less, technology only being an option for 1 hour for older learners who have mastered either reading or math curriculum and are preparing to transition to the next studio.

Lunch, outdoor play, and afternoons at the park are strictly tech-free. This is a boundary many Guides new to TVS are surprised they have to enforce – as learners will often insist on bringing their laptops to lunch or to the playground to continue their Khan minutes or Lexia streaks. Telling a young person “no, you can’t do any math right now” feels awkward at first, however our commitment to screen-free, unstructured play is an essential part of our learning design.

There are two specific times during our schedule where learners have access to their computers: Morning Work and Project Time. During Morning Work learners might use their computers to achieve some of their individual badge goals such as reading fluency (Lexia) and math (Khan Academy). Laptops are also necessary for some of their other individual goals such as Typing Club or certain aspects of their reading and writing curriculum. There are also individual badge goals that are intentionally designed to avoid the use of technology such as reading and practicing fact fluency. The Discovery Studio writing curriculum requires learners to complete the majority of their writing by hand, with the exception of the final draft. 

Each studio also abides by a Technology Contract that acts as safety guardrails supporting learners in healthy tech habits. 

When a learner breaks the tech contract, they lose the privilege of using technology in the studio for a week. Breaking the contract and facing the consequences is something the Guide Team considers an important rite of passage for a self-directed learner developing a growth mindset. In fact, we expect this to happen at least once during the course of a learner’s time at TVS. When this occurs, some parents are concerned about their child’s ability to work on goals and complete work without access to their laptops. Guides and learners know this is not the case: there are many tech-free options, not to mention the important learning experience of dealing with an inconvenience. 
The screen time debate is certainly an inconvenience for me as a parent – but I know well enough that it’s not going to disappear anytime soon. Just like the TVS approach, I believe technology is an important tool that my own kids (and myself, too) need to learn how to learn with and learn how to learn without. At TVS our learner-centered approach means school is less about learning with technology and more about learning about ourselves through a mindful approach with or without a screen.

If you’ve read something recently about how AI is going to transform education as we know it, you’re not alone. If you’re like me, you ignored the click bait for a few months, overwhelmed by the thought of trying to deeply understand yet another seemingly “unprecedented” story of our times. Then, if you’re also like me, after several months of playing ostrich, you decided to finally click and begin the process of understanding just how AI was going to change your life. 

After reading article after article, watching an Oprah special, scrolling my LinkedIn feed for fodder, and even reading a book, I have my own hot take on AI in education – that starts with rejecting the premise. Yes, AI has the potential to radically change education as most of us know it. However, if AI has the power to drastically change education, this says more about the current state of education than the power of AI. Despite the rapid advancement of technology over the past 100 years, schools as we know it still look the same: rows of desks, rote memorization, quizzes, tests, and compliance valued over creativity. The important question to consider isn’t how AI will transform schools, but how we should be rethinking the very concept of school itself.

At The Village School, AI is embedded in our learning design because it is a new and useful tool. As new technology emerges, part of our learning model is to learn to learn about them. AI is not fundamentally changing our TVS learning design because we are focused on the act of learning, skill development, and character education – we aren’t in the business of checking boxes. If we were a school that cared more about what our learners know – then for sure, AI would radically change our approach. The good news is that we’re not. One of our school community’s core beliefs is that we care more about who a learner becomes than what they know. We also believe that young people can be trusted to learn from their own experiences. 

While many schools are frantically searching for ways to keep AI out of their classrooms, this session we put AI into the hands of our middle schoolers. Their deep dive into the world of AI included: creating their own chatbots, considering how using AI aligns with their core values, and determining how AI should or should not be used for their learning. The lessons were inspired by resources from Common Sense Media, WISSIT, and our own team of educators.

Middle schoolers spent time understanding what AI is, how it’s trained, who’s behind the scenes, how AI is or isn’t biased, how AI algorithms can get to know you (really well!), and most importantly, how AI should or should not be used, if at all, in school. They even debated the question: Is AI the future of education – or not? 

This session’s focus on AI won’t be the last time learners at The Village School use, consider, and question AI. As a school, we will continue to explore the possibilities and limits of AI and any other relevant technology that emerges during this “unprecedented” time. And, rather than hiding from it in fear of change, we will continue to intentionally run towards it with curiosity, embracing the unknown and transforming it into opportunities for growth. 

I’m glad I finally decided to get my head out of the sand, learn as much as I could, and make my own decision about AI and the future of education. I learned a lot, had some fascinating conversations with other educators, with learners, and with a few AI chatbots themselves. (One even helped me fine tune the title of this piece – thanks, Khanmigo!) Most importantly, my deep dive reinforced my belief in the learning model at The Village School. Even AI can’t disrupt the power of project-based, character-driven, authentic learning experiences.