This week we got to experience what an EdCamp might look like in the professional world of teaching. Everyone got handed a large sticky note and we were asked to write what we are interested in talking about in education. I wrote down “Nutrition.” Then, we were asked to stick our sticky notes on a wall. We were given three stickers and got asked to put our stickers on the notes that most interested us. I placed mine on a few different ones, of which I can’t remember right now. Anyways, the six notepads that had the most stickers on them got chosen. (Mine didn’t).

Screen time got chosen, which was a topic that I placed one of my stickers on, so I followed a group of my peers over to a nearby table and we started discussing the issue of screen time in classrooms. To be honest, I expected someone that was knowledgeable on the topic to give us tips and tricks, and I think a few others did too, so we were a little awkward at first. However, I found that soon enough we were comfortable discussing the topic amongst ourselves. I enjoyed talking about it so much that I didn’t even move on to other groups! It was all I could talk about. And I was excited when others joined our group as well to listen to us talk about screen time and its pros and cons.

There were inputs and opinions of the right or wrong way to do things. No screen time at all? Two minutes of screen time every 20 minutes? Is it a part of life now? Are we addicted? I found myself not being able to let the topic go. Not only am I addicted to screens… I’m addicted to talking about screens! According to this article, people should only be spending 2 hours on the screen per day. I think that’s a lot. Growing up, I think I spent 2 hours per week on the screen. I was more interested in the forest and the park and playing with friends outside. This finding worried me so much that I downloaded an app called OffScreen that let’s me know when I am getting close to 2 hours per day and tracks how much time I am spending on my phone and HOLY CRAP I SPEND WAY TOO MUCH TIME ON MY PHONE 🙁 I find myself scrolling on social media way more than I thought! Turns out I am getting uncontrollably sucked in to Facebook and Instagram. That is so sad.

This is what the OffScreen logo looks like if you’d like to try the app out yourself:

I remembered at my daycare the children weren’t aloud their phones. Occasionally they could take pictures on their own phones if they had them, but for the most part phones weren’t aloud. We did however have a Wii or computer for them to use to play kid friendly games on. They could only have 20 minutes of screen time per day though. But it wasn’t a huge issue. For the most part, the children were fine with their 20 minutes of screen time and found other things to play with and entertained each other quite easily. Some children didn’t even like being on the screen for 20 minutes long. I do remember a couple children lived for the screen though. They would race to get their name first on the computer/wii list, and beg to have another turn. I worried about those ones.

Anyways, the EdCamp was a nice idea, and I think I would go to more groups next time to talk about different topics.