Like so many of us, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, English teacher Alisha East had grown fed up with staring at a screen - and was beginning to suspect that her pupils might feel the same.
Even before Covid, her school was relying heavily on technology in teaching and learning; each pupil had a device to use in lessons, and a PowerPoint presentation accompanied every lesson.
During the pandemic, this reliance only grew.
So, when the school - an international secondary in Dubai - announced there would be a “device-free” teaching and learning week in December, East was surprised but thrilled.
“The leadership decided we needed a break from technology after so much time spent teaching and learning virtually,” she says.
The switch, however, was not easy. The ban was total: both teachers and students relied solely on paper, pens and whiteboards. This represented a huge change.
“Usually, we are expected to have a device on us at all times,” East explains. “Even in physical lessons, students’ eyes were glued to screens.
Taking a break from edtech
In a normal week, for example, East would project a presentation on to the board, and ask students to follow along on their own screens. Then, perhaps a poem would be presented, alongside a video of the author reading it aloud. Students would then type up the context and themes, before moving to the next task.
However, in the device-free week, East had to find new approaches. For example, she tried setting the scene by getting students to sit with their eyes closed or heads on the desks, while she read a poem aloud to them, and asked them to picture the storm that was being described.
Before going tech-free, voice notes had also become a regular feature in her lessons; East says she would often ask students to analyse a section of text, record their thoughts and upload the recordings on to Padlet, a virtual interactive bulletin board. She would then ask students to listen to one another’s uploads.
In the device-free week, however, this was turned into a circle-time activity. East encouraged students to take notes as they listened to each other’s analysis.
These swaps are simple enough. But did the week actually have a positive impact on teaching and learning?
Definitely, says East - during the week, she saw improvements in the quality of class discussion, and in students’ attention spans.
Without the screens, she found that students were more focused on each other and on her. It was a calmer classroom, and students were able to concentrate for longer, she says, as they weren’t distracted by other tabs open on a screen.
“Constantly being distracted by pop-ups on a device, or having multiple tabs open, is so distracting for children, and this stripped-back approach really increased their focus,” she says.
Their independence increased, too: instead of messing around on their devices once they’d finished a piece of work, students were encouraged to collect another physical worksheet that would push them further.
East believes that there could also be benefits for students’ exam performance. Many students hadn’t used pen and paper for long periods of time prior to the device-free week, and getting back into the habit of physically writing was invaluable for them - and good practice for having to write for hours in timed conditions.
Teachers, meanwhile, were able to pick up any issues with handwriting that had occurred in the past couple of years, specifically around the forming of letters. And there were other benefits for staff, too.
“Some teachers were far too reliant on devices, and on PowerPoint. Getting rid of them for a week meant they had to think outside of the box, rather than just sit there clicking a button for the next slide,” East says.
“Some were really anxious about it, but it was almost like an epiphany for them. You can be so much more agile, responsive and spontaneous without technology reminding you to press ahead.”
As well as helping staff to plan more creatively, the device-free week also resulted in a drop in staff workload. Technology is often seen as a time-saver, but East says that it can take up to an hour to prepare a PowerPoint presentation for an hour-long lesson - and when you have 26 lessons a week, that’s a huge chunk of time.
Planning for lessons without technology can be much quicker, East insists. For these benefits to truly be felt, device-free teaching would have to become a regular occurrence, though.
“If schools implemented a device-free day or device-free week once a month, the reduced workload would help to retain teachers,” she argues.
How to introduce a device-free week
So how would a school go about introducing a device-free week? The key is preparation, says East: for teachers, pupils and parents.
For teachers, it shouldn’t be a week that they become anxious about, she says. They need to receive CPD around planning and delivering lessons without technology. This can be as simple as setting a department team a 15-minute challenge to plan a tech-free lesson on a given topic, before pulling everyone back together to discuss it.
“It can be daunting if you’ve never taught device-free before, and teachers can end up wasting teaching and learning time because they are panicking,” East explains. “There needs to be training for ones who are less confident.”
When it comes to students, while they need less preparation, they should still be trained in the different classroom habits needed when there is no technology, East says: finding another worksheet, for example, or presenting their own work without the assistance of a device.
It’s important to inform parents of what you’re doing, too. “Often, schools have these high-tech lessons because they think that’s what parents want to see. It’s important you tell parents about the purpose of [going tech-free], and why it’s important for children to have a break. They may even introduce it at home, too, during that week,” says East.
She has now moved on from this school, but remains convinced of the benefits of device-free teaching and learning, and is determined to take those with her into her next teaching role. But what about your school - could it be time for you to pull the plug, too?
