District Responds to Parents Concerns About Digital vs. Paper Learning Materials

We live in a fast paced world where technology seems to be evolving faster than we can adapt to it. Parents and educators alike are continuously learning how to deal with, and stay ahead of things like new social media apps, artificial intelligence, cyberbullying, and other egregious cybercrimes such as sextortion. In the same breath, they are also held responsible for teaching children how to navigate and be successful in the digital world and how to be responsible digital citizens. In order to compete on an international stage, at the very least, young adults are expected to know how to perform tasks such as write, edit, and design printed documents, to create multimedia presentations, and to create spreadsheets and databases, charts, graphs, and so much more.

The pressure on both parents and educators to balance all of this in a healthy and constructive manner can feel overwhelming. Add to that an influx of information highlighting the detrimental effects of too much screen time on developing brains, and it is easy to understand why one concerned Scarsdale parent recently created a petition advocating for more options when it comes to digital versus paper-based learning.

The petition advocates to:
…give all parents and students the right to openly choose how students learn for all levels in the Scarsdale Public Schools system from one of these options. (Note: This is NOT a petition to eliminate e-learning or change academic curriculum currently in use).
1) Paper-based learning - (Printed paper assignments supplied by the Scarsdale Public Schools).
2) e-learning - (Use of current Scarsdale Public Schools supplied individual electronic devices).
3) Hybrid: Paper-based learning and e-learning - (Balanced amount of usage for both at the discretion of the parents and student).

We reached out to Dr. Edgar McIntosh, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, to see if the district had a response to this petition and to the 650+ concerned parents who signed it. Some might find reassurance that our administration as a whole, takes these concerns (and all aspects of digital well-being) very seriously. Dr. McIntosh works closely with Jeannie Crowly, Director of Technology and Innovation and Chief Information and Data Protection Officer who provided this statement:

"It is understandable that our community is in the process of recalibrating our digital use given our recent experiences with remote learning and our overdependence on technology during that time. While we have extensive external research to inform our conversation, we currently don't have concrete internal data about Scarsdale students' screen time and the nature of that screen time (both at home and in school). We will be collaborating with PTC Leadership, the PTC technology committee as well as Scarsdale faculty on a number of data collection initiatives to answer technology questions and make recommendations to our community. Through this partnership, we will collect data, through community surveys and screen time apps, and use that data as an anchor for our conversations moving forward. This process, using community feedback to inform our data collection methods, ensures our interventions and actions are informed by actionable data. We look forward to sharing our findings and insight into our digital use with the Scarsdale school community in the future."

In addition to supplying parents with a transparent process and with the opportunity for community members to provide feedback via multiple methods, the district also spent the 2021-2022 school year creating a thoughtful and thorough plan for technology. Per Part 100.12 of Commissioner’s Regulations, all New York State public school districts are required to develop and maintain instructional technology plans and submit new plans every three years. In another effort to provide full transparency, the district developed a website so all stakeholders had access to information and details about the planning process. Those interested, can read the new Scarsdale Technology Plan in its entirety here. Even more details on items like the Scarsdale Schools Technology Responsible Use Policy or on the District’s Social Media Policy can be found on the District’s website.

While the new Technology Plan may not be perfect and certainly won’t ease every parent’s concerns, some may take solace in knowing the district seems to be going to great lengths to provide a thoughtful approach to the use of technology in the classrooms and to take into consideration the very valid concerns of the parent body.