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It’s that time of year again! Whether you’re rolling out technology, preparing digital lessons or collaborating with teammates, our back-to-school guide has something for you. So what should you do to prepare for back to school 2024? This guide covers topics that are making the news and impacting today’s educators and learners. Get tips for keeping learners focused and safe, and making teaching easier this school year.
Many schools and districts are currently implementing social media and cellphone bans to mitigate learning distractions and online safety issues. This is happening in large U.S. districts like LAUSD, across U.S. states and Canadian provinces such as Indiana and Alberta, and in countries like New Zealand.
The issue is making its way into U.S. politics, too. Education Week reported that Senators Tim Kaine (D) and Tom Cotton (R) filed a bipartisan bill in November of 2023 “that would require a federal study on how cell phone use in schools is affecting students’ academic performance and mental health.”
While banning social media and cell phones is a first step to a safer and more focused learning environment, not everyone agrees that it’s the ultimate solution.
In another report, Education Week noted, “Students need the discipline to avoid social media when they get into higher education or jobs. Learning how to cope with its distractions and developing the ability to distinguish fake news from the truth are skills schools should focus on now so students are equipped to deal with it as adults.”
One way to prepare for back to school is with a classroom management solution. Hāpara offers a classroom management solution that helps teachers guide learners through digital citizenship and helps schools provide online safety and mental health support.
Many of you use Hāpara Highlights, our Chrome browser monitoring software that gives teachers visibility into what learners are doing online during instructional time. Learners are still building digital citizenship and executive functioning skills, and it’s not always easy for them to stay away from distracting websites such as social media.
They need help practicing these skills, and Highlights makes it easy for teachers to set up browsing parameters and steer learners away from social media. Over time, teachers can give learners more browsing independence once they’re ready to make responsible decisions on their own.
Highlights allows teachers to personalize learners’ browsing experiences. Not all learners have the same level of digital citizenship and executive functioning skills or the same relationship to social media. With just a couple of clicks, teachers can create a personalized online learning environment that fits a learner’s needs.
We’re hearing from many of you that you’re excited about this new feature! Teachers can now block a website in the moment during learning if it becomes a distraction for a student. Because Highlights gives teachers visibility into what learners are doing online, they can see whether or not learners across the class are focused. If a learner is on a social media site instead of their learning activity, the teacher can block it for a specified amount of time.
The teacher also has the option of closing it and sending the learner a reason for closing the tab. In this case, the learner may have more advanced digital citizenship skills but need a reminder about staying focused.
Highlights also allows teachers to communicate with learners to give digital citizenship feedback. One way to do this is through the “Announce” button, which was previously called “Message.”
They can use the Announce button to send the class, a group or a learner a message. For example, a teacher may have noticed that the class has improved their focus from last week. The teacher can then use the Announce button to send positive feedback.
The “Guide browsing” feature in Highlights allows teachers to set up a Focus Session or a Filter Session to give learners browsing parameters.
A Focus Session means that learners can only visit certain URLs. A teacher can set up this type of browsing session for a learner, a group or the class.
A Filter Session, on the other hand, blocks learners from visiting certain URLs. That means teachers can enter a social media URL or another distracting website, and during the Filter Session, learners can’t visit it. This type of session can also be set up for a learner, a group or the class.
As Education Week pointed out, learners need to gain discipline to stay off of social media, and instead, focus on the task at hand. Not only do they need this skill in school, but it will help them be successful in a future career.
Hāpara Card Talks offers a set of real-world conversation starters, including prompts about social media. It’s a great way for learners to reflect about their relationship with social media, the information on the internet, their use of devices and more.
How do you feel about artificial intelligence, or AI? Whether you like it or not, AI is here and will be embedded into many aspects of our lives, including K-12 education. AI can’t replace humans; it can’t replace educators. There’s a science to teaching, but it also requires emotional intelligence to support learners.
What AI can do is handle tasks that help educators be more efficient. It frees up your time so you can spend more time on what’s most important, such as giving learners personalized feedback and building positive relationships in the classroom. This back-to-school guide on AI will make instructional planning a bit easier.
It’s important to support all learning needs in the classroom, but it takes time for educators to create different versions of texts, prompts and media formats. AI can save educators a lot of time by doing this for you. An AI chatbot such as Gemini, Bard or Chat GPT can create texts for different reading levels or create prompt ideas. There are also tools like Speechki and Pictory that turn text into audio or video for learners who need to access content in different formats.
Educators can then share this personalized content with individual learners or groups. Hāpara Teacher Dashboard allows educators to quickly share a Google file with a learner or group. Highlights, on the other hand, allows educators to share a link that opens directly onto a learner’s or group’s device.
Educators can also add personalized content or an AI app like SchoolAI into Hāpara Workspace. They can share different versions of resources or activities with student groups, and learners will only see the content that applies to them.
To learn more tips about differentiating instruction and personalizing learning content, check out Lindy Hockenbary’s article Simplified personalized learning with AI.
To learn more tips and ideas around AI and education, check out Lisa Monthie’s Hipi-Palooza session (available year-round): Generative AI and Hāpara.
To learn more about helping learners interact safely with AI, check out Lindy’s webinar: AI in education: Empowering learners to use AI responsibly.
When Education Week reported on school social media bans, they spoke to learners who said more needs to be done at school to help them with mental health challenges. The teens emphasized that they need safe school spaces to speak about mental health. Hāpara has tools that can help schools and educators have these important conversations and prepare for back to school.
Kids and teens need our help practicing digital wellness, including when to use technology and how to communicate with others online. To learn more about helping learners develop a positive relationship with technology with Hāpara tools, check out Laurie Guyon’s webinar: Navigating the digital landscape by fostering classroom digital wellness.
We also offer free Workspaces focused on teaching the digital citizenship elements. Share these with your team or find resources for the grade level you teach.
What do kids need for back to school? They need a way to organize all of their learning content. As they learn digitally, they collect Google files, class notifications, assignments and assessments. It can be difficult for a lot of learners to stay on top of due dates and find files.
Hāpara Student Dashboard is an online student planner that brings together all learning content into one digital dashboard. Learners can easily see which assignments have upcoming due dates, those that are overdue and those without due dates. They can also access their Google files with just a couple clicks and see all of their class notifications.
Student Dashboard also gives learners options for how they want to view their learning content and manage it, supporting learner agency.
If you’d like to explore what learners see on Student Dashboard, check out our one-hour Learning Bytes course. You can also share this article with your learners.
