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00:00:02

[Anna]

Right, first of all I want to say thank you Will, thank you Macmillan for having me again, but most of all thank you to all the teachers because I see for some people it's early in the day, late in the day, and I know that this time of year is quite busy as well, so it's really nice to see that you've taken time to come and join this beautiful event for teenagers. I hope you enjoyed Lorna's talk, Claire's talk, and I'm linking a little bit to what Claire talks about today. So I'm going to start directly with a question to you. If you've been in my sessions before you know that they're quite interactive, so I'm going to invite you to use the chat box and have a think. What word would you use to describe your teen learner's digital life? No wrong, no right, just your ideas.

00:00:53

I'm really curious what you're going to share with me. Messy, daunting, intense, chaotic, trendy, busy, busy, oh lovely, addictive, fast-paced, time-consuming, obsessive even, oh my goodness. Ratka is saying FOMO, that fear of missing out, right. Pressurising, Shackel, I don't know if I said it correctly, but skilful, lost, really interesting. I quite often ask teachers this question as well. I also ask people around me, teens, adults, how would you describe this? Because I think a lot of us adults and teachers actually lean towards saying things like addictive, exhausting, pressurised, overwhelming. So it seems like we're very much aware of what's going on is quite different to what we might have experienced when we were younger. And I'm probably a bit like a dinosaur because I think when I grew up we didn't even have mobile phones.

00:01:57

So in that way it's very different if you compare it. So okay, keep that thought in mind, we'll get back to that later. So what I want to do in this session is have a look at our audience and what is so special about teenage learners. Then we're going to have a look at social media and the benefits and the risks. I'm not against social media at all. I think what Claire was saying about you just scroll, scroll, scroll. Yep, I think I'm guilty of that myself as well. But we need to be aware of what risks there are as well because sometimes we need to help our teenage learners see those risks a little bit more. Then we're going to look at well-being, digital well-being and hopefully I can give you some ideas that you can bring back to your classroom to help or support your learners in being well in the digital world.

00:02:49

So I hope that sounds okay. We've got about, I don't know, 30 minutes. So let's get started. Good. So I'm going to ask you to complete this sentence for me in the chat box. What is so special about teen learners? Why are we looking so much at social media, AI? Why not so much with adults maybe? Because this is a topic I read a lot about. I don't know if you've read the paper recently. In Australia, they're banning Instagram, for example, for 16 and under. The 10th of December, people that are 16 years or younger can no longer have access to Instagram. So there's a lot going on. So what do you think is so special about teenage learners? Ah, lovely Aslan.

00:03:37

Hormonal changes. They aren't settled, Shirikova. Ah, Lenka, indeed. They aren't big children, but they're also not small adults, rightly so. They can be quite tricky, Joanna's saying. And as if they think differently, I think there's always that generation gap. But of course, you have a very valid point there. They're open to new things. They're overexcited, different opinions. Zoo, they're vulnerable. Lovely. They think we are the enemy. Well, I think lots of things in that chat box are probably like a representation of what we all feel working or parenting teenagers. So indeed, they are going through a very unique developmental stage in life. As you all know, I don't have to tell you this, lots is changing in their body, but there's also a lot changing in their mind.

00:04:31

Yeah, there's a lot going on in the brain. The neurological changes we might not see, but they are happening. For once, something is happening in the brain that they call pruning, which means the connections between certain areas in the brain disappear purely because they're no longer interested in that area. The areas they're interested in, those connections become stronger. So this is when they very much know, I don't want to do that anymore. This is not what I want to become in the future. I don't want to work in mathematics. I don't want to be an English teacher. So they're developing that identity very much there. Also, when you look at the brain, and I always have to bring my brain, and Aslan, you make a very good point there. When you look at the brain, the prefrontal cortex, that front of the brain is still not fully developed. And as Aslan is saying, that's where we develop our planning, impulse control, decision making, our rationale thinking.

00:05:30

That is not fully developed till about mid-20s, late 20s. So their life is actually ruled by the emotions, and they come from that limbic system in the brain. So it feels good, we do it. It doesn't feel good. I don't want to do it. You might recognise that from your teenage learners. So that is going on in the brain, which means that the emotions are very intense. They respond quickly. They can be very unpredictable. But also it means they have less self-regulation. So when you have these devices, and as Claire said, there are all these algorithms, they keep scrolling maybe even more than us. Because we start to realise I should really do something else. This is not beneficial for me. They don't have those mechanisms in place yet. And as Lorna said as well, it's really developing those skills, empathy, social, emotional skills. They are still developing those skills as well. Normally, I would say to my students, the brain is under construction. That's it. That's absolutely normal. There's nothing wrong with you. This is just what is happening in your body. On top of that, of course, as you all know, as teachers, they're very much looking for their identity. Who am I? Who do I want to be?

00:06:45

To which group do I want to belong? So it's that whole process of the adult is becoming less important. Their peers are becoming more important. And they're very much looking for that peer validation. And when you go to Snapchat with those streaks, that becomes a bit of pressure because you have to correspond every day, right? But you want to belong to that tribe. So you're really looking at who you are, where do you belong? And as you already said in the chat box, they are much more vulnerable because of all these changes going on in their body, in their minds. So there's lots happening in their life. They're very sensitive to feedback, particularly negative feedback, and their self-esteem can vary quite a bit as well. Yeah. So one moment they're really happy.

00:07:32

The next moment you think, oh, my goodness, they cannot stand me as a teacher. That's just what's happening in their brains. Now, on top of that, we live in a very different time. Yeah. I didn't grow up with any of the things, but like Facebook, we know all these icons. I don't need to talk about that. They are very much exposed to the powerful attention-grabbing device with all these apps the whole day. As Claire already said, it's very easy to get sucked in and to end up doom scrolling because I think for teenagers, it's not that social media is part of their life. It is their life. It is real life. Their life is online. Their friendships, their connections, their emotions, their learning, it's all online.

00:08:22

And in this webinar, when I talk about all the data and all the numbers later, I'm really looking at social media. So I'm not looking at the internet. I'm not looking at WhatsApp. I'm really looking at these apps that have lots of likes and comments, video content that doesn't stop, notifications that beep at you, in-app messages, and very much that content is guided by the algorithms. We've got nothing to do with that, Mr. Google or whoever has. Yeah. So that is really what I want to look at with you, that social media. So good. Now, like I said before, I'm absolutely not against social media because I love it myself as well. And there are benefits, I think, as well of that social media use. So I don't know what you remember from Claire's webinar. Can you think of any benefits of social media use for your learners?

00:09:21

Anything that is really helpful? Because they need to develop these skills to get on in the world, and we cannot ignore that. They're sharing their experiences, study talk or study talk. Yes. Socialising, Michaela is saying, socialising online, right? Social learning to some extent in a different format than what we were used to. Great. Yeah, different point of views, Marco. They can really share and learn from other people what they think, what their life is like in China or in Thailand as compared to what they have in Greece. Matea, indeed, they're broadening the horizons. Connecting, Teresa, lovely to see you here. Yes, totally. The social connections and that exposure to other cultures. I think that is absolutely invaluable. When you look at research, and the research I'm going to show you comes from an American research project that was done in October 2024, 1,359 teenagers and parents were interviewed.

00:10:23

And I've picked this because they looked at social media in particular. And a lot of them indeed felt socially connected, much more. They were excited they could follow their interests. Because of following their interests, they felt there was personal growth. And also, as Claire said before, when we have that private posting, you can experiment with your identity. How do you want to come across, right? And you can actually build that community, and it really allows for creative expression. As you can see here, 74% of teens feel more connected by using social media. So that's a really positive thing.

00:11:06

What you see as well, the third point in that graph, they feel like they have people who support them through tough times, 52%. And this is really interesting, because these are the stats from 2024. I went back from 2022, and that was a lot higher. That was 67%. So something is changing in the awareness or in the use of social media, because that has dropped quite significantly with 15%. So good. What else have we got? And of course, social media also gives that sense of autonomy. We're not hanging over teenagers at home to see what they post, how they spell, what they write. It allows for self-expression. And linguistically, I think that is a real opportunity. Because I know when my students post, they want to make sure it's spelled correctly.

00:11:59

They want to make sure that it looks all right. So they check online. They ask me how to say something if they make a video. So there are lots of positives there as well. They share their work as learners indeed. And that's lovely, right? They share parts of themselves which other people can learn from or enjoy, like origami, definitely. However, and we may be more aware of that than our learners, there are also some risks. So I don't know what sort of risks you see. I think you gave me some before already when you said it was overwhelming for teenagers that were obsessed with social media. So what sort of risks do you see for your teenagers? Addiction, McElroy is saying.

00:12:51

Yeah, it's a big word, but we actually do use that word. Loneliness. And this is really, Malika, very interesting because we're more connected. But there is actually more social isolation. Lack of sleep as well. Dangerous challenges to content. We have cybercrime. We have bullying indeed. And we have harmful content. We have privacy issues, misleading information, loads of those things. I'm not going to talk about that, but very much true. Yes. Yes. And that's fact of the perfect life, right? That pressure, that self-esteem is affected by that. So I think the biggest issue that we can see happening in the brain, as you know, I love my brain. So I'm going back to that. It's a dopamine reward loop. This generation, and particularly the gen alpha generation born in 2010 and later, they don't know any better than social media. They grew up with devices and social media. And they have a very different way of working with that.They are just, they look at it. It's pleasurable. It's enjoyable.

00:14:00

That creates that dopamine in your brain. You feel good. You look at something else and you don't know when to stop. Like what Claire was saying with the doggie videos. I love cats. When I see one video with cats, I go to the next one and the later. Yeah. So the pleasurable feeling that you get because of dopamine never gives them satisfaction. So it's really hard to stop. And the algorithms, they feed you what you want to see. So that's why we get all that doom scrolling. And indeed, because of that, we very easily get sleep deprivation. We get social deprivation, fragmented attention. I think that is a huge concern for us teachers. They are not used to focussing anymore. And just an interesting fact, when you look at this, notifications, the beeps, the buzzes, yeah, that is a real issue. Any idea how many messages teenagers get, the notifications, in 24 hours? Any guesses?

00:15:12

I was actually shocked when I found this out. I had to dig deep, but I found it somewhere. Well, Renata, luckily not millions, but they get on average, the American teenager, oh, you're all going in the right direction. It's not 2,000. It's about 197. So Andrew, well done. 197 in a day means that it's about eight messages an hour. Let's say every six or seven minutes, you get something. That doesn't help you focus. That doesn't help you learn. And I don't know what you're like, but I've got days that it's lying next to me that I check every five or six minutes because I have no idea what happened to my brain, but there should be a message coming in. So this is really, Joanna, overwhelming, and it really affects our attention span, which is a real issue for learning. So the overall well-being is affected of our teens. And that research, I'm going back to this American research for now to show you some of the effects, like the pressure they feel, how it affects their sleep. And this is self-reported.

00:16:15

They've asked teenagers to give, do you feel there is pressure? Do you feel it affects your sleep? So any idea of any percentages? I'm going to give you a couple of seconds to think before I show you the percentages, and then you can have a look if anything surprises you. Lilia, indeed, it's a permanent distractor, right? Sometimes I have to put my phone in the kitchen because it drives me nuts. I cannot focus. Tuning off notifications. I think that is the first thing that we really need to teach our students, or hopefully the parents do that with them, because you're not alone dealing with this, right? They've got parents and hopefully brothers and sisters, hopefully, they read about it. We've got the government in certain countries banning or putting phones in pouches. Good, let me go show you these numbers. So 31% feels pressure to post on social media. It's maybe not the highest of numbers, but feeling pressured is not something that teens should experience at that age. Academic pressure, social media pressure, body pressure, they have enough pressures in life.

00:17:26

And 45%, so that's nearly half of all teenagers, feel that the amount of sleep they get is affected. They take it to the bedroom, they scroll before they go to sleep. And this, I start this for you, problematic smartphone usage. This is also covering the internet, not just social media. This research was done in the UK on 657 teenagers. It's a very small project going on. King's College is doing this in London. It looks very small, but it's only about 657 people from April 2024. I reckon if they repeat that research this year with a larger population, it might be higher. And this is an interesting one as well. 25% of teenage girls feel that social media is hurting their mental health. When we look at boys, it was only 14%. And I'm not saying that boys are more resilient, but there is, of course, a lack of awareness could be. But also, there's a different level of development. Girls are mentally more reflective when they're 12 and 13, boys 14 and 15. So that sensitive age is a little bit different. But there is a quarter of the girls that are now saying, this is not healthy for me. And they actually spent more time on social media.

00:18:50

So 45% of teens are saying they spent too much. That is massively up from the year before. Let me check my numbers. That was 32% in 2022. So this shows, and this is amazing, that teens are becoming more aware of the fact that they're possibly spending too much time on social media, which is a positive, right? Because it's not a thing. But what does it do? It's not what it adds. I think what we need to look at is what it takes away from life. And that is that social interaction, that face-to-face interaction. So when you look at children before 2010, you could call them play-based children. They were playing in the playground as teenagers. They were going out, hanging out, having a Coca-Cola, ice cream, whatsoever. They were interacting. When you interact with another human being, you read their body language, you start to learn, oh, they feel like this.

00:19:50

You attune, you develop empathy, those social and emotional skills we develop in our childhood, right? The phone-based childhood people born after 2010, that Gen Alpha, they have a lot of social interaction, but it's often one-to-one and through a screen. So they're not developing so much of that social awareness. When is somebody upset? When are they happy? Because they're not really engaging physically with other people so much. So that social learning, which is typical for human beings, that social learning is impacted and that leads to more challenges in the classroom. So if you feel that your teenagers are completely different than 20 years ago, yeah, I think you have a valid point there, because they are not so used to socially connecting in class, face-to-face, right? So it all affects much more than just being online.

00:20:51

It affects their mental well-being, their emotional well-being, their social well-being. So when we talk about digital well-being, I don't know if that's the right term for me, because that means being well online, being safe, as we spoke about privacy, contents, that sort of things. I think we need to look at this more holistically and need to talk about being well in a digital world. And that doesn't mean they shouldn't use those devices. They need to learn how to use them in a wise way. But I think it's important that our students get given the tools by their parents, by us, to say I'm going to choose not to use this now. So really, how can we help them use it in a way that enhances their life and supports their well-being, instead of the phone leading my life, if you know what I mean. We want them to feel good and function well, and that means they don't always need that phone. Indeed, it's important, but we have to use it wisely, right?

00:21:53

So I think the first thing is awareness raising. How aware are you of your own habits when you use your phone? If you ask me how often do you check, I wouldn't know exactly. I need to go in and count that. So one of the things, of course, you can have this app on your phone that tells you about your screen time every day. I think that's really useful. But that might also be when you're reading a book or an article or something interesting on your phone. So one thing I've been doing with my learners is just to make them aware. I'd like you to predict in the pink boxes how much time you spend every day on these apps. And it's fascinating. They'll write down your predictions, 45 minutes, an hour and a half, whatever. On average, girls spend a bit more time, it seems, 5.4 hours on social media a day. Boys, about 4.8 hours. Again, that is in the American population. But then they come back next week and they have checked. And quite often, the actual hours are quite different. So this could be your first entry into how much time do we spend. They could interview each other.

00:23:04

They could collect data. Boys, girls, I don't know, smartphones, Samsung smartphones, Apple, whatever. Compare and contrast essay. Or they can make presentations. Why do you spend more time on Facebook or Snapchat versus X, for example. Yes, that is really, you can do so much with this. But it's teaching them not only the language, but it's also making them self-aware of their behaviour. Because to be honest, I'm sometimes surprised how many minutes have passed before I put my phone down. And I think we're all a little bit guilty of that. So maybe you want to use it for yourself too. I definitely am going to do this in the new year. The second thing I think is really important, and particularly as a primary school teacher, we always look very much at values. What kind of values are important for you in life? Now, I don't know if you want to give me a value that you think that's really important, that we live with this. For me, it's kindness.

00:24:05

That's a really important value. Maybe responsibility as well. Sympathy, Maria. Oh, I love that. Empathy, compassion. We're all going in that beautiful direction that empathy map is absolutely amazing from the design thinking. So good. We list them or we teach them depending on the level of language you learners have. You can teach values. You can give them a map and they can select four or five and then we can go back to their favourite apps and they can identify which values does that app actually enhance. So I use this app and that supports or makes these respect. For example, Teresa, this app really makes showing respect to someone easier. But we could also think of course, the downside, some of these apps maybe make those values that I have a little bit harder or worse. And then we get, of course, into cyberbullying. The whole discussion can come from that.

00:25:08

But I think the most important thing for us is really to discuss with our learners what could we do to stick to the values that we just decided are important to us while we use those apps. And this is I don't want to say prevent cyberbullying, but you can make students aware if kindness is important and respect is important. How can you say that you don't like what they're wearing in a nice, respectful way? Or maybe how can you say, OK, maybe I'm not going to say this because I'm responsible and I don't need to share that. So that's a really lovely activity. Lots of language here. And then I'm not going to show you this, but there's a beautiful tech talk which you might want to watch yourself first before you're going to watch it. I'm just going to see if I can give you the link in the chat box. And this particular person worked for Google and his talk is all about how a handful of people in a room control the minds of millions or billions every day. So it's really a good listening task. You don't need to do the whole tech talk. You can pick out little bits and get them to think about.

00:26:19

So what is the impact of those algorithms? We only get the echo chamber. We only get the news we want to hear. We only get the sort of feeds, cats or dogs that we want to see. And awareness raising of that, I think, is really, really the first stage in giving them those tools to take care of their own behaviour online. So that brings me to that second slot, which is really practising self-care. And of course, self-care with physically we want them to be away from their phone, leave their bodies, emotionally, socially, mentally, developmentally. But I'm going to stick with these apps first. And we have identified how much time we spent.

00:27:02

And it's too much, we feel. So what can we do? And one activity I really love is my change charts because I always love doing some art and creative stuff in my sessions. Get them to think about a digital habit they want to change. For me, that might well be taking my phone into the bedroom and just quickly looking at Instagram before I go to sleep. And that quickly turns into about 45 minutes and it's midnight again. Not very good for my sleep. Why is this important to you? And then we're going to explore how do you feel about this change? Are you willing to start it? Are you motivated? Because if it's a must, it's probably going to be difficult. Then we're going to think about what actions can we take to change this habit, to stop this habit, or to start a healthier habit. And I think the last one is really important as well. Accountability. Who or what can help you stick to this habit? And that could be putting your phone in the kitchen before you go to the bedroom so it's not near you. So little things like that.

00:28:06

We're giving them some tools to control that use. And if you say this is too language heavy, they can talk about it in the language they have and they can draw this process for you. Yeah, so the example you have here, I want to use Zoom less because it is on the screen. It gives me a headache. How do I feel about it? A little bit sad because I like seeing my friends, but also we can call somebody so we don't have that eye strain the whole time on the screen. And who can help me? My other friends can support me in doing that. Yeah, or the time setting. Yeah, I don't know if it's useful, Aslan. I think we have to find a way that works for us, right? So I love this change chart if you want to work with that with your students. And as Claire was talking about as well before, that critical thinking. And this is not so much about my behaviour of posting as well as my behaviour of responding to what I see. It's all in the perfect world. And sometimes we read something and we think, hmm, hmm, not sure what to do with this. So these questions, what did they write, the content? Who actually wrote this at the agenda question?

00:29:18

What did they write it for? What is the purpose of posting that? Then we can think about the quality. Is it friendly? Is it emotional? Is it thoughtful? Is it constructive? Or maybe is it bot-like? Check GPT, who knows? Is it actually accurate? And with that, I mean, is it true? And if they think that is true, what is the evidence?

00:29:39

And then we can think, okay, how appropriate is this message for me to respond to, to share, or should I just ignore it? And I think looking at that hopefully takes a little bit of that pressure away of our students, and it might affect them a little bit less because it's so overwhelming, as you said before. And the other thing, creating a well-being sheet, and this just goes back to self-care. What do you already do in life to take care of yourself? You're not always on your phone, I hope. So they come up with actions, you could give them a poster, you give them cards, you could give them words, or they can write lists themselves. And then they can decide which of those things can I do more, maybe being social maybe being more physical. These are the two I want to focus on more. And what actions could I use there? to actually make sure I get more physical activity or social practice. They select them, they can write them on their wellbeing shield if you want to do art, like I said, I love artist stuff, but you can also just put it on a padlet. And the whole class can look at ideas. So they can just go there if they feel, I need to do something else, need to get away from my phone. What can I do to make myself feel better?

00:30:54

and avoid that screen. Yes, fresh air, going for a walk, dancing to some music, do some drawing. We all have our ideas, so why not share them? And if you have a creative lot, they can just make posters for this. Comfat is absolutely amazing. They can use technology, they can make some amazing posters. But I was at the school yesterday where they simply did it with old-fashioned glue and scissors and colors, and it was beautiful. And they made a poster with 5 tips for being well, and as you can see, it's about screen time, it's about staying active. They had their ideas. And they come up with their own rules for when, where, and what. So overall, I hope I've given you some ideas, I'm very much aware of time. I hope that we as teachers. can contribute a little bit and help our students create that culture of digital mindfulness. Yeah, it's not that we don't want them to use it, it's part of life, it's fun, it's engaging. But our students need to have the choice. over that technology, when to use it, when not to use it, instead of social media controlling them.

00:32:04

So, if you want to read a bit more, a book I highly recommend is The Anxious Generation from Jonathan Haid. He's a social psychologist. Very interesting, all about the brain. The second one is about how to deal with pressure, and common sense education. Um, they have a lot of websites, they have a lot of PowerPoints, and a lot of materials for you to actually find activities that you can use with your students on this particular topic. I hope I've given you some ideas. Any questions, feel free to ask. And if you want to connect, feel free to find me on LinkedIn. Afterwards. Thank you so much for all your activity in the chat box!

[Will]

Thank you, Anna. Thank you very, very much for putting that together for us.

[Anna]

It was a pleasure, really interesting topic, right?

[Will]

Wonderful. Such an interesting topic. It was just… it's such a can of worms, isn't it, as well? There's so many different things you can say about this.

00:33:01

[Anna]

Yeah, and I have to say, Will, I went down, uh, I think the internet rabbit hole. Because I couldn't stop looking and looking, and 5 hours later, I'm still looking. It's really fascinating.

[Will]

It's so interesting, isn't it? And I think just, I mean, I'd love to get… I could watch an entire conference on kind of social media and how young people are. Uh, growing up with it, just that as a subject, because it's just so different from… I can only speak for myself, but for my… from my youth. It wasn't there, um. And it's just such… it's quite hard, isn't it, as a person from our… If you don't mind me saying, Anna, our generation. Um, to see… you know, we don't really have that insight. We don't want to know what it's like to grow up as a person. Uh, in that… in that environment. And it's one thing that I think we're, as adults, may be struggling with. We don't really have that insight. We don't know what it's like, but we really want to help support.

[Anna]

And this is the interesting thing, right? We are supposedly having some self-control, because we're adults, but how addictive is this, even for us?

00:33:59

[Will]

Yeah, yeah, I'd like to challenge that, and people who think they're in control of their social media that see those stats. Um, on their phone, see how much they are using. I mean, I'm far from addictive myself, but I use it too much. You know, it pulls me in, pulls me in.

[Anna]

Yeah, yeah. Correct.

[Will]

Anyway… Any questions for Anna? We haven't got any questions, actually, for Anna, just yet. Um… I'll give him a minute to think of a few questions for you, Anna. Uh, if you wanted them to take away one thing from your talk today, what would it be?

[Anna]

I think that the English language classroom is such an amazing place to integrate these topics, and I think that's. I hope that we can do that, because it's not about telling them how to behave, but it's giving them the option, so they have that awareness, and they can choose how they want to use that tool. Because I really think that we need to control social media, and social media by now is controlling our students.

00:34:55

[Will]

Yeah, absolutely. It's such a fertile place, isn't it, for anything, really, for the English language classroom.

[Anna]

Yeah. Social-emotional skills, global skills, yeah, totally.

[Will]

Yeah. Yeah, good to… Absolutely, depending on the scenario. Some people have got remits, but generally speaking, they need space to communicate, don't they? Um, lovely. Thank you so much, Anna. I'll let you go. You got, uh… oh, we have had some questions, hold on. Do we have time?

[Anna]

Yeah, of course! Then I'm gonna have a nap the next one.

[Will]

You got time for one? Alright. Okay, okay. So, Marco's… yeah, we will, we'll have another bunch, it always happens that way. People just… they get engrossed, and they go, oh, no, I have got things to ask, and then they ask at the end. So we have got another one as well. So, how can we redirect students' attention toward content they enjoy? and that supports their personal development without them finding it boring. I think that's a really good point. There are some really valuable content on social media. Um, Claire and I were speaking about this earlier, there's some very valuable content out there that can genuinely help people and help young people with their own development. how to guide them towards that, and not the, um… The bad stuff.

00:36:05

I think when you look at project work, right, we often give students a choice. Like, we have a project, you can… Even in differentiation, you give them a choice. You can present it, you can write it, you can record it. So I think if we do a project on something, why not get them to choose the topic? And get them to come to you. You could even do A, B, C, D, or E, because I know what my students are interested in, and you pick one of those their options, but I think it's very similar in the brain for choice, so they might be motivated. But why not ask students, what do you want to present on? And then, okay, go and research that topic and create something, and yeah, content generation on that topic as well. So, say, finding out what they're like and giving them a choice to bring that to the classroom.

[Will]

Brilliant, yeah, lovely. Um, okay, quick fire, two questions for you, Anna. Um, what is your opinion on? banning phones in schools.

[Anna]

Interesting, when you read this book, it's actually on the slide that Aslan or Fabis, somebody was asking for. You read about the anxious generation, you start to understand that play-based versus phone-based. How much impact it has on students' social-emotional development, that you start to think, yeah. that is probably a valid thing to do, because that fragmented attention, you cannot learn if you shift between different things every 5 minutes. So I don't think it's a bad thing. What I do like, then, is that we say, okay, we're gonna do an activity online, get your phone out of the pouch, and use it for this activity in class.

[Will]

Hmm. So you think they can bring… they should be able to bring it in case it's needed for… pedagogical reasons.

00:37:47

[Anna]

Yeah, and what you see in the UK, they have these amazing pouches, they seal the pouch, and they can open it when they need it, and I think that is probably a wise thing, just to stop them from checking it every 6 minutes.

[Will]

Yeah. Be nice if we could do it a slightly nicer way, rather than having them to lock their phones in a bag, you know.

[Anna]

But the interesting thing, Will, is when you look in The Guardian, there was an interview on BBC, actually, with a few students as well, and they said it was a kind of freedom they had never experienced. They didn't feel the pressure to check and to like, so the student. Don't seem to be too negative about it.

[Will]

Because there wasn't that external social pressure to check, because you said, I can't check, can I? I've got a… what was going on around me instead. That's a lovely point, Anna, I like that. Okay, brilliant. I didn't know that. Alright, we're gonna let you go. You've got another, um, session later on. Let's unpack it again after that one, shall we?

[Anna]

Yes. Lovely. Thank you!

[Will]

Cheers, Anna.