Best Practice in Screen Use for Education – Empowering Student, Teachers and School Communities for Digital Learning

Screen Use and Addiction Research Fund: PriorityGrants
This project will provide a comprehensive and accurate representation of student, parent, teacher, school-leader, and pre-service teacher perceptions and practices relating to school-aged children’s educational use of screens, as well as a suite of resources to help cultivate healthy, sustainable and empowered educational screen practices. Screen use is a fundamental part of our modern society and when used well, can advance student learning (Schleicher, 2023). However, there are also risks and problematic behaviours associated with screen usage, including distraction, addiction, and over-reliance (Graham & Sahlberg, 2021).
This project will draw on a large and experienced educational-technology research team representing every university in New South Wales, to conduct student, parent, teacher, school-leader and pre-service teacher surveys and focus groups, and classroom observations relating to screen use across NSW. The comprehensive data collection and analysis will accurately determine current practices and perceptions relating to NSW school-aged children’s screen use for intervention and strategic policy-setting purposes. The analysis will result in new resources that leverage student, parent, teacher, school leader and pre-service teacher voices to provide insights, tools and strategies that promote best and empowered educational screen use by NSW school students.