Kim Herrick runs a mostly screen-free household.
Her children, 6 and 3, spend much of their idle time playing outdoors with friends, reading books and making crafts. Apart from watching an occasional episode of Bluey on Herrick’s laptop, they have no access to electronic devices at home.
The Coldbrook, N.S., mother wishes she could preserve this type of childhood for her kids, but she knows they’ll ultimately be exposed to what she believes is an overuse of technology as they move through their school years.
“I just feel disappointed in our education system,” said Herrick, who also works as a substitute teacher in various Annapolis Valley schools.
Technology has become deeply embedded in Canadian classrooms. Online learning even became the sole source of education during the COVID-19 pandemic, when students were expected to participate in virtual classes from home.
In Nova Scotia and most other provinces, public schools use Google Workspace for Education (GWE) — “a set of digital tools” giving students access to apps like Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive and Google Classroom.
Digital literacy is introduced as early as Grade Primary, part of the Education Department’s curriculum.
Schools across the province provide students with Chromebook laptops and other devices. In 2023, the provincial government announced it would spend $10 million over two years to integrate more technology into classrooms.
But rules on how, when and why these devices are used vary.
There is no provincewide directive or time limits for screen use in place and “teachers use their professional judgement when preparing lessons and choosing technology to enhance learning,” Education Department spokesperson Alex Burke said in an email.
The department did not make anyone available for an interview to talk about technology in schools, but Burke said it is exploring the development of formal guidance for teachers with the teachers’ union and child development experts.
“In schools across Nova Scotia, the importance of technology as a learning tool is balanced with best practices around limiting screen time and ensuring students are safe from online harms,” she said.
Herrick feels fortunate her daughter’s Grade 1 teacher uses Chromebooks sparingly, but she knows that depends on the school and the teacher.
In her own work as a substitute, she’s seen the inconsistencies of how screens are used in classrooms.
“I’ve seen students on Netflix, Spotify, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, while also doing their work through the Google Classroom. They’ve got like 26 tabs open across the top and I’m like, ‘are we just OK with that or just normalizing the new norm?’”
The Education Department said there are safeguards built into school-issued devices and networks to block access to inappropriate sites and content, with “limited permissions that prevent students from downloading software or third-party apps.”
But Herrick says many students bypass restrictions using private networks, making it hard for teachers to monitor usage.
Emma Duerden, a Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience and Learning Disorders and an associate professor with Western University’s faculty of education, researches how screen use impacts the brain.
She said children over the age of five should be limited to two hours of recreational screen time per day.
Although this does not include educational screen time, Duerden notes it’s difficult to know exactly what students are doing on their school-issued Chromebooks at all times and therefore they’re likely surpassing the suggested limit of recreational use.
She said using these devices in classrooms can be beneficial in some cases, especially for neurodivergent students who might require individualized learning plans.
Still, she warns there’s a fine line between what’s considered effective educational material and material that’s overstimulating and distracting.
“A lot of online platforms and computer-based programs are designed to capture the reward system,” she said. “They can be very captivating and they can essentially be tapping into that overactive reward system in children.
“But yet for children, their cognitive control centres — their prefrontal cortices that allow them to put a brake on that reward system — that part of our brain only develops much later.”
Jenna Poste, a mother of two and member of an advocacy group called Skills Before Screens, wants to see more evidence of how technology actually improves learning.
“It’s just really concerning to see how much these [devices] have been integrated into the school systems and yet we haven’t seen the benefits that have been promised,” she said, highlighting that math and literacy scores have dipped in recent years.
She said the group is not an “anti-tech movement” but more an “intentional technology movement.”
“How do we really look at how technology can be implemented? When is it appropriate to start? How much do you integrate it, and how do you integrate it to make sure it’s actually enhancing learning and doesn’t take away from learning?”
Herrick shares similar concerns and pointed to Sweden, where its Education Ministry is investing millions to return to traditional pen-to-paper learning methods, while reducing screen use in classrooms.
“Scientific studies show that screen-free environments provide better conditions for children to develop relationships, concentrate and learn to read and write,” says the Swedish government’s website.
Duerden said clear policy and guidelines in Canada could be helpful to achieve a better balance.
“Speaking with some young people … they spend more time watching the movie version of the book in class than actually reading the book. So I think this is a bit of a slippery slope with very few regulations,” she said.
Concerns about privacy, data collection
For Herrick, concerns about screen use go beyond just learning.
Since the beginning of the school year, she’s been trying to have her six-year-old daughter’s student Gmail deleted with no luck.
The Education Department told CBC News there is no opt-out option, because the account is “the sole access point for tools used in classrooms and important functionalities.”
Herrick said she didn’t know the Gmail account — which is connected to GWE — had existed for a couple years until her daughter came home one day with a username and password written on a sticky note in her backpack.
Herrick logged into the account where she said she could see a list of her daughter’s classmates, their profile pictures and Gmail addresses.
“I’m a concerned parent, but what if I was a weirdo or like a pedophile? That’s terrifying to me.”
Herrick doesn’t approve of her child’s information being stored in this way, let alone the fact that other parents can see it.
According to the GWE website, personal information from GWE “is stored on Google LLC’s data centres, which are located in the United States and several other countries across the world. All of Google’s data centres follow the same security policies and standards to protect personal information.”
It says all student accounts and information are deleted one year after students leave the school system.
Herrick said parents would be naive to think that Google is not storing and collecting this personal information, pointing to lawsuits where the tech giant had been found liable for invading users’ privacy.
Both Herrick and Poste think parents should have more input into how and why their children use technology in schools. They said parents should have to give explicit consent before accounts are issued and students are given the tools to explore online.
“I just want my children to go to public school and learn from another human in a safe environment where I’m not worried about what they’re going to be subject to on a school-issued Chromebook,” said Herrick.
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