Lesson video

Hi, I'm Miss Lowe and I'm your RSHE teacher for today.

Thank you so much for choosing to complete your learning with me.

Today's lesson is all about time online and learning.

Here's our outcome for today's lesson.

So at the end of today's lesson, you are gonna be able to explain how your time online can impact your learning.

Every RSHE lesson should begin with a set of ground rules.

This ensures that every conversation had in RSHE is respectful and we're all able to learn effectively.

So Laura is reminding us that, in RSHE, we should listen to others.

It's okay to disagree with each other, but we should listen properly before making assumptions or deciding how to respond.

And when disagreeing, we challenge the statement and not the person.

Andeep is reminding us to respect privacy.

We can discuss examples but we don't use names or descriptions that can identify anyone, including ourselves.

Izzy is reminding us to choose a level of participation that suits us.

Everyone has the right to choose not to answer a question or to join in a discussion, but we never put anyone on the spot.

And finally, Jacob is reminding us that, in RSHE, there is no judgement.

We can explore beliefs and misunderstandings about a topic without the fear of being judged.

And here are our keywords for today's lesson.

Let's go through those definitions together.

Screen time: any time spent on a digital device with a screen, for example, a smartphone or a laptop.

Attention span: the length of time a person is able to concentrate.

And dopamine: a chemical in the body that gives us a short-term feeling of reward.

And here is the outline of today's lesson.

So we're gonna begin today by asking the question, how does screen time affect my brain? So screen time could have a big impact on our brains in many different ways, but it all depends on the amount of time you're spending on a screen, the purpose and the type of screen use.

These effects on our brain could be positive.

For example, screen time can enhance our learning or our productivity.

However, they can also be negative.

And this is particularly true when somebody is spending excessive amounts of time on a screen or they have poorly managed screen use.

Now some people might spend lots of time on fast-paced content and when we talk about fast-paced content, what we mean is things like lots of short videos or social media where we're looking at short form texts or single pictures or short videos again.

And what this can do is it can reduce our attention span, which makes it harder to focus on slower tasks.

That could be things in school where we're required to concentrate for a longer amount of time.

Spending lots of time on this fast-paced content can really affect our attention span.

Another way that screens affect our brains is through blue light.

So blue light that comes from screens can reduce what we call melatonin, which is our sleep hormone.

If our melatonin is reduced, this can disrupt sleep cycles, which in turn can lead us to feeling tired and irritable the next day.

Frequent use of apps that are made to show short bursts of content can overstimulate our brain's reward system.

And what this can lead to is frequent dopamine bursts, which our brains can become used to.

If our brain becomes used to these quick, short, sharp bursts of dopamine, it can then crave this dopamine release more, which in turn leads us to spend more time online.

Now let's pause here and let's check our understanding about what we've learned so far.

Screen time can suppress the release of what? Read through those options, pause the video and then we'll go through the correct answer together.

Well done if you said melatonin, and we know that melatonin is the sleep hormone.

Now let's think about this one.

So screen time can cause us to crave what? We'll do the same again here.

Pause the video, have a look at those three options and then we'll go through the right answers together.

Well done if you said dopamine.

So screen time can cause us to crave dopamine, which is that reward hormone.

Now some studies suggest that excessive screen time, spending a lot of time on our screens, may lead to a reduced grey matter.

And grey matter is the area of our brain responsible for impulse control, emotional regulation and decision making.

So a really important part of our brain can be impacted by excessive screen time.

Consuming too much content, too quickly can actually impair the way that our brains process information and that can make it harder to retain information or memory.

We're gonna pause here again and we're gonna check our understanding.

So true or false? Screen time can affect the ability to focus and our attention span.

Is that true or false? Pause the video, have a think and we'll go through the right answer.

Well done if you said true.

Yes, screen time can absolutely affect our ability to focus and our attention span.

Well done.

Now we're gonna put what we've learned so far into practise.

So what I want you to do is I'd like for you to label the image here with four ways that screen time can affect the brain.

So pause the video, have a think about the ways that screen time can affect the brain and I'll go through some things that you might have said in just a moment.

Great work there.

So I asked you to label the image with four ways that screen time can affect the brain.

And here are some things that you might have written.

Excessive screen time can reduce our ability to focus.

Screen time can reduce melatonin release, which can make it harder to sleep.

Screen time can cause lots of short bursts of dopamine, which the brain then craves more of.

And excessive screen time can impact the ability to retain information.

You might have also said it impacts our memory.

So well done if you wrote any of those things down in your answers.

Now, moving on to the next part of our lesson, and we are asking the question, how does screen time affect my learning? So lots of screen time can have a negative impact on our learning, especially if what you're consuming online is not educational content.

Again, watching lots of fast-paced content like those short videos or using social media for a long time can make challenging learning tasks, things like reading long texts or writing, it can make it more difficult for us to concentrate on them.

Sometimes when learning, we can feel tempted to look at our digital device or watch something online in the background.

Some people think that this can actually improve our multitasking skills, our ability to focus on one thing and another at the same time.

However, this isn't the case because switching between screens can reduce our ability to focus.

Dr.

Elsie is telling us something really interesting here.

So she's telling us that it can actually take up to 20 minutes for us to focus our attention span on learning after engaging in an online activity, like browsing social media.

Learning may also be affected when people are distracted by notifications on other digital devices.

So Jun is telling us here that he really struggles to refocus himself when his phone goes off while he's doing homework.

Due to the effect of excessive screen time on memory, it can also make it really difficult for us to retain new information that we learn.

When we rely on screens for quick bursts of information through searching or watching videos, our brain will only ever achieve a surface level of understanding and there's no long term retention of information.

Now let's pause here and we'll check our understanding about what we've just learned.

So how long can it take for us to refocus on learning after engaging in activities like browsing the internet? Pause the video here, have a think about your answer and then we'll go through the right one together.

Well done if you said 20 minutes.

Absolutely.

So it can take 20 minutes for us to refocus on learning after doing something like browsing the internet, being distracted by a notification on our phone or watching some content online.

Another check for understanding here.

So true or false? Looking at multiple screens can improve our multitasking skills.

Pause the video here and have a think about your answer.

Well done if you said false.

Yeah, this is a common misconception.

So looking at multiple screens can actually impair our ability to concentrate and retain information.

So sleep is a really important part of our lives.

It helps us to maintain good cognitive brain function.

If we experience a lack of sleep due to screen time, this can prevent us from being able to focus, gather information, remember or retain information given to us and stay awake in lessons or while trying to concentrate.

Sam is telling us here that the side effects of a lack of sleep can really impact our ability to learn.

So dopamine, that reward hormone that's released in the brain isn't released from the brain in the same way when we're concentrating on learning as it is when we're watching fast-paced content.

When we're consuming lots of content in short form, our brains become accustomed to these short dopamine bursts.

Our brains then start to crave this stimulation that the short videos give us and it starts to reduce our ability to concentrate on longer form learning.

Like we said, whether that's writing or reading a long piece of text.

As we're growing and developing, we're not only learning in school, we're also learning from the people around us and the interactions that we have with them.

Excessive screen time and relying on it to communicate and connect with others through social media or messaging apps can actually impair our ability to communicate with others face-to-face.

When we communicate with others offline, we can learn how to read social cues and it can help us to build better relationships.

Now we're gonna pause here and check our understanding.

So what two things are missing from the list of ways that screen time can affect learning? We've got so far that it can reduce our ability to retain information, it can make it hard to focus or refocus, and we've got that it can reduce our sleep.

So pause the video and think of two things that are missing from this list.

Really well done if you said that excessive screen time can impair our ability to communicate with people face to face and it can reduce our ability to concentrate.

Now we're gonna put what we've learned into practise.

So what I would like for you to do is I would like for you to explain to Alex three ways that screen time can affect his learning.

So Alex has said here, "I enjoy screen time.

I don't see how something I enjoy could impact my learning negatively.

I use my tablet a lot after school and I enjoy watching videos before I go to sleep." So looking at Alex's statement, I'd like for you to give me three ways that screen time can affect his learning.

Pause the video, write down your answers, and then we'll go through what you might have said in a moment.

Excellent work there.

Let's have a look at what you might have said to Alex.

So you might have said to Alex that excessive screen time can reduce his ability to concentrate, which can make reading and writing long pieces of text more difficult.

You might have said that screen time can also impact the brain's ability to retain information.

That looking at screens right before bed can suppress melatonin production, that sleep hormone, and make it difficult to get to sleep, which can make us feel too tired for learning the next day.

You might have also said that screen time can make it hard to focus on a task because it can take up to 20 minutes to refocus on learning after an online activity.

And finally, you might have mentioned that screen time can impair our ability to communicate with people face-to-face.

And as we learn through social interactions, this can affect our learning too.

Well done if you mentioned any of those things in your answers.

We're moving on now to the final part of our lesson where we're gonna be asking the question, can I use screen time for learning? Now throughout this lesson, we've talked about quite a lot of the negative impacts that screens can have on our ability to focus, our concentration, our memory retention, but actually if we use screens sensibly and purposefully, it can really benefit us.

Now I want you to think about the internet as being like the world's biggest library.

Anything you want to know more about can be found online and there are millions of sites online that can help us to learn.

It's amazing to think that never before in human history have we had such quick access to so much information.

Like Laura says here, you can, in fact, actually find virtual libraries online.

So it's an amazing place that we can learn.

There are also apps that have been developed and designed to suit people's learning needs.

So Izzy is telling us here that she uses an app that helps her to learn a new language.

She only uses it for about 10 to 15 minutes every day.

And Sofia is saying that she does the same and the app tells her what she needs to work on, which helps her to learn even better.

So it's personalised to them and their learning needs.

There are apps and websites available for learning all kinds of things, not just languages.

So apps and websites are really great for learning because they allow us to learn in a much more interactive way.

Websites can offer interactive ways of learning through things like games or quizzes, writing and lots more.

These creative ways of applying learning can help us to deepen our understanding of complicated topics.

So it's a really good way to improve our learning.

The things we enjoy doing online might actually help us to develop key skills for our learning.

So Aisha is telling us here that she really enjoys playing games online and this can help her with her problem solving skills.

Jacob is saying that his dad helped him to find some educational, factual accounts on social media.

While he's scrolling on social media, their posts show up and he learns something new every day.

So we can see here that Jacob is using social media in a really purposeful way and it's helping him and benefiting his learning.

Now we're gonna pause here and we're gonna check our understanding.

True or false? Screen time is just about fun, we can't learn from it.

So pause the video, have a think about your answer and then we'll go through the right one together.

Well done if you said false and of course this is false.

Although screen time can be fun and it can be a way to communicate with others, connect with others, or find some entertainment, screens can offer lots of different ways of learning.

Even online games can help us to develop certain skills and people can follow educational or factual accounts on social media.

So as we said before, screens can enable us to learn in lots of different ways.

There are videos, pictures, eBooks, and infographics which allow us to learn in a way that suits our needs.

Aisha's telling us here that she learns best when complicated ideas are presented through images and learning online allows her to do that.

Online spaces are amazing because they contain voices, information and ideas from a huge variety of cultures, faiths and people.

Having access to these points of view can allow us to develop a deeper understanding of the world around us, which is really an incredible thing.

Now if you are using the internet to revise, there are lots of sites and apps that are available to help us memorise or test ourselves on key information.

These are really good 'cause like Aisha's saying, you can actually make these quizzes yourself or do the ones that other people have made, and they're really helpful for revision.

These sites and apps can make revision really quick and interactive.

And if you have them on a digital device like your phone or your tablet, you can have access to this learning wherever you are.

Now, the people who develop learning apps and sites are really clever and they know that one of the things that keeps people coming back and consuming content is being able to create those short dopamine bursts.

Now lots of learning apps and sites are developed to give the same dopamine hit so we can have fun, keep learning and not give up.

Some sites might give medals or rewards for completing levels.

Some may even have learning streaks.

So rewarding people for learning for a hundred days in a row.

And some even have learning leaderboards where we can compete with people all over the world.

Jun is saying that leaderboards are really important to him and it's the leaderboards and medals for learning that encourage him to keep on doing it.

Now there are loads of other really great ways that we can use screens for learning, and these include listening to educational podcasts.

So any topic you can think about that you are really interested in, I am certain that there will be an educational podcast out there that can help you learn more about it.

You can do online courses, you can look for educational content on the sites that you already use.

We saw before that Jacob uses social media as a way to learn.

He follows educational, factual accounts, they pop up on his screen every day and he learns something new.

You can use screen time to learn or practise computing skills like coding or video editing.

And you can join discussion forums about topics that you find interesting.

There are loads of ways that we can use screens for learning.

Now let's pause here and let's check our understanding.

Learning apps and sites have leaderboards medals, awards and levels to create a something burst from learning.

Read through the three options there, think about what word might be missing from the answer and then we'll go through the correct one together.

Well done if you said dopamine.

Yes, absolutely, so these learning apps and sites understand that it is dopamine bursts in our brain that keep us wanting to use the app more and more.

So they are created to make a dopamine burst from learning.

So it's important to remember that whether we're using digital device for learning or for fun and entertainment, screen time can still have a negative impact on us if we use a screen for a long time without a break.

Nurse Daniel here has given us a really good piece of advice.

He says that "You should try to take a five to 10 minute screen break for every hour that you're using a screen." It's also important that when we're using a screen, we check our posture.

So this is the way that we are sat.

And we should do this when using the screen because it might become worse as we lean our head and back forward to see a screen more clearly.

It's important to be mindful of how you're sitting.

Try to keep your back straight and your head facing forwards.

If you are using a computer, your screen should be eye level so you aren't leaning in to see it.

Dr.

Elsie is telling us that you should get up and move around every hour that you've been sat looking at a screen.

It's important to remember that we need to ask permission from our trusted adult before using screen time for learning.

We should also remember that many apps have age restrictions that we must listen to.

Let's pause here again and we'll check our understanding.

I would like for you to change one word in this sentence so that it becomes correct.

The sentence currently says, "If we mindfully use screen time for learning, it can be a negative thing as it allows us to learn in a way that suits our needs." So pause the video and choose one word in that sentence to change so that it becomes correct.

Well done if you said negative.

That needs to be changed.

So the sentence should now read.

"If we mindfully use screen time for learning, it can be a positive thing as it allows us to learn in a way that suits our needs." And finally, we are gonna put our learning into practise.

So I would like for you to complete the table below with how screens can negatively and positively impact our learning.

And I'd like you to try to include four points on each side.

So pause the video here, write down those answers, and then we'll go through some things that you might have written together.

So your completed table may look something like this.

We'll begin by going through the negative impacts of screens.

So you might have said that looking at screens while trying to learn can distract us and make it harder to focus.

Lots of screen time can reduce our ability to memorise information.

Lots of screen time can impact sleep, making it harder to learn.

Our brains can crave the dopamine hit from content.

Now let's have a look at the positives.

So screens can make learning more interactive.

We have access to millions of educational sites which can teach us about the world around us.

Certain learning apps can also provide us with a dopamine hit, making learning more fun.

And screens allow us to learn in a way that suits our needs.

A big well done if you mentioned any of those things in your answers.

Now to finish the lesson, let's have a look at a summary of what we've learned together today.

So the content we consume while engaging in screen time can be fun, but it can negatively impact our attention span.

If we are distracted by a notification or another screen when we're trying to focus, it can take up to 20 minutes to regain concentration.

There are lots of ways to use screens that can actually benefit our learning and we can get similar dopamine bursts from learning apps as we do from short-form content.

It's important to take regular screen breaks every hour for at least five to 10 minutes and to get a trusted adult's permission for using screens for learning.

Now, if any of the topics covered in today's lesson affect you in any way or you have any concerns, here are some places you can go to to access support: Childline, a website and phone line which is able to offer confidential advice and support, CEOP, which helps protect children from online abuse and exploitation.

And finally, Internet Matters which teaches children and parents how to stay safe and happy online while using the internet.

And I'd like to finish it by saying a huge well done for all of the fantastic learning that we have done together today.

And I look forward to seeing you in another RSHE lesson soon.