Role of Technology
Technology is, at its best, merely a tool. In order to be and to do any good, it requires a mature user, employing it for a proper purpose. In the K-12 educational context, the use of technology by children, especially web-accessible screen technology, comes with significant challenges and risks—pedagogical, cultural, psychological, and spiritual. In addition, the mass proliferation of its use in K-12 education over the last decade is largely attributable to gains in efficiency for teachers and administrators, not in improved academic or human outcomes for children. Indeed, the research overwhelmingly indicates quite the opposite.
As a result, we are intentional about limiting the role that technology plays at CCA. At our school, there is:
- No 1-to-1 student screen technology in the classroom
- No use of phones or smart watches permitted on campus
- No class films/videos except pre-approved, educational content of limited length
- Supervised use of laptops for the purpose of CLT testing
- Upper School use of computers for academic research, writing, etc.
Instead of screens and technology, we:
- Use books, paper, and pencils;
- Conduct science labs and utilize physical math manipulatives;
- Employ traditional art mediums and play real musical instruments; and
- Teach cursive, sentence diagramming, and text annotation.
