Melissa Quigley and Kristen Hughes were among the original founders of Techwise SB, a group that seeks to educate elected officials and school administrators about technology and its effect on children in the early grades.
They asked the Santa Barbara Unified School District to remove iPads from K-3 students due to what they say are the dangers associated with excessive iPad use.
Hughes is a pediatrician at the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department, and said she has seen an increase in childhood obesity and other serious health concerns as a result of technology use during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Quigley is a psychologist at Monroe Elementary school, and said she is seeing students talk about suicide ideation, depression and other mental-health issues.
Children are struggling to pay attention in school, Quigley said.
“They’re swiping all over the place,” Quigley said. “They are on the document they are supposed to be on, but they are very quickly navigating to other apps, or to the camera, or to a drawing app, or to a game or to message each other. There’s a lot of off-task behavior going on.”
Hughes said Techwise SB is “pro-transformative tech,” and that it can change lives. But there are downfalls.
“We have to live in reality, and reality is that there is also very distracting tech and consumer tech, and there’s a whole industry of tech that makes a lot of money developing tech that is geared toward addicting our kids to our product,” Hughes said.
The group is in conversations with the Santa Barbara Unified School District about technology in the classrooms. In this hour-long podcast, Hughes and Quigley talk about their professional experiences and share their professional advice on how to help kids use technology in a safe way — and not let it control their lives.
Santa Barbara Talks with Josh Molina is a podcast produced by journalist Josh Molina. Consider a financial contribution by visiting www.santabarbaratalks.com or subscribe to his YouTube channel.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.