Project Reset seeks balance in digital world

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This article was published 30/04/2024 (735 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Several students from Brandon elementary schools are being recognized for their projects that drew attention to screen time, online safety and how an unbalanced use of all gadgets can have a negative impact on mental health and well-being.

The project was offered to all Grade 5 to 8 students within the Brandon School Division with the challenge to create a poster, a visually appealing chart or diagram, a song, a speech or a video to get the message across to their classmates about the importance of cutting down on using technology.

Amitoz Sidhu, Grade 8 student at Linden Lanes School, was the cameraman and editor of his team’s first-place video, which had five other classmates as actors.

“The story was about a very smart straight-A student,” said Sidhu. “His friends showed him a game and he never got off it, even when his friends wanted to hang out with him. He just cared about the game, got addicted and lost his friends.”

Grady Sumner, who played the part as one of the friends in the video, said they created a strong message.

“It’s a more relatable topic nowadays than it was a long time ago, and we put it into play a little bit more because it’s happening in our lives right now,” said Sumner.

The initiative, called Project Reset, was developed by a team within Prairie Mountain Health (PMH), including health promotion co-ordinator Nikki Dean.

Dean and her committee realized that more young people are logging more time on screens and wanted to engage the school community as well as parents about digital well-being, and how to create screen-time balance.

Digital technology is here to stay, so there is a need to “reset” and find balance in the digital world we live in, said Dean.

“Quite a few years back, we started this work knowing that screen time is an issue,” Dean said. “Technology is great, but there’s lots of drawbacks. So, we came together with partners from education, public health, mental health, speech language and occupational therapy.”

The lesson plans were packaged and offered to schools within the Brandon School Division. The core information, Dean added, came from an existing program in the United States that she and her team adapted for western Manitoba.

There is a lesson plan for teachers as well as a take-home component to get the family involved. But the creative part of Project Reset, Dean said, is aimed at students.

“They’re learning how to find credible information online, about balance and online safety. And we’re hoping to create a bit of a groundswell so more people will know about it,” Dean said.

Winners in each category were given gift certificates from local businesses, including Stream and Wood, Fun Time Pottery, T-Birds Bowling and Sport Chek.

Along with the first-place video from the Grade 8 students at Linden Lanes, the school also had first- and second-place winners in the poster category and second place for animation.

Denise Rennie, the students’ teacher, said when she included the Project Reset lesson plan into her technology class, it was a perfect fit.

“It incorporated quite easily, because we had been talking about it already,” said Rennie. “And that’s something we always do as teachers; we always talk about recognizing the time spent in front of screens. I even said I have to do some things on my own. So, we talked about all those challenges too,” she said.

This was the first year for PMH’s Project Reset, and of the dozen schools that accepted the lesson plans, four submitted materials, with a total of 70 entries.

At Waverly Park School in Brandon’s west end, there were four winning entries from students in Grade 6, including first, second and third place for posters and second place for a video created by Mahum Ahmed.

“I voiced the video and did digital drawings of a bunch of people, and one of them was in a library being stressed out since they had too much screen time and they didn’t do well in their studies,” said Ahmed.

Children with screen time greater than an hour were more likely than children with less than an hour to be more developmentally vulnerable in all domains of developmental health, according to PMH website.

A high percentage of preschool children (87 per cent) do not meet recommended screen time guidelines. For school-aged children, it is 85 per cent who do not meet the guidelines.

Cellphones and electronic communication devices are not allowed in schools within the Brandon School Division unless permission is granted, according to an administrative procedures document that was released in 2019.

“Electronic communication devices possessed by students may not be used in school buildings during instructional hours, including all breaks except when used with the prior permission of the teacher/school. Devices must be “off” or “silenced.” Devices may be used during lunch period,” the document states.

As Brooke Williams, principal at Waverly Park, walks through the hallways, she pointed out the “No cellphone” signs hung on a bathroom door.

“The kids have been good about it. And I think that they’re starting to understand that it’s important, and it helps them to have those parameters and guidelines for when they can and can’t use them.”

Ahmed said she doesn’t have a cellphone, but has advice for those who are trying to cut back on using theirs.

“Go outside, read a book,” Ahmed said. “Because if you cut off all at once, it might make you feel really bored. So, it’s better to just cut slowly so you get to a time when you are feeling healthy.”

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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