As the grueling seconds tick by in the classrooms of Sequoia High School, students have been finding it difficult to keep their attention on classroom activities. To cure this low attention span, many students turn to online games, trying to keep their brains stimulated during long lectures.
“There have been times when I get really bored during lessons and play games,” Sophomore Sam Richman said.
This boredom seems to be a constant feeling among students, especially for Senior Olivia Murman who has a preferred time of day to play online games.
“I play games mostly later in the afternoon. Especially during the second semester,” Murman said. “I’d say [I play] once every class.”
The constant need for this stimulating activity may also be a result of long lectures during the class period.
“[Sometimes in class] I’m genuinely doing nothing [and] I’m just gonna be sitting there staring at a blank piece of paper. Whereas if I’m playing a game, at least I’m doing something with my time,” Murman said.
Teachers understand the distraction that comes with a long lesson. Some teachers have ideas to make these lectures more interactive and enjoyable for students.
“I like the idea of us playing video games together as a class and in groups,” World History teacher Jesse Bustos said. “I think it’s a fun way for students to get to know each other and to participate in activities together instead of making it solitary.”
As students move through the class period, however, their game playing can quickly come to a halt if they’re not careful.
“I don’t think [I’ve ever gotten caught playing games in class]. I’m pretty quick with switching the [computer] tabs,” Murman said.
And while students might think they are able to get away with it, teachers are well aware of their tab switching.
“Most of the time, it’s easy for teachers to tell [if students are playing games]. Students think they’re sly. Students think that they’re clever, but teachers know when you’re clicking around,” Bustos said.
Video games in class have resulted in low attention spans for students and an overall drop in other academic skills. Other teachers have noticed how these video games decreased students’ capabilities over time.
“I’d say the biggest piece of evidence of teaching for the last 25 years [is] seeing the overall decline in student’s ability to read and write and especially the ability to follow anything that goes on for more than a few minutes,” History teacher Bradley Ramazan said.
While this decline in academics may be a problem for students, some have seen no impact and believe that playing games in class isn’t harmful to a student’s ability to learn.
“[I’ve seen no impact on my grades] because the only classes that I play games in are the ones that I have good grades in and that I’m not worried about,” Richman said.
While these games may not negatively impact all students, Ramazane believes it might still be effective to limit the use of devices in class, so that everyone is following along with the lesson.
“The school would need to have a policy just about devices overall. And then with those devices being controlled, I think the other apps and games would follow,” Ramazane said.
The overall use of technology and games in class can not only affect a student’s grades or comprehension abilities, but also other factors like connection building skills.
“I think that all the students who play video games, whether they do their work eventually or not, end up losing in the long run,” Bustos said. They lose out on the social skills to connect with each other and the confidence to ask for help. They end up disconnecting themselves so much, it’s hard to reconnect.”