School Moving to Digital Because Students Can’t Tell Time
Clocks in the classroom have always appeared to distract students who watched them to figure out how long until class was over. Now U.S. teachers are putting digital clocks in the classroom because of student’s inability to concentrate during exams. This came after the realization students in the UK were distracted by them.
In the past students would watch the clocks tick away the seconds until the end of class, lunch, or recess. They would also check them for the time they had to complete a task. This was easier when students could all tell time using analog clocks. The digital age means that this is no longer the case because the exposure to digital is saturated and analog is no longer in every home.
Monitoring the Time
There are complaints from students that they have trouble keeping track of how much time they have for an exam. The new generation has trouble reading a traditional clock, so teachers are replacing them with digital clocks. The trend in recent years has been everything going digital.
When students have trouble managing time they rush through tests and do not perform as well as they would if they were not worrying, they would run out of time. Students have been asking teachers how much time was left in the middle of tests which is not only distracting to other students but reduces the amount of time spent on the tests.
Fact Checking
Snopes has pointed out that the statements seem to be specific to standardized test that have set time limits on them. Not every analog clock in the school system is being gotten rid of. The problem is not limited to younger children, it extends to high schoolers whose ability has decreased over the years.
There are an astounding number of those in grades ten to twelve who cannot tell time. The digital age is spreading with cell phones replacing watches. Cell phones, computers and digital clocks have reduced the exposure to analog clocks and students no longer must think about the use of analog clocks in the places they go unless it is at school.
Time Stress
The hope is that students time management skills will improve with the use of digital clocks. The goal it to make students relaxed to allow them to be successful on tests. This will help to decrease the asking of how much time remains to take the test. Educators hope analog clocks will not disappear completely. Hopefully students can still be taught to tell time using traditional clocks, but digital clocks have benefits during exams.
Hopefully educators can teach children to use analog clocks while the schools’ transition to digital during times of stress. It is believed that the move to digital will be easier for students, and they will be able to focus better because they will be able to keep track of time easier when they are completing both test and assignments for class.
The removal is only focusing on high stress situations where students have a limited amount of time at the moment.
