omahre review essay-1
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Grand Canyon University *
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English
Date
Dec 6, 2023
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Edit: Does this make sense? How does the rebuttal sound?
EDITED BY-GITESH KALRA
Too Many Screens: GCU Curriculum Proposal
Omahre Gratton
Grand Canyon University: Eng-106
Professor Ann Miller
First Draft: December 7, 2022
Too Many Screens: GCU Curriculum Proposal
The internet has become the biggest substitute for real life activity. What started as rocket
science for most has become second nature for all. Children have developed stronger electronic
capabilities than motor skills in this current age. With such a large shift in society, our
environment has increased the risk of deteriorating the physical conditions of the body in a much
quicker timeframe. Increased time spent in front of screens accelerates the loss of eyesight, poor
posture, and overall physical strength due to lack of physical activity. While a shift in society to
reduce screen time would be a larger feat, starting where we congregate can be the first step in
enacting a nation-wide shift -LOOKS FINE
GCU should seek to limit screen time for students through a reduced workload outside of
class. The proper steps that would need to be enacted to accomplish this proposal would be as
followed. Initially there would need to be internal compliance amongst faculty regarding
restructuring the curriculum. During the process of seeking compliance, it will be important to
provide education behind the medical benefits that can be associated with reducing workload on
screen. Once compliance is reached throughout the GCU faculty, a process of restructuring must
take place that requires courses to work harmoniously to ensure students are spending no more
than five hours on screen collectively amongst courses. In a typical semester a student is
recommended to take four courses at max, this would mean a student would need to spend no
more than 75 minutes per course in order to ensure they are achieving the five hour maximum
screen time. This process would force faculty to incorporate more work into the allotted class
period or zoom sessions. To be the least stressful and most effective, this process should take
place primarily around the time frame of late spring and continue throughout the summer before
the next school year. This would allow sufficient time for faculty to restructure coursework
before students arrive for the following school year. Once a functioning course load structure is
able to be established an announcement will need to be made to the student body. This will be a
formal announcement at the beginning of the year detailing the reasoning behind the new
structure of the school year. A detailed message regarding the health benefits from this revision
and the overall result of less work outside of class will raise the morale entering the school year
amongst the student body. During the first year of this change, monthly surveys should be sent to
the student body to get feedback on the effectiveness of the efforts to reduce screen time. After
the first year, every two to three months a survey can be rolled out to provide a continuous
monitor of progress. After five years, the system will be more efficient and require less consistent
monitoring regarding its effectiveness.
GCU should seek to limit screen time for students because it would reduce the risk of
students adopting vision problems at younger ages. The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
provides detail on the condition of asthenopia that can be developed through increased screen
time, causing a negative effect on eyesight amongst patients. “Eye fatigue — called asthenopia
— is characterized by eye discomfort, dimness of vision and headache. Asthenopia can be caused
by overuse of the eye, for example during a period of prolonged focus on a screen. Any glare on
the screen can further strain the eyes.” (Malik, 2018, Para. 4) Asthenopia is a condition that can
be currently accelerated due to the reliance on technology that our society has. The integration of
online learning in recent years has created a situation where more students are learning from a
screen than ever before. In addition to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s study; Hopkins
Medical provides continued research into the topic of increased screen time. “A recent study
found that the average office worker spends 1,700 hours per year in front of a computer screen
— and that was before many of us began working from home. Add to that our frequent use of
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phones and other digital devices, and you’ve got a recipe for unhappy — and possibly unhealthy
— eyes.” (Entwisle, 2020, para. 1). Due to the current climate of our society, the effect of more
students behind a screen increases the chances of vision and sight problems throughout GCU’s
student body. If GCU can seek to limit screen time, it will create a happier and healthier student
body and increase the future enrollment due to GCU being one of the first institutions to
emphasize more than just the learning of students. Healthy development in a holistic way shows
students that their college cares about their whole development rather than just their educational
development.
GCU should seek to limit screen time for students because it would increase the physical
health of students. The Journal of Public Health created a study on the increased health risks
associated with prolonged screen time. “MetS represents a clustering of cardiovascular disease
and Type 2 diabetes risk factors that predisposes one to several chronic diseases and premature
mortality.” (Marks, 2008, Pg 153 Para. 2). Prolonged screen time can be associated with
prolonged portions of time in a stationary position. This can be seen through sitting, laying
down, or standing. The Journal of Public Health details that an increase in time spent in
stationary positions reduces activity amongst patients and increases the chances of
cardiovascular diseases. Also, through prolonged stationary positions patients will reduce their
activity and increase their consumption to fuel their prolonged periods in front of a screen. This
can be associated with an increase in the chances of students developing diabetic conditions.
Additionally from this study, the Journal of Public Health details its findings as such.
“Adolescents reporting screen times of >3 h/day were approximately two- to threefold more
likely to have MetS than were adolescents with daily screen time levels of 1 h or less.” (Marks,
2008, Pg 157 Para. 3). Also, The American Journal of Sports Medicine gives their opinion on the
matter, “In adults, long bouts of sitting time have been associated with acute and chronic ill-
health (e.g., increased risk of obesity and heart disease), regardless of the mode or domain of
sedentary behavior” (LeBlanc & Gunnell & Prince & Saunders & Barnes & Chaput, 2017, Para.
19). Realistically, GCU can’t limit screen time collectively amongst courses to one hour for
students. A more effective take on this study would be to adopt one hour per course, creating an
estimated four hours of screen time collectively amongst courses. A safety buffer of fifteen
minutes due to student competencies could increase the hour time limit to 75 minutes or reduce
the hour time limit to 45 minutes per course. This time frame would be a major improvement due
the fact that currently students may spend more than two hours per course. The current screen
time usage amongst students is significantly higher than recommended to ensure health risks are
reduced. This is why GCU should seek to reduce screen time through a reduced workload.
GCU faculty and staff may not seek to engage in this type of proposal because it would
force the institution to consolidate curriculum and restructure the learning process to
accommodate the students. The Cult of Pedagogy discusses in a blog the difficulties teachers
already face with a limited amount to teach a class in one semester of time, “Being short on time
puts us in a terrible state as human beings.” (Gonzalez, 2021, Para. 22). Additionally, further in
the reading states, “the chronic lack of time in their lives means there’s zero margin for error.
They don’t have the luxury of thinking deeply about their classroom practices or studying
student work in order to adjust their instruction.” (Gonzalez, 2021, Para. 22). While this is an
understandable reason for refusing to further consolidate the curriculum, the outcome of a further
consolidated curriculum would allow faculty to spend less time in front of the screen as well due
to less work to grade and prepare for. In the wake of the covid-19 pandemic, education was
quickly able to restructure itself to a remote or hybrid state in order to ensure students were still
afforded the opportunity to learn. The benefit to the greater good is sought out through this
proposal because it seeks to emphasize the health of the student body, while still ensuring the
learning process doesn’t become less effective.
The internet has become the biggest substitute for real life activity. What started as rocket
science for most has become second nature for all. Children have developed stronger electronic
capabilities than motor skills in this current age. Through an increased focus on ensuring the
safety of GCU’s faculty and student body through reducing screen time, GCU will find a
healthier and happier campus that is achieving higher learning. The process of achieving higher
learning should not be at the risk of one's physical health but in the current time of digital
reliance it is more important than ever to minimize the trade offs associated with increased
screen time. While it may be more efficient, it’s not healthy for anyone involved. This is why
GCU should seek to limit screen time for students through a reduced workload outside of class.
CITATIONS AND EVERYTHING IN SHAPE
LOOKS GOOD
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SOURCES
Entwisle, A. (2020, April 15).
Working from Home? protect your eyes from too much
screen time
. Working from Home? Protect Your Eyes from Too Much Screen Time.
Retrieved November 29, 2022, from
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/protect-your-eyes-from-screen-time
Gonzalez, J. (2022, October 19).
Teachers are barely hanging on. here's what they need.
Cult of Pedagogy. Retrieved December 6, 2022, from
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/barely-hanging-on/
LeBlanc, A. G., Gunnell, K. E., Prince, S. A., Saunders, T. J., Barnes, J. D., & Chaput, J.-P.
(2017, September 1).
The Ubiquity of the Screen: An Overview of the Risks and Benefits of
Screen Time in Our Modern World
. LWW. Retrieved November 29, 2022, from
https://journals.lww.com/acsm-
tj/Fulltext/2017/09010/The_Ubiquity_of_the_Screen__An_Overview_of_the.1.aspx
Malik, A. (2018, December 6).
How too much screen time affects kids' eyes: Tips to
prevent eye strain
. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Retrieved November 29, 2022,
from https://www.chop.edu/news/health-tip/how-too-much-screen-time-affects-kids-eyes
Marks, A. E., & Janssen, I. (2008, March 28).
Relationship between screen time and
metabolic syndrome in adolescents
. Digital Object Identifier System. Retrieved November
29, 2022, from https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdn022