What happens when students are forced to disconnect from technology? What would happen if WE were forced to disconnect from technology? Many of us wouldn’t be able to do our jobs. Is technology’s use such a bad thing? That’s what a recent 3 day “disconnect from technology” program aimed to find out at a San Francisco school.

Some of the students reactions to the challenge weren’t surprising:

• “I feel very addicted to social media and stuff… It’s like habitual dependency”
• “When I wasn’t with my phone I felt different, like I was naked all the time.” His phone makes him feel secure.
• “It was almost a wakeup call for how dependent we are on technology”

Besides some students not completing the full 3 days, some students struggled to complete their homework without technology. One student mentioned that they had to have “his mom to look it up for him.” Was anything learned? In general, it seems an awareness of the issue was the biggest win. You can read the whole story here.

The program was part of the Tech Timeout Academic Challenge. Check out this video about the challenge below: