Students get more creative with hiding computer distractions

By Nick Mattson and Cale Langland

I’m sitting in front of my computer watching Fail videos and movie clips on YouTube. I have to be quick to switch to my other tab to look like I’m actually doing my research.

Some students don’t have a problem staying on task, but others can only think about games they could be playing, such as Bubble Shooter, Gravity Master, Shopping Cart Hero, or watching videos on YouTube. In an informal survey of 20 BHS students, eight admit to playing computer games instead of doing their assignments.

“Even when they are done with all their work, they can still be doing more work and expanding on the next project,”  said Tech Ed Teacher Troy Hanson. “But it’s hard to stop them because kids are finding better ways to play games behind teachers’ backs.”

Some strategies for hiding games that students are now turning to include; using Google Chrome because the tabs on top are smaller and harder to read, opening multiple tabs up at once so it’s harder to read all of them, and waiting to for your teacher to walk to away so they can’t see what you’re doing.

As senior Sam Mayhew puts it, “Always have multiple tabs open, just so it’s harder for the teacher to see what you’re doing. Then I always use Google Chrome just to make it harder to read the tabs I have open.”

Senior Zach Leaf has a fail proof plan, “I usually just minimize the whole screen. But if I freak out, I just close the whole thing.”

Students are getting better at finding ways to get out of doing their work. The Lightspeed Internet filter prevents students from accessing online distractions, but it also gets can get in the way of learning. Some teachers view the filter as a necessity while others think proper supervision is enough.

“Sites shouldn’t be blocked as long as teachers supervise more,” said Tech Ed Teacher Kurt Konsela.

It’s up to the teachers to either accept it or let students play games when they are done with their work.  Or they can do a 180 and block all the websites from the schools system.  But, all in all, games are a popular way for students to spend  their class time.