The 2024 Catholic Communication Collaboration (C3) Conference was a two-day event held Aug. 6-7 at Bishop Alemany High School in Mission Hills. The annual gathering assembles faith leaders, educators, and school administrators to explore the many ways in which technology should — and shouldn’t — be used to educate and support students.
This year’s conference, themed “Elevate,” aimed to build off last year’s discussion of growing technology — artificial intelligence (AI) was on the tip of everyone’s tongue — to explore how these tools impact our collective well-being.
Remarks from the keynote speaker, John Hollway, senior fellow at the Positive Psychology Center and associate dean at the University of Pennsylvania law school, echoed how technology — and especially social media — could be used for our well-being rather than focusing on the negative aspects.
“The question should be how do I want this technology to elevate the things that are important to get the sensations that will make me feel better,” he said.
“So the obligation for us is to be intentional and help each other, ourselves, and the people who rely on us to help them to not use this comparatively and do what we can do to control this technology because it has the risk of getting away from us.”
The first day of the conference went into familiar territory: More than 650 people attended one of the 90 workshops on a wide range of topics, such as “When and How to Use AI with Students,” “Human Dignity and the Technology Explosion,” and “The 10 Commandments of Parish Cybersecurity.”
For Christopher Alaniz, a fifth-grade teacher at St. Benedict School in Montebello, the conference was a chance to get ideas to reach his students, who are constantly grappling with technology.
“They overuse it,” Alaniz said. “Not on task, especially if they’re using it for research. They tend to get off course, off-topic. I have to constantly monitor them and make sure they’re engaged.”
C3 Conference attendees participate in one of the 90 workshops put on during the event’s first day. (Victor Alemán)
On Day 2, the pace changed. After an early-morning Mass at the San Fernando Mission, attendees rotated between three sessions that all focused on getting healthy and refocused: “The Gifts of Resilience,” “The Rules of Engagement: How to Thrive and Avoid Burnout,” and “Elevating and Recharging Your Relationships.”
In the resilience session, Jan Stanley, a consultant for the Penn Resilience Team, spoke about understanding resilience, myths, and some strategies to help when people are depleted.
“You are already resilient,” Stanley said. “You wouldn’t be in this room if you weren’t resilient already. You come from different circumstances, different families that are resilient, ancestors that are resilient. All of these things have played into our life to bring us here today.”
The power of resilience, Stanley told attendees, can also rub off on the students and young people they may come in contact with.
“As educators and people affiliated with the Church, we never know who we are inspiring,” she said. “As we go about our daily lives, maybe someone in some other room is naming us as a symbol of resilience for them.”
Over at the “Rules of Engagement” workshop, Hollway spoke about what it means to be engaged, the illusions of a work-life balance, and how to know when you’re headed for burnout.
“Work and life are a permeable membrane,” Hollway said. “Don’t subscribe to the idea that they’re separate and there’s a big wall and the emotions that happen in one don’t come over into the other.”
The COVID-19 pandemic was especially catastrophic to fostering engagement, he said, and didn’t allow people — especially young people — to build the skills needed for social connections and happiness.
“If you’re 7 or 11 or 18 and you lost two years of human relationship-building to enable you to have a support network to build that trust in how you learn, that’s going to have a tail to it that we’re still dealing with,” Hollway said. “As we try to engage with our colleagues, we need to remember these things because they aren’t our fault, but they are our problem….”
From Angelus News
My last Catholic school (in northern San Mateo Co.) has banned student phones for a decade or more. They go in a bin at the beginning of the day, are passed out after school, and can be confiscated if they are found on out campus (to be reclaimed only a parent from the principal). Every so often the principal makes a bag back check, if he sees too few in the bin.
I agree with that policy 100%. If a student has an energency and needs to call home, perhaps they can notify a teacher, and get permission to use the phone at the Principal’s Office. If there is no emergency, then they do not need their cell phone at all, at school. They can concentrate on their schoolwork. Teachers and all employees, too, in any type of job, should not have cell phones for all-day use, on-the-job. Normal, daily social interactions should replace social cell phone use, for everyone, children and adults. And kids should learn how to nicely write — in excellent cursive handwriting, as well as typing– both personal and professional letters, too, on nice stationery– instead of sending emails, with substandard English.
I was a teacher in Catholic schools. Believe me, the teachers are as addicted to the phones as the kids are. I got so sick of hearing conversations around teachers’ favorite apps or sharing YouTube videos against GW Bush and Trump.
Teachers are very much like middle schoolers.
“Teachers are very much like middle schoolers.”
Please do not besmirch the good name of middle schoolers by likening them to teachers.
When I was much younger and went to school we never had cell phones so I simply don’t understand why they need them in class. Tom Byrne’s comment has a really good idea.
I was a teacher once too, and I dreaded these teacher inservice days. Blah, blah, blah. Waste of time.
Zoom actually improved in-services. At least we got more comfortable seating and better coffee.
Does not the Catholic social teaching of subsidiarity call for the parents to “ban” cell phones?
A long time ago, before personal computers and smartphones, when the answering machine started to be marketed for everyone, my dear maternal grandma would tell everyone, that she would never leave any recorded messages. A long time ago, someone was always at home, in the American home (usually, the wife and mother, and maybe older children or a relative, who could answer the phone) to take calls and messages for family members who were not there. So, my favorite grandma insisted that she “only talked to human beings, not machines.” I agreed with her! She was originally from a much older, European culture, with lots of daily socializing in a more relaxed atmosphere. Not the “big, constant anxiety and rush” and materialism-chasing atmosphere, of American life. My favorite grandma always wore a pretty dress and had pretty jewelry, never wore pants, got her hair done weekly at her favorite beauty shop, was a terrific cook, gardener (with a beautiful yard, kitchen garden to grow fresh fruits and vegetables, and beautiful flowers!) and homemaker, and was just wonderful for anyone of any age– child or adult– to talk to, to spend tine with, to share your ideas, hopes and dreams with, to go for long walks or fun shopping trips with — or just anything! She was well-educated, and could talk about anything. She also never drove a car, just used public transit, lifelong. My grandpa was the driver. That was her personal choice. She didn’t like the big-city traffic– and grew up anyway, before cars became popular. Every day when she got up, as she would say– she always dressed herself in a lovely dress, with pretty jewelry, and as she said, she was ready for her day’s work as a wife, mother and homemaker, of which she was very proud. To be a wife, mother and homemaker was once viewed as the finest and noblest of professions, for a lovely woman! She also worked part-time in the children’s department, of a big store, for many years, and enjoyed it. Before marriage, after high school, she worked in a big bank, and said she really enjoyed that a lot. That was well over 100 years ago! She and my grandpa got their citizenship in California, after I was born. My grandparents (on both sides of the family) knew a much nicer way of life. Just add the women’s vote (1920) and respect women, pay women fairly (etc.) consider them as equal partners in marriage (my grandparents, on both sides, did this naturally, as did my parents) mutually discuss things each day, and together, make decisions, and appreciate the beauty of the natural roles of men and women, in marriage and the family home. The man was once the main breadwinner, with a good paycheck intended for a married man with a wife and children, and that was the norm, long ago. The wife and mother was the professional homemaker– a very serious, full-tine job!– and she was most often the one who received her husband’s paycheck, paid bills, grocery shopped, etc., built up the family savings — and expertly managed the family budget. And there was usually room for a wife, mom and homemaker to have a part-time job (usually during hours when the kids were all older, and in school during the day) if she wished.
“..ban iPhones”? Pointless. The kids will just go out and get Androids. (Sorry.)
The cool kids already use Android. iPhones are for dweebs.