“The issue is that schools fell victim to the tech industries pushing
‘more tech is better,’ and in the process, we dismantled all of our
analog systems. Now…we don’t have the hundreds of thousands
of dollars to repurchase textbooks that have shifted to online versions.
Our teachers have moved past or forgotten all of their analog training
and now over-rely on the technology that you shoved down our throats.”
~ Alyssa, educator
As if the best thing since sliced bread, we invited tech into both our personal lives and classrooms, inviting the proverbial fox into the hen house years ago…
Facebook came out on May 18, 2012, but it took until 2017 for its former president Sean Parker to admit “some regret in the path that the company took.” In fact, despite its stated mission to keep the world connected, its actual goal all along was, he says, “to consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible by giving a little dopamine every once in a while.”
Called “a social validation loop,” those likes, shares, and comments feed that feel-good dopamine; the likes of Parker and Mark Zuckerberg knew it, and “We did it anyway.”
Thanks to the brain’s wiring, we took the bait.
Parents handed cellphones and tablets to even the youngest among us, amusing and engaging them. The regrets came later.
In fact, Common Sense Media says that:
- 40% of children have their own personal tablet by age 2.
- 58% of 4-year-olds have a personal tablet.
- Nearly 25% of 8-year-olds have their own cellphone.
- 51% of those 8 and younger have their own mobile device.
Schools jumped on the tech bandwagon, too.
Though Chromebooks have been around since the 2010s, it took the pandemic and shift to remote learning for “one device per K-12 student” to rule the day.
At a cost of tens of billions to schools.
And with that, we went from teacher-centered classrooms to device-centered ones with paper and pencils taking a hit, too.
Many educators thought it a good thing, but not so much now finds a recent an EdWeek Research Center survey:
- 62% of educators say ed-tech negatively impacts social-emotional skills development;
- 55% say it negatively impacts student well-being/mental health; and
- 52% say it negatively affects student behavior, too.
Plus:
- 61% of educators say parents/caregivers feel there’s too much tech in schools;
- 37% said it’s about right.
So finally today, 42 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico have enacted legislation or have state-level cellphone limits; 20 have strict bell-to-bell or classroom limits.
And support is strong…
A recent edchoice.org survey found that:
- 65% of parents support cellphone-free classrooms, while
- 36% to 46% prefer full bell-to-bell limits.
Moreover, a National Parent Union survey found that belatedly:
- About 75% of parents want limits on in-school screen time.
- 1% want absolutely no screen time in classrooms.
We, too, knew and did it anyway…
“The advantages of paper-based reading, especially for informational or expository test, are incredibly strong, and we see similar patterns with handwritten notetaking… If schools changed nothing else except shifting reading and note-taking back to paper, they would likely see rapid and meaningful improvements in how students think and learn.”
~ Jared Cooney Horvath, neuroscientist
~ With thanks, Carol
