Technology continues to rage in the hallways of your local school.
With smartphones being locked down and banned from schools, complete screen shutdown is next, potentially leading to iPads and tablets being banned from classrooms.
Technology plays an important role in education (more on this shortly), but experience also gives us plenty of reason to be skeptical.
The pandemic has sparked a new wave of enthusiasm for technology: Before the pandemic, two-thirds of school districts provided devices (usually Chromebooks or iPads) to all middle and high school students, according to a 2022 Education Week survey.
Enthusiasts
By March 2021, that figure had risen to 90 percent, with 84 percent in primary schools, a move that drew much celebration from school leaders and technology enthusiasts.
Teachers and parents were less sanguine, with parents reporting a feeling of isolation from online education and complaining about the hassle of clunky school websites and software.
When it comes to teachers, 60% told Education Week that the biggest problem with technology is student distraction, and 80% said more screen time leads to poorer student behavior. Additionally, existing research makes it difficult to find a clear link between technology and improved learning outcomes.
But enthusiasm for the technology continues to grow as schools scramble to finish off billions of dollars in expiring federal pandemic aid, much of which has gone toward new technology.
Trickster
At the same time, edtech charlatans and TED Talk attendees are gushing about the promise of AI, connectivity, and digital tools. All this is happening amid a growing push to ban cell phones from schools and a growing body of data suggesting that they are damaging children’s learning and health.
Indeed, in schools where cell phones are banned, students have told reporters and researchers that they appreciate the freedom from the constant demands of texting and social media.
The distractions created by 24/7 access to messaging apps, social media, and games are staggering, especially when you consider that teens receive an average of 237 phone notifications every day.
The unbridled enthusiasm for technology spending is due in no small part to incentives that encourage superintendents and principals to chase grants and present themselves as “leading” innovators.
By spending money to buy cool things (whether they will be used or not), they gain praised press and set themselves up for professional advancement.
Luddite
Skeptics are forced to ask: “Were the Luddites right?” No, not really. Schools are not going back to chalk and slate, nor should they. And even “technology-free” schools aren’t removing computers from their libraries or telling kids to write all their essays by hand.
But schools need to think harder about the uses and limitations of technology. While the issue of smartphones has received much deserved attention recently, what’s been overlooked is that technology can be disruptive, rather than helpful, to school education.
Students have always found ways to escape class, but having an interactive device in their pocket that indulges in gossip and games doesn’t help. That’s why smartphones (and even Chromebooks and tablets) are more of a distraction from class than the classroom computers and VCRs of decades ago.
If you’ve ever taught a class with your laptop open, you know the feeling of wondering how many of your students are taking notes and how many are shopping or browsing social media.
Schools are filled with familiar technologies like calculators and whiteboards that were once someone’s cutting edge technology. These tools have proven useful, freeing high school students from having to spend hours wrestling with slide rules or putting up with teachers’ mundane tasks of dusting with erasers.
Progressives
Of course, these new tools can also be used in problematic ways, as when progressive educators decide that calculators mean elementary school students no longer need to master multiplication and division.
Only one technology has ever promised to transform schooling: the humble book. Once upon a time, students could only learn from their local teacher, and only if they were within earshot of that teacher.
The invention of the printing press allowed students to learn anywhere and from anyone.
Students could reread and learn from texts that their teachers found inexperienced or uninteresting, and teachers could lecture less and explain more.
The problem is that edtech tends to be more about the technology than the education, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Mentor
Technology can enhance schooling, being used to connect students and instructors, increase family engagement, provide access to richer and more rigorous instruction, and make better use of student and teacher time.
Don’t underestimate how much parents have influenced the way school works. From their perspective, the way we learned as children was natural and they only realized how technology has dramatically improved our work lives as adults.
It would be a mistake to think that a similar principle would apply to your children: it won’t happen, because the human brain doesn’t evolve into new ways of learning in one generation.
Everyone aboard!
This column is by Ritchie Lucas, founder and CEO of the nonprofit organization, The Student Success Project. You can contact Ritchie by email at ritchie@studentsuccessproject.org or on Facebook at The Student Success Project.
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