There has been a lot of recent attention on attempts to get phones out of schools. The data makes it clear that phones impede student learning, cause and exacerbate discipline problems, and harm students’ mental health. The evidence is also clear that the phone prohibits work. Bans improve academic results, especially for lower studentsand improve the social environment for students.
For all these reasons, schools, school districts, and even entire states are getting rid of phones in the classroom. But what about the other “educational” screens sitting on students’ desks all day?
While phones may be the worst culprits for distraction from learning during the school day, the “educational” screens that many children use in their classrooms, such as Chromebooks, tablets or laptops, are also harming the academic results.
Despite the growing push over the last decade to get every child a laptop or tablet, the so-called 1:1 laptop policy doesn’t seem to be working. Instead, student scores in math, reading and science have been declining in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic certainly contributed to the recent declines in scores, the largest seen since the 1970s (“virtual learning” on screens at home didn’t help). But the numbers have been declining since 2012.
Lower results are further back. Screens should help solve these education inequalities, but they don’t seem to be panning out.
A to study on the impact of children’s access to computers on educational outcomes in early adulthood found that, despite a notable increase in access to computers, educational outcomes did not not increased; the tuition gap between private and public students persists, despite the closing of the technological gap.
Other research sheds light on why this is the case. A to study out of Norway found that students who read text on computers did worse in comprehension tests than students who read the same text on paper. Another one to study using MRI scans of 8- to 12-year-old children showed stronger reading circuits in the brains of those who spent more time reading paper books than those who spent their time on screens. And just this past May, educational neuroscientists at the Teachers College of Columbia University found “Evidence that children’s brains process written texts more deeply when presented in print rather than on a digital screen.” In short, children derive deeper meaning from printed texts than screens.
The reality is that learning on screens does not yield the same benefits as learning on paper.
Maryanne Wolf, an education scholar at UCLA, is concerned that screen-encouraged skimming—quickly becoming the new norm for reading—is causing us to lose the deep reading processes that are necessary for literacy and learning. She he says“The digital elephant in every classroom and home is whether our youth are going to develop full literacy.”
Writing homework by hand also has cognitive benefits that writing on a screen does not. One to study showed that tracing the ABCs, as opposed to writing them, leads to better and more lasting recognition and understanding of letters. He also writes by hand improve memory and recall of words, which lays the foundation for literacy and learning.
Not only does the medium negatively affect educational outcomes – the screens themselves also distract from actual learning. A mother who wrote to me about her experience of children using laptops in schools said that her daughter had trouble focusing on the teacher because the children to her left and right were playing videos. games on their tablets. The mother later discovered that the children were using the school-provided screens for purposes beyond video games: they were looking for anything and everything during school hours. A friend shared how his son was watching porn at school.
He is not alone. Common Sense Media found that almost a third of teenagers have seen pornography during the school day. Of these teens, 44 percent had viewed it on a school-issued device.
Are schools trying to prevent this?
A teacher said they can’t stop because when they get to a student’s desk, the student clicks away from the site. When the mother who wrote to me spoke to the principal about her concerns, she said that no matter how hard her IT department tries to block the sites, they can’t do it fast enough. They simply cannot stand in front of everything.
A learning environment for children should not be distractions of video games or pornography always available or bombardment of distractions on the screens of their peers. We all know this. But parents feel powerless to change. Unlike smart phones, which are in the power of parents to opt for their child, the screens issued by the school are often forced on parents and families against their will. Some parents they push themselves, however, asking that their children are without a screen and complete their assignments with pencil and paper instead, with varying success rates.
But this problem should not be on the parents. It is the job of schools to educate children. Screens are increasingly opposed to that goal. They are not closing the achievement gap or improving learning outcomes for our children. Evidence from cell phone bans shows that eliminating screens does more to reduce educational inequalities and improve test scores than not. It’s time to take the screens out of schools.
Clare Morell is the Director of the Technology and Human Flourishing Project at the Center for Ethics and Public Policy. His upcoming book, The Tech Exit: A Manifesto for the Liberation of Our Childrenwill be published by Penguin Random House.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.