Technology

It’s not screens that are the problem, per se, but how they are used, and how schools and teachers were rely upon them to do every single little thing rather than using an appropriate methodology which integrates traditional teaching techniques which use technology to assist.

No. Shit.

Giving every student a distraction to take with them everywhere typically is a bad idea.

This has been a major problem for my kid. They don’t even lock down the iPads they issue so they just do whatever. So when my kid is failing classes because he’s not doing assignments in class and it turns out he’s just on YouTube all day, it’s like why the fuck are they even able to get on that in the first place? Doesn’t matter how tightly I restrict technology at home when his school just says fuck it.

The issue here is that the technology itself, instruction, and implementation was incredibly poor this century. Schools weren't doing basic things like typing classes for primary school, there was no instruction on how to program or use the operating systems, and kids weren't given PCs; they were given tablets and chrome books which favored internet access based learning platforms over products stored locally on machines.

I grew up during the 1980s, and my primary schools had 1 apple pc in the classroom. We took turns learning typing. We learned how to operate the machines by inserting floppies and typing commands. Things we were given access to were all instructional. I have vivid memories of learning math via computer with a program called number muncher.

Access to the tech was limited and supervised. This is what created an environment that taught me how to use computers as I transitioned to secondary education. This century, all of the implemented controls were related to limiting access to pornography rather than teaching students anything about the actual tech. Now we have a generation of people entering the workforce that don't know how to use PCs just like the boomer demographic.

I'm in tech and a connoisseur of modern stuff, but even I wouldn't want my non existing kids to be screen only. Have an IT class to get them to know how to use those devices, then back to books and paper. A friend struggles like hell keeping her son from spending his whole day on digital devices, if the school pulled that off, he'd be toast.

“TEchMoLoGy iS tHe fUTuRe anD wE mUSt PrEpArE tHE stUdEnTs!”

Yeah, no. You can stick to teaching them core curriculum. Speaking on behalf of GenX, we never needed school to tell us how to use technology.

I preferred pen and paper for note taking, didn't take notes on laptop for CS uni even. But having instruction material in digital form wins imo. Bulky exercise books are not worth it imo. I suspect publishers prefer those for beefy books for other reasons....but I would not be surprised if for lower elementary school exercise books with lots of images and fun exercises have positive impact.

Let's also remember that before the screens, we had shitty textbooks, and underpaid teachers and a serious shortage of supplies.

Schools in the United States need more than a review of tech, but a complete overhaul and a budget that doesn't look like Republicans are literally trying to kill the education system.

But after these funds dried up, schools have struggled to replace broken or outdated devices, which last on average less than a decade despite Google’s efforts to extend device life spans.

HA

We can blame Google, Microsoft, and Apple for this mess.

Wow! Who could've thought of that?! /s

Toss the chromebooks and let kids mess with the inner workings of the computer. Tech them to make their own backups and have restore drives available.

But the tech companies told me that everyone should learn to code in grade school!

Wonder when they'll admit that AI existing at all makes students much, much worse off?

How is it that it took until 2026, nearly 100 years after the advent of the nuclear bomb, for school administrators to realize that not all technology is inherently good in every application?

It's not the tech, it's capitalism, and the fact the people making decisions are usually oblivious to the dangers of capitalistic tech.

Only way I have ever learned, in school, is by writing notes by hand into my own notebooks. Rewriting text book chapters, taking notes from teacher, writing answers down. It takes time, longer than taking notes on a laptop. But writing on laptop just doesn't "stick" the information into my head. Back in high school, I was the last student to still hand-in my essays etc in paper and my teachers were very happy to grade them, one told me it brought her good memories from the times there were less screens and teaching was easier. No wonder..

When I had laptop in glass, it was very easy to play games, watch Netflix or scroll Reddit. I had no self-control, I was not able to force myself to focus in learning. They started using laptops and tablets in glasses when we were 13 and most of us found ways to play games etc on them, bypassed the restrictions. And we shared the knowledge on that. Oh, also I dropped out eventually.

When I was in middle school. I thought that it was really cool that the kids in 'murica could take laptops and tablet into the school to use in class for learning. Then I stopped being a middle schooler.

They only ruined one generation this time.

This is likely a hot take but, I don't think this was the fault of the in-class laptops. They thought removing phones were going to solve the issue, it didn't, they thought computers were going to solve the issue, they didn't.

The core issue is: School is fucking boring. As a kid/teen you spend 8-10 hours a day sitting at a desk listening to a teacher yap about shit that at the time you don't believe is even important so you can regurgitate said useless information in tests that you then proceed to forget 2 weeks after taking. Hell even now I think I learned more actual life and useful skills in college. I have more engagement and entertainment working a full time job, than I did in a classroom, and at least I was making money with the job.

The school districts are shocked that upon providing a tool that could be used to lessen the tedium and lifelessness that school shoves down kids throats they then misused said tool. I don't understand it.

Make learning fun and engaging, add actual life skills to classrooms like how to read an analog clock, or how to write a check. Talk about how to survive in the real world, how interest works, how your credit score is really important, maybe how the government works cause I know I never had a civics class. Stuff that kids in high school would actually care about, instead of how to solve 3 unknowns in an equation, or how to find an angle of a triangle when you know the 2 angles, or learning about colonization for the 8th time. Make it so it isn't just "read this board, repeat on the test".

If you solve the underlying issues at play, instead of trying to remove the tools that kids are misusing in order to fix the issue that the school system as a whole created, I think it would be found that computers would be a net positive. I know having a computer in class significantly improved my scores and learning capability, as I could use it for legible note taking, and I could record sessions if I needed to. Yes I definitely accessed coolmathgames at times but, I can tell you right now, the ability to do that helped remove the monotony of the classroom, and if I didn't have that tool at my disposal, I would have simply zoned out and gained nothing out of the day, instead of what I did. My scores definitely wouldn't have gone up like the article seems to be alluding to.