School districts have spent millions of dollars wiring classrooms, installing smart boards, and purchasing laptops and iPads so that students will have more access to technology. The intention is that all these devices will increase student learning.
But is it possible that the opposite is sometimes true? Could technology in the classroom ever be getting in the way of student learning?
In the January 2015 Op-Ed essay “Can Students Have Too Much Tech?,” Susan Pinker writes:
… More technology in the classroom has long been a policy-making panacea. But mounting evidence shows that showering students, especially those from struggling families, with networked devices will not shrink the class divide in education. If anything, it will widen it.
In the early 2000s, the Duke University economists Jacob Vigdor and Helen Ladd tracked the academic progress of nearly one million disadvantaged middle-school students against the dates they were given networked computers. The researchers assessed the students’ math and reading skills annually for five years, and recorded how they spent their time. The news was not good.
“Students who gain access to a home computer between the 5th and 8th grades tend to witness a persistent decline in reading and math scores,” the economists wrote, adding that license to surf the Internet was also linked to lower grades in younger children.
In fact, the students’ academic scores dropped and remained depressed for as long as the researchers kept tabs on them. What’s worse, the weaker students (boys, African-Americans) were more adversely affected than the rest. When their computers arrived, their reading scores fell off a cliff.
We don’t know why this is, but we can speculate. With no adults to supervise them, many kids used their networked devices not for schoolwork, but to play games, troll social media and download entertainment. (And why not? Given their druthers, most adults would do the same.)
The problem is the differential impact on children from poor families. Babies born to low-income parents spend at least 40 percent of their waking hours in front of a screen — more than twice the time spent by middle-class babies. They also get far less cuddling and bantering over family meals than do more privileged children. The give-and-take of these interactions is what predicts robust vocabularies and school success. Apps and videos don’t.
If children who spend more time with electronic devices are also more likely to be out of sync with their peers’ behavior and learning by the fourth grade, why would adding more viewing and clicking to their school days be considered a good idea?
Students: Read the entire article, then tell us …
— Have you noticed technology in the classroom ever getting in the way of student learning? How common is it for students to get distracted by surfing the web, playing video games or using social media on your school computers? How frequently do teachers underutilize expensive technology in your school?
— How well do you think your teachers use technology in the classroom? Can you describe a time when a teacher really advanced your learning by using technology?
— What recommendations would you give your teachers to use technology even more effectively?
— This 2011 article profiles a Silicon Valley school that was deliberately low-tech. Why would tech-savvy parents choose to send their children to a school that frowns on educational technology? Do you think these parents were making the right decision? Why?
Students 13 and older are invited to comment below. Please use only your first name. For privacy policy reasons, we will not publish student comments that include a last name.