Schools banned smartphones but soon realised that students were using their school Chromebooks to watch the same YouTube videos and play games.

A school in Kansas banned smartphones 4 years ago, but soon realised that students were using their school Chromebooks to watch the same YouTube videos and play games.

Last December, they decided to go back to pens, paper, and textbooks, while laptops now remain in boxes at the back of the classroom and are only used for specific tasks.

This is just one of many schools that are rethinking their policies of buying a laptop for every student, based on the increasing evidence that digitalising school education decreases test scores rather than it improves them.

As Michael Bloomberg put it last year, the broad-scale EdTech experiment on children has failed and it’s time to take action.

Check out our OFF EdTech initiative to find out about the 12 reasons why tablets and digital platforms have damaged education:

➊ Their deployment has been based on ill-defined objectives.

➋ They’re a source of distraction and a gateway towards non-academic use.

➌ Paediatric recommendation call for a reduction in screen time (including for school purposes).

➍ They have a negative impact on concentration and listening skills

➎ Reading on paper and handwriting outcompete digital devices in terms of reading comprehension and motor-skills.

➏ They promote a passive attitude.

➐ They make students less responsible.

➑ They raise serious concerns regarding privacy and personal data.

➒ “Digital natives” are less prepared for a highly-connected world.

➓ They contribute to dehumanising education

⓫ The EdTech industry (“Big Tech with a school uniform”, in Emily Cherkin's words) exerts a powerful influence on education.

⓬ They generate huge environmental and economic costs.

More in the OFF EdTech white paper: https://www.offm.org/en/edtech

As Jared Cooney puts it: “This is not a debate about rejecting technology. It is a question of aligning educational tools with how human learning actually works.”

“Evidence indicates that indiscriminate digital expansion has weakened learning environments rather than strengthened them. […] Our responsibility is not to maximize screen exposure, but to maximize the cognitive capacity and long-term flourishing of the next generation.”