Digital Detox: Why Schools Are Swapping Laptops for Paper

Every teacher reading this has an opinion on the subject: Do students learn better from screens or from traditional, physical paper? While we know cell phones are not great for kids, some schools are now starting to question this 1-1 technology approach schools have submitted grants for and worked so hard to obtain for their students since the COVID-19 pandemic. This question intensified and bustled about education circles once researchers released non-peer-reviewed results about students’ processing and reading abilities for screens vs. paper.

Why Columbia University researchers are prompting a digital detox for schools

While their title is eye-catching and they have meagerly significant results, readers need to digest this research and information more slowly. As a researcher, the biggest issues I have with these results is the sample size is incredibly small and the results were found in a lab … not in a comfortable, regular-setting classroom. But like catchy research does, many take to it as “groundbreaking.” While teachers may have opinions and thoughts about middle school students being able to read better from paper than from a screen, we don’t need to throw the baby out with the bathwater just yet.

This Reddit post by a frustrated teacher alludes to just that, though. They say:

“We became 1:1 when COVID happened. The district did a mass repossession of all devices and handed them out. I had purchased a cart and about 10 CBs with my classroom and state money. All were immediately taken. Spent the last 3 years changing lessons and documents over to the electronic version of assignments. I adjusted, kids adjusted … I cannot go back to grading paper. Email came out today that devices will be confiscated and only core subjects will have a class set. I’m a Spanish teacher, which means I won’t have any. At best, I can check out a Chromebook cart and wheel it to my room, but not every day. Also, we have e-books as textbooks. I do have a class set of textbooks, which I’ll have to reissue, but there’s not enough for large classes. I’m at a loss of where to even begin with this or why they even did this.” —Noseatbeltnoairbag

Read the full article here: https://www.weareteachers.com/digital-detox/

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