For generations, the promise of technology was that it would not just integrate into classrooms but would transform teaching and learning. When radio was in its infancy, stakeholders believed it would revolutionize education. Years later, tech evangelists believed that PCs, tablets, and smartphones were not just conveniences but were actually a revolution. Some disagreed with the evangelists. In his book Failure to Disrupt, Justin Reich argues that digital technology never really revolutionized education; it has only made teachers and students more efficient.

Katie Davis, Ph.D., associate professor, Information School at the University of Washington and co-author with Howard Gardner of The App Generation: How Today’s Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World says digital technology never changes education in a fundamental way. Districts are quick to introduce digital devices but fail to train teachers on their use and fail to detail the learning objectives these devices address. This leaves many stakeholders wondering if today’s students are learning more with digital devices than they had without them and how they should be used in the classroom.

Living in a One-To-One World

As digital devices crept into classrooms a decade ago, many districts felt obligated to ensure that each student had their own device so they could call themselves one-to-one school districts. Michael Rich, MD, director of the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, says he prefers a one-to-three model – that’s one device for three students.

Research suggests that when three students work on one device simultaneously, they experience human interplay as they confer with one another, agree or disagree on topics, and discuss their findings. Students who work solo on one device internalize the information they access using the device and accept it as dogma, “rather than being challenged and having cognitive dissonance in the learning process,” says Dr. Rich.

Take Note

Without question, students who take notes on paper retain far more information than those who take notes on a digital device. It’s easy to take notes on a laptop while someone is dictating, says Dr. Rich, but then students are just stenographers. The information enters the student’s ear, and the student types it onto the screen, but then doesn’t think about the information and certainly doesn’t reflect on it.

“If you are taking physical notes, you cannot write as fast as someone talks,” says Dr. Rich. Because students writing notes have to filter the information their teachers are imparting, they’re forced to think about it and pay closer attention to the material. Paper notes also trigger class memories, encouraging students to reflect on the material the teacher presented.

Dr. Davis agrees with Dr. Rich and says that students who write their notes are more engaged in the learning process. “(When students write their notes) they must determine in real time what exactly they want to get down on paper before the teacher moves on to something else” says Dr. Davis, who has a new book coming out in February called Technology’s Child, which explores the intersection between child development and technology use and design.

Learn to Write Right

Students’ inability to communicate through writing has concerned educators since Reconstruction. In 1874, more than half of the first-year students at Harvard failed a writing entrance exam, and in 2019, 41 percent of students who took the ACT failed to score well enough to meet readiness benchmarks for a college-level composition class. Unfortunately, there’s precious little data on the effects digital devices have on students’ writing. What experts do know, however, is that by virtue of texting, technology students are writing more than ever, which they view as a positive.

The downside of students communicating through texts is that they are bringing texting norms into their academic writing, like typing the letter u rather than the word Y – O – U. “I don’t know how worried we should be about that. It’s to be expected,” says Dr. Davis. If students fail to understand that the norms of one context don’t translate well to the norms of the other, teachers must provide explicit instruction on the difference. But there’s no cause for alarm, she says.

At its essence, writing is about communicating and often communication between individuals needs to be nuanced. Texting shorthand makes nuance much more difficult to detect, says Dr. Rich. Lack of nuance combined with the asynchronous nature of texting and sending emails leaves room for misinterpretation and expectations by the individual receiving the text or the email. There’s a socially laden set of instructions regarding how quickly an individual should respond to a text or an email, which adds another layer of interpretation. “There are kids who, if you don’t respond to their text (or email) in five minutes, assume there’s an implication of the quality of the relationship. It’s a timing thing, and that comes out of social media. How many ‘likes’ you get and how quickly you get those ‘likes,’” says Dr. Rich.

Three Cheers for Boredom

Years ago, neuroscientists identified a critically important function of the default mode network of the human brain. This network is commonly associated with moral development, identity development, and perspective taking. It’s the network of the brain that is significantly more active when an individual disengages from those tasks associated with smartphones, like playing games or checking emails and texts. It’s most active during daydreaming and introspection. “(Although it may seem) as though we’re not doing anything, (our brains) are doing important work, like consolidating experiences and making connections,” says Dr. Davis. “It’s super important.” When the brain is in this mode, it’s solidifying what a student learned in class that day.

To be effective, the default mode network requires time to work and that means unplugging from digital devices, says Dr. Rich. He encourages bringing boredom back into peoples’ lives. Students need empty spaces that allow their brains to think anew, spaces that can sometimes be uncomfortable. This discomfort forces students to fill the space with activities that don’t involve their phone, tablet, or computer. When individuals are bored, they revert to their phones and sometimes default to other people’s ideas rather than being creative. “We’re so averse to being bored as if that’s a bad thing,” says Dr. Rich.

Boredom is underrated, and it has positive effects on the brain. Dr. Rich encourages families to take what he calls a “digital Sabbath.” Any chance he gets, he tells the parents to switch off the devices for 24 hours. “This allows your hyperstimulation to subside a little bit and allows you to be bored and allows your mind to wander. It lets you get to places you wouldn’t otherwise get to,” says Dr. Rich.

When Dr. Rich imparts lectures to parents and teachers, he closes by saying, “rather than developing killer apps we should be developing killer BEs. “Be mindful in our screen use, be balanced in our screen and non-screen time and not make screen time toxic and know what you’re not doing because you’re on a screen. And most importantly for parents and teachers, be present,” says Dr. Rich. With their near-infinite connectedness, he says screens have eroded individuals’ connectedness with other humans.