By Rose Watson, age 11
When I was in third grade, I barely did any work on a screen. We wrote our essays by hand and copied them with a pen onto a nice piece of paper. The only time I remember using a screen is at the end of the year. We wrote an essay by hand and then typed up our final draft. My younger brother, Leo, just graduated third grade. I’ve noticed that he talked about using screens in school much more than I did, using programs like i-Ready, Blooket, and Google Docs. And we’re only three grades apart.
I am concerned about how quickly the technology used in school is increasing. And I’m not alone. Parents, students, and teachers across the United States are pushing back against growing technology use in classrooms. The issue of excessive screen use has become a major concern. In May, the U.S. surgeon general’s office announced that “harmful screen use among children and adolescents has become a public health concern.”
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, more technology was introduced to students because school systems needed to provide academic content online. Schools received billions of dollars in federal stimulus aid, allowing them to give each student a personal device, according to Education Week.
Since then, parents have been pushing back against having tech in the classroom and are concerned that their children’s grades are falling because they are distracted by their screens during school. But in a Philadelphia suburb, the school district has responded negatively to parents’ requests for their children to opt out of screen time in school. As Anna Shurak, a school board member said to the Associated Press, “There is not an option for us to not have technology in schools.” School board members considered how to address parents’ concerns, but they rejected the idea of banning technology in the classroom.
In fact, the EdWeek Research Center put forward a survey asking if schools are cutting back on tech in the classroom, and 74% of teachers, principals, and district leaders that were surveyed responded, “No, and we have no plans to do so.”
However, new tech guidelines have been introduced in some schools across the United States. For example, the Los Angeles Unified School District set screen time limits, varying grade to grade, according to ABC News. They limited grades two and three to 20 minutes per day, and four and five to 30 minutes per day. And the NCSL Pre-K-12 Education Legislation Database says that at least 43 states introduced limits on screen time in K-12 classrooms.
Artificial intelligence is making this even more complicated. This summer, New York City Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels told schools to hold off on purchasing educational software programs for the next school year so that the Education Department could release guidance about AI. As Nicole Brownstein, an Education Department spokesperson, said to Chalkbeat, “This necessary pause is part of our work to ensure proper protocols are in place while supporting our students and staff and making sure that any digital tool used in classrooms is properly assessed for safety and privacy.”
Before school started, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that generative AI use would be banned in elementary and middle schools for one year. The city also imposed a rule that students could not use individual devices below third grade, as well as time limits on the amount of time students could use laptops from third through eighth grade, according to Gothamist. Other large school districts like Los Angeles have also instated AI bans and limits on technology use in the classroom, reported The New York Times.
One example of a technology used in school that people are frustrated with is i-Ready. i-Ready is a computer program that offers adaptive assessments and personalized lessons in reading and math, and nearly 14 million students each year in the United States are forced to use it, according to NBC News. Although supporters of it say that it is helpful because it offers personalized lessons, many students find it annoying and boring, making them dislike school.
Also, teachers say using the program takes up to 90 minutes each week, time that could be used for in-person instruction and building relationships. Los Angeles school board member Kelly Gonez said to NBC News that teachers felt i-Ready was having unintended negative consequences and that it was taking away the limited time that they have with their students to build relationships — to understand their individual needs.”
Similarly, tests have been moving onto screens in previous years, but according to a study from the University of South Carolina, results on a Massachusetts end-of-year test called the PARCC actually decreased when the test was moved online, especially for students from poorer households.
People who support the use of tech in classrooms say it has many benefits. Instead of cutting back on it, they say, we should train teachers to be able to control students’ use of technology.
However, screen-based activities are often designed to be addictive. As reported by NPR,Meta and Google were recently sued in California for “designing their apps to behave like ‘digital casinos.’”
The devices that schools are giving children have apps that are designed to suck them in. Therefore, it is an almost impossible task for the teachers, some of whom are forced to meet minute requirements on apps like i-Ready, and to try to get kids who are already addicted to social media to stay on the app that they are supposed to be on.
Based on the evidence, it seems like tech is not a significant improvement to education and that we should cut back on tech in schools. School boards should listen to the parents, students, and teachers who are directly affected by this technology.
