Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath writes in his new book, The Digital Delusion: How Classroom Technology Harms Our Kids’ Learning—and How to Help Them Thrive Again, that “our children are less cognitively capable than we were at their age.”
While this is a bold claim at worst and a daunting sentiment at best, it is backed by research both in the social science of education and the neuroscience of children’s and adolescent’s brains. Dr. Horvath dives deep into the science in this recorded conversation hosted by American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and proves how students who graduate from public schools which rely too heavily on technology are less cognitively equipped than those who learn primarily on paper.
Dr. Horvath explains that this is due to the lack of cognitive training students receive during instructional time, despite the extra time spent in school. He shares that the brain does not hold onto material read off a screen the same way it does when reading off a page. This is because the brain uses spatial awareness to memorize information that it reads. A sentence in a book will remain in the same spot before, during, and after a person has read it. A sentence on the screen, on the other hand, will change positions as one scrolls through a reading or alters the size of the text.
Dr. Horvath also explains that notetaking as a practice is not done while students learn, it is the learning that occurs. Schools are not training students in this process in the same way they used to, because notetaking is essentially done for you by AI or through computer programs and app software.
Similarly, when a screen is used to help a student develop a skill, that skill is tied to that piece of technology. There is no skill transfer beyond the technology because there is no context of learning beyond the computer being used. Moreover, skills learned on the computer often require less of the person learning them than the real-life challenges they are supposed to prepare them for. So, when a student learns a skill on the computer, they are not prepared to use it in real life.
Dr. Horvath reveals that if you cross reference NAEP data with the timeline of states adopting technology in schools, there is a stark and clear correlation between the two. As technology makes an appearance, test scores drop. From 2010 to now, kids spend more time in school, and yet their scores are going down. IQ has dropped for the first time in measurable history. Working memory is declining, which is a phenomenon previously thought to be impossible. Our students are not learning; they are barely getting by in the world they are forced to grow up in.
On a lighter note, Dr. Horvath provides recommendations for this problem: most importantly, there needs to be a moratorium on new technology. Second, districts need to conduct a technology audit and get rid of any not being used. Third, districts need to conduct an efficacy audit of the remaining technology and compare what has been boosting and what has been harming learning. Finally, new technology must meet minimal standards of data and evidence-based effectiveness.
This is a short summary of a very enlightening video, but we highly encourage you to watch the full conversation between Rick Hess, director of Education Policy Studies at AEI, and Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath here.