Going Digital in the Classroom
We can’t stop the tsunami of digitization. So, how do we make the most of it?
Android robots may be coming soon to a school near you thanks to the latest multi-billion dollar investments from companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and BlackRock. As an intelligence researcher, professor, and mom of three small kids, I wince at the thought of robots replacing teachers like me who lead from the heart, ask questions from the soul, and inspire our innate human drive to better our world. But our kids are already test subjects in an ed-tech living laboratory.
Robots with names like Nao and Tega have been in the classroom for nearly a decade, as have a host of AI, virtual reality (VR), and machine learning (ML) learning tools designed to help children with language arts and math. School districts have ramped up the use of electronic textbooks and commercial learning apps in all subject areas to improve student access to curriculum, fix teacher shortages, and track student progress. Rather than remaining a novelty in the classroom, screen-based learning became a pillar of education during the pandemic, and it’s unlikely to go away.
We can’t stop the tsunami of digitization, but as we move toward implementing the next generation of ed-tech, we must pause and ask: how can we work it so that going digital can truly benefit our children?
Trends in learning outcomes tell us that some forms of digitization can be useful. Audiobooks can spark language acquisition and a love of learning in early childhood care facilities where no other instruction exists. E-books can make information easy to retrieve and interact with, and they can create community among those learning remotely. Language and math games and apps can increase a student’s motivation to learn when teachers encourage multi-player and multimodal interactive uses. Teaching kids to build their own AI and ML software can instill intentionality and a critical mindset around their own technology use.
Digitization also makes education accessible and affordable, and that is the primary reason that it has been implemented in so many classrooms in recent years. Schools have digitized libraries, transferred to online learning platforms and AI-based classroom systems, and incentivized teachers like me to adopt online open-access reading materials so as to reduce the financial burden on already stressed and strapped students. In the last couple of years, I have moved all my courses online, even those that meet in person, and I have retooled my syllabi with free, open-access e-resources. Everything from my lectures to my exams are nested in online modules designed to break the paywall to learning. Nearly all of my colleagues have done the same.
But these tools are less detrimental for college-aged students. A mass of cognitive studies has shown that extensive use of screens, especially in preschoolers and early learners, inhibits executive function—that part of the brain that helps a child make judgments. And screen learning can corrupt the very language-processing neural networks that enable a child to learn. Brain scans have also demonstrated that screens are addictive to kids, and addictive brain activity can harm brain anatomy as it is developing. Among children with the highest levels of screen use, researchers see poorer cognition and an increase in behavioral and emotional problems.
Brain imaging and eye-tracking research into digitized learning similarly shows that there is a “print advantage” to analog learning. Screens can be a real concentration killer. Brains and eyes process information more superficially when learners use screens. While they often show minimal differences in how fast they read or how much of their memory they are using no matter what kind of material they are learning from, screen learners exhibit fewer eye fixations on learning materials and eye-gaze transitions between parts of those materials, as well as more attention deficits and comprehension errors as they go.
Meanwhile, studies show print learners use their eyes and brains to dive deeply into texts, mapping out where they are in the text and what the relationship is between the different parts of it. They do so earlier in the learning process when they just begin to glance at the materials, setting themselves up for learning success right from the start.
Print learners are also more apt to do the most important part of learning: error correction. In their superficial scanning, however, screen learners often miss out on the signs that they are making an error, and as a result, they miss the chance to correct that error and fully comprehend the material.
This is especially important because most schools are using ed-tech to extend learning to the home, where going online can lead to scrolling and scrolling can lead to misinformation. Experiments priming screen learners with misinformation have shown that they are not only less likely to pick up on misinformation than print learners, they are also less likely to correct it when they are made aware of it. Meanwhile, print learners are more likely to remain on the text at hand and more likely to get the main takeaways of the material deeply, reading carefully and critically.
One of the big promises of digitized learning, especially with AI applications, is to create innovative interactivity around texts by inviting students to ask any kind of question that they want and make connections between all kinds of information. And yet, studies show that screen learners are quicker to lose interest in their learning materials and to use AI software as a grab-and-go for answers. Despite the host of highlighting and notation tools embedded in e-reading software, screen learners are far less likely to interact with or annotate text using those tools. Even when teachers do use smart tutors to free up their time in the classroom, their focus shifts to one-on-one learning, moving further away from interactive learning.
So how to turn it around?
For younger kids especially, we can begin by setting clear limits on the time they will spend with e-resources, bots, apps and software, using materials to build critical thinking skills around technology in a group setting. Kids have too much screen time outside the classroom as it is. The classroom should be a place where their developing brains can thrive.
For older kids, we can strategically adopt digital learning. In my research, I advocate for connected learning, a collaborative learning style where all tech users work together in real-time to solve problems. Teachers who use Midjourney to create math raps or who use chatbots to teach teens to code provide great examples of this.
We must likewise give our kids the information to be able to navigate this technologized world that they are growing and developing in. Teach them to be critical of the litany of seductive media and apps so that they can use technology responsibly when they exit the classroom. Teachers who have age-appropriate learning modules on tech ethics instill an important component of leadership in their students.
Education, like anything, is about tradeoffs. For many of my college students, spending $80 on a single textbook is not an option. Inadequate comprehension is better than no comprehension at all.
But for younger kids in classrooms, especially early learners like my preschooler and first-grade sons, comprehension is everything. We acquire the majority of our reading skills and build neural networks foundational to all forms of learning in these early years.
Learning builds habits. And habits build the structures of the brain. A developing brain is more susceptible to the harms of screen activity and disconnected learning in general. We must do everything in our power to program and teach responsible uses of tech so that our most precious and vulnerable minds can nurture their intelligence.