Are Chromebooks as Bad as Cell Phones in the Classroom?

What if Chromebooks and other school-issued devices are just as bad for kids' learning as cell phones during the school day?

Well, that might seem implausible, but according to a new book, The Digital Delusion, How Classroom Technology Harms Our Kids' Learning and How to Help Them Thrive Again, by neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath, that is exactly what's taking place.

And this is a very, very evidence-rich book.

There is a ton of research in it that I think demonstrates pretty conclusively that edtech has been a net negative, at least if we're talking about giving kids devices that they have all the time and that they can be on for large stretches of the school day.

And personally, I don't have a lot of experience with this.

My kids have Chromebooks.

I have a kid who can bring her Chromebook home.

Like they almost never use them.

And it seems like that might be the ideal circumstance, right?

That they have the tool that's there if they need to.

look something up for a project or do their final word processing on a report or something.

Like most of the time they're not using their Chromebooks and that seems to be optimal just as it's optimal to have a calculator if you need it for a certain type of problem.

Like mostly you need to learn how to do math by hand and not rely too much on the calculator for things that you need to learn how to do yourself.

And it's not just the mental muscles aspect, right, that kids will cheat or otherwise skip out on doing the work.

I think one of the biggest things that Jared emphasizes in the book, and I'll have him on the podcast soon to talk about that, is the distraction factor.

He says up to 38 minutes of every hour can be lost to distraction, depending on the study you look at.

And that makes the net benefit probably negative for EdTech.

So check out that argument.

There's an extended excerpt, a full chapter excerpt at the Free Press that I encourage you to check out.

And let me know what you think about this issue of one-to-one technology.

Are we simply replicating the same problems with one-to-one technology that we're right now banning by not allowing kids to bring cell phones to school.

So Gene Twenge, the author of the recent book on limiting your kids' technology use, does not have good things to say about one-to-one devices for all of these same reasons that basically, you know, kids can get around every filter, kids can get off task remarkably fast even in the classroom.

So if there is a place for these devices at all, it is a very, very limited one.

But let me know what you think.

I personally have to admit to being a big enthusiast for one-to-one devices.

I actually had a program on how to do a one-to-one iPad program when that became feasible.

I actually offered a training on how to do that.

And now I regret that.

And I wonder like, how could we have missed the warning signs the red flags that maybe should have been obvious i don't know what you think about that but i've started a new website over at edskeptic.com to help us think about the role of skepticism because i feel like more of these things we should be anticipating we should not always be caught up by surprise when we have these unintended consequences and failures of innovations to make a positive difference check it out at edskeptic.com