Special Edition: Is Ed Tech Failing Kids?

Jared Cooney Horvath (0:00)

We've been running kind of a failed experiment that for nearly 20 years now, we have been introducing more and more and more digital technology into the classroom. And unfortunately, kids are learning less and less and less.

Erica Mandy (0:14)

Today is Saturday, September 26 Laptops, tablets, educational apps, digital assignments. Technology has become a normal part of school for millions of kids. But there's a growing debate over whether all that ed tech is actually helping students learn or doing more harm than good. So today, we're looking at both sides. We start with Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath. You may have seen a viral clip of him testifying before Congress earlier this year, making the case that schools have gone too far with technology. He's a neuroscientist, educator, and New York Times bestselling author who specializes in how humans learn and how the brain develops. He's worked with more than 1,000 schools around the world, and his newest book is called The Digital Delusion. Then later in this episode, we'll hear a different perspective about when technology can actually add something to learning and what to consider when thinking about AI in schools. So today, how much technology, if any, really belongs in the classroom and how parents in schools can tell when it's helping or hurting.

Welcome to The NewsWorthy special edition Saturday, when we sit down with a different expert or celebrity every Saturday to talk about something in the news. Don't forget to tune in every Monday through Friday for regular episodes where we provide all the day's news in less than 15 minutes. I'm Erica Mandy. It's now time for today's special edition Saturday.

Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, thank you so much for joining us here on The NewsWorthy.

Jared Cooney Horvath (1:38)

Thank you for having me on. This will be great.

Erica Mandy (1:40)

So before we get into some of the data, what's the big picture takeaway that you're hoping parents and educators really understand about ed tech in schools?

Jared Cooney Horvath (1:49)

That we've been running kind of a failed experiment, for nearly 20 years now, we have been introducing more and more and more digital technology into the classroom. And unfortunately, kids are learning less and less and less. And the reason isn't because we're not trying hard enough or the kids don't care enough. It's because digital technology simply cuts against the grain of how humans most naturally and deeply learn.

So the biggest takeaway would just be hopefully, may a culpa. We didn't know back then, but we have enough data and understanding now to make better decisions. So hopefully, pushing forward, we can make those decisions a little smoother when it comes to learning.

Erica Mandy (2:25)

And just to be clear, when we're talking about edtech or digital technology, what exactly do you mean? Is this all classroom technology or is it more specific uses like tablets, AI tutors, screen-based instruction? What are you mostly referring to?

Jared Cooney Horvath (2:38)

All of the above. So realistically, edtech is any student facing internet connected device. So anything that runs on a computer that the student has access to. What we're not talking about is teacher driven tech. So like sometimes teachers will use tech to put up slides behind them. That's fine. Kids aren't touching it, go to town. Or sometimes we have tools that are one-off tools. Like I was thinking, remember when we were young, we had that speak and say, it was digital technology. You press a letter and it would tell you a letter, but that was all you could do with it. So in those instances, maybe that's okay. We're just talking about that kind of multi-processor, internet connected device type stuff.

Erica Mandy (3:15)

What about software that's educational, but is not actually internet connected? Like the student doesn't have access to anything but that particular software.

Jared Cooney Horvath (3:24)

That's where you can mitigate some of the negative effects of the tech itself, but now you get to then ask the deeper questions, okay, if the same material was presented in a different way, would the kid learn more?

Almost invariably, what you see is yes, when we use say just a digital program, that's the only thing you can do on the screen is just learning how to read. If you did the exact same pedagogy with a human being, teaching the kid how to read by pointing at letters and saying letters, they learn better, faster, deeper than the digital version of.

Erica Mandy (3:52)

So it's about the technology itself, but also what it's replacing, not having the thing that it's replacing.

Jared Cooney Horvath (3:59)

That's a great way to put it is, I mean, 150,000 years human beings, we have evolved biological mechanisms that allow us to learn from other human beings better than any other animal we've seen, but we just don't have those mechanisms when we use screens.