Did Technology Hurt Education? The Case for Bringing Books Back

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Sometimes the old ways are best said Monty Penny to James Bond in Skyfall when shaving him with a straight razor. Well, as it turns out, it’s the same when it comes to education. This is extraordinary. We spent as a nation 30 billion dollars to get rid of books. To get rid of

books, textbooks. We traded the textbooks in for laptops and tablets and the results are in for the first generation. No bueno. Great story. 2002 Maine became the first state to implement a statewide laptop program. It’s a column by Sasha Rogelberg, by the way. Excellent piece. Governor Agnes

King saw the program as a way to put the internet at the fingertips of more children who would be able to immerse themselves in information. Again.

I see it, I see it, but again, screens need to be available in doses. And one needs to be able to see the flip side of getting kids involved on screens, and we’re seeing that now. Man, are we seeing that now? Anyway, the main…

learning main learning technology initiative distributed 17,000 Apple laptops to seventh graders across 243 middle schools. By 2016, those numbers had multiplied to 66,000 laptops and tablets distributed to main students mirrored across the country again, 30 billion putting laptops and tablets in schools quarter of a century and various different models of technology later.

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psychologists and learning experts see a different outcome than the one that was intended. Rather than empowering the generation with access to more knowledge, the technology had the opposite effect. I remember this is again, this is probably 2015, 2014, 2015. I am I’m working out in a CrossFit gym.

I’m working out in a CrossFit gym and it was youth groups that were gonna go on after us. we’re warming down a little bit and the kids there playing on the screen are asking us questions about various different things, chemistry and whatnot. And I’m like, and they’ve all got smartphones. And I’m like, you do realize that that thing’s a tool, right? You do realize that that thing’s a phenomenal tool if you use it properly. But it is a…

Powerful tool, it is a useful tool, but like many powerful tools and useful tools like chainsaws, they can be dangerous as well if they’re not wielded by the right person. And when you’re dealing with children and attention spans and their minds, yeah, no good, no good. The other little side note. I was probably about six, seven years ago.

on vacation with a family in Greece. And we’re at the beach and there’s two young girls that are posing in their bikinis taking pictures of themselves. And I made a point to bring my boys over and say, you don’t date those types of people.

You don’t do it. You stay away from that narcissistic crap. But anyway, neither here nor there. Earlier this year, written testimony before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, Transportation Neuroscientists Jared Cooney Horvath said that Gen Z is less cognitively capable than previous generations, despite its unprecedented access to technology. Said Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to score lower

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on standardized tests than the previous one. While skills measured by these tests, literacy, numeracy, aren’t always indicative intelligence, they are a reflection of cognitive capability, which he says has been on the decline over the last decade or so. Citing the program for international student assessment data taken from 15 year olds around the world and other standardized tests,

He noted not only dipping test scores, but also a stark correlation in scores and time spent on computers in school, such that more screen time was related to worse scores. He blamed students having unfettered access to technology that atrophied rather than bolstered learning capabilities. The introduction of the iPhone in 2007 also didn’t help. Again, we’re all a little bit…

Guilty of this.

With the use of ways and Google Maps and various different other things that are disposable, we fall back. On that. And I’m sorry. Yeah, I actually see it. You see, because you’re you’re paying attention to what your GPS is telling you where to go, but you’re not really paying attention to your surroundings, what’s going on and.

You don’t really realize where you’re going because you’re watching the screen, kind of watching the road at the same time, but you’re not taking it in the same way. Makes sense. Anyway, this is not a debate about rejecting technology. It’s a question of aligning educational tools without how human learning actually works. Evidence indicates that indiscriminate digital expansion has weakened learning environments rather than strengthening them.

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Interesting. Again, there was a report in Fortune magazine back in 2017 that Maine’s public test scores hadn’t improved in the 15 years the state had implemented the technology initiative and the governor at the time called it a massive failure. Massive failure.

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Again, I here’s a first of a kind study Stanford found AI advancements to have significant and disproportionate impact on entry level workers in the US labor market. And I, I’ve talked about this here on the program and I, again, have a lot of kids, I work around a lot of kids with interns over the summer and around them and

See, some are more capable than others. Again, AI, computers, they’re a tool like anything else, and they need to be wielded properly. I, you know, when it comes to AI, you don’t think that college professors have changed the way that they’re handling classes now? Have to.

I mean, you’re going to sign papers to kids? There’s actually a story today I was seeing, there’s this new AI app out there that Einstein does your kids homework for them.

Does your kids homework? Teacher can’t figure it out. Well, you know, you can figure it out on the test. On the test. yeah, get a great grade on your homework. Homework should be like training for crying out loud. Homework should be like training. You’re doing it because you want to be able to master the material. You want to be able to learn what you’re supposed to so you can utilize it, correct? Everything’s gonna have to change in regards to the way teachers are handling things has to be.

in class, writing in class, and again, put the damn computers and phones down. I, the life of me, I never understood that. As soon as you walk in, walk in the school, walk into a classroom, phone goes in a bucket. I have no idea why any teacher would allow. Okay, I know I wouldn’t. I don’t care what the principal said. I’m not teaching a class when a kid’s gonna have the ultimate distraction device.

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at their desk. I I was in school too. We didn’t have those things. The things that distract us in classrooms are the girls usually. That’s about it. Now the phones and everything else, no, needs to go away. But again, fascinating study. yeah, I told this to all my interns. I said, you’re not carrying a book around with you all the time, something’s wrong. No, not a Kindle. Okay, a book, a book in your hands, touch it.

Feel it, okay? I know, old school, but it works, has worked thousands of years. Might wanna continue with that. Watchdogonwallstreet.com.