I'm a "recovering" college professor (of speech pathology, coincidentally) who has been happily retired for 10 years. Back in the late 1980s, a student of mine came to me, excitedly, with a new program he had found: a spell checker. I told him, "I don't know about that - it will make you lazy." Although I embraced technology over the course of my career - I'm no Luddite - I saw very little about it that helped students be *better* at thinking or attention.
Obviously our students are not learning critical thinking, notably in higher ed.
If you are ignoring the classical liberal principle that "in order to understand your position you must understand your opponent's position (as stated by his most intelligent and articulate spokespersons)" then you are not doing critical thinking.
Paul Simon, the great song smith, wrote a line that has stuck with me for decades. "When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all." My experience proved the lyric's truth. I avoided math in college like a deadly disease. When I entered the real world I learned the algebra I needed for my job. My son, the electrical engineer, marvels that I do math in my head faster than he. Experience is life's best teacher.
As a parent of kids in elementary and middle school, I couldn't agree more with this article. The only way to get paper based assignments is to have and IEP or 504 accomodation plan. My academically gifted middle schooler struggles in classes where the majority of the curriculum is online. He's in 7th grade. As much as I didn't want my son to have smartphone, I had to get him one because some of his classes require students to take pictures of their schoolwork and upload the photo online in order to get credit for the assignment.
My other son is in elementary school and has learning disabilities. Iready, mentioned in this article, is the worst program but the district spent so much money on it that we can't escape repetitive, meaningless diagnostic testing in addition to the 3x per year state required testing. My son has always bombed the iReady diagnostics. During the pandemic, he had to do a diagnostic at the end of 2020 (2nd grade). I sat with him and helped him figure out how to make sense of what he was seeing. I did not give him any answers, but we read the questions and answers out loud together. He ended up scoring nearly 100 points more and was on grade level.
I am sorry to hear about your kids experience, I know there are so many others with the similar experiences! I am not sure how any child learning math is able to truly grasp it online. I can only hope that the more aware educators are, the more we can make a change!
The cult of progress continues to stumble into rampant iDiocy. Turns out our Tech Lords' "best intentions" serve their own interests best as they continue to fail up on the backs of our children. So glad that Public is publishing this work. Thank you Denise Champney for speaking up.
I've said for years that no child should be introduced to computers including tablets and smart phones until at least the 5th grade. they should be taught how to read using phonics, memorize the multiplication tables, do long and short division, do arithmetic with pencil and paper. No student should learn how to use PowerPoint, word-processing and spreadsheets until they can do a presentation with a flip chart, write cogent essays by hand and are able to construct a paper spreadsheet.
I've been saying for a while that requiring students to get and turn in their homework on-line and often see course material, and read texts and perform tests on-line as well is like...
Set a desk in the middle of the largest most addictive amusement park in history, then put a student behind that desk and tell him to concentrate on his school work.
What could go wrong?
I've also noticed in my child that he's not learning to use the Table of Contents. Sure, there's a search function, but in a good text book, the TOC is like a preview of the topics and information to be covered and a summary of the relationships between some of the topics.
All of that is missing in on-line use.
There is also little impetus to internalize information. "I can just look it up." Well, if you don't have active information in your brain, how can you tell when someone is lying to you or is misinformed? How do you know when to "look it up" if you don't have knowledge in your own brain?
Knowing a bit of science and being able to do basic math is the quickest way to realize that the"energy transition" make no sense at all -- at least, not as a servant of the publicly stated goals.
I found myself doing a lot of that during Covid. A high number of cases in Texas was not the same as, say, in Oregon. But our MSM wouldn't take the time to give us per capita numbers and continued to present useless information, driving fear and irrational decisions. Sadly I had to keep my own spreadsheet for comparison purposes.
And I agree with your take on the energy transition. As just one example in a long list, many won't bother to look at MW to KW to GW, space requirements for a single wind turbine vs space available, efficiency ratios, life expectancy, etc. versus the lofty net zero 2050 "vision," the huge amount of spent wind turbine waste and what that truly means for our environment. Same goes for solar.
And what about these foundations paying for research which gets turned around to make money for the foundations donors? If they create harm, shouldn't those who were harmed be compensated? I feel terrible for these kids whose brains have been fried with screens.
60 years ago in parochial school ADHD didn't exist. why? well halfway through the morning the nuns gave us a 15 min recess. The boys all ran outside and proceeded to run around like crazy, burning off energy. by the time we got back to the classroom we were able to sit still without fidgeting. The same happened at lunchtime and at mid-afternoon. now when did schools stop having recess? well about the sametime that ADHD started manifesting itself. boys until like girls can not sit still after a couple of hours. modern day teachers want boys to sit still like girls. not going to happen. so then what? well give the boys ritalin or some other prescriptive
Great post and all true. The old analog way (writing on and learning off paper) seems superior. I notice even in my own reading habits the inferior quality of attention when reading from a screen, despite the fact that is now the only way I read.
Yes, we must move kids away from overuse of technology.
I've had dyslexia long before it was a 'thing'. My math skills were poor beginning in 6th grade. When I was in my 20s (in the 1980s), I sought counseling from a SUNY Stony Brook maths professor who was also a LCSW. He explained how using a pencil & paper informed one's neurons about how to solve maths problems, understand algebra, etc. His techniques changed my life. Further, when I was in high school, I spent afternoons as a 1st grade teacher's assistant in a low-income elementary school. Left-handed boys especially struggled, as their eye movement would go right-to-left instead of left-to-right. Now add laptops/tablets into the mix -- these things do nothing to reprogram one's neurons to read from left-to-right. [I am not referring to situations where left handed kids were forced to use their right hands, but rather to reprogramming one's brain to adapt, as that Stony Brook professor helped me to do.]
I was struck by the comment about pen and paper strengthening brain development in children. I mentor an elementary school student and the Art teacher has opened my eyes to the same issue. My mentee is artistic and loves to draw. The Art Teacher encourages the students to create their own studios with a drawing pad and pencil. Not all families can afford art supplies so I am donating sketchbooks, etc. so my student and the other classmates can develop their skills.
They're leaving out one critical point that there was a selection bias and pass Educational Systems they simply removed the children who were doing badly and only counted those who were adapt at the school's teaching methods
“students multitask and divert their attention to popular games such as Roblox or streaming videos off YouTube and Netflix while simultaneously completing assignments, degrading their capacity to learn.” So true. I work in a middle school and see this every day.
I'm a "recovering" college professor (of speech pathology, coincidentally) who has been happily retired for 10 years. Back in the late 1980s, a student of mine came to me, excitedly, with a new program he had found: a spell checker. I told him, "I don't know about that - it will make you lazy." Although I embraced technology over the course of my career - I'm no Luddite - I saw very little about it that helped students be *better* at thinking or attention.
Computers can be great in many ways. They are not good for teaching critical thinking.
Obviously our students are not learning critical thinking, notably in higher ed.
If you are ignoring the classical liberal principle that "in order to understand your position you must understand your opponent's position (as stated by his most intelligent and articulate spokespersons)" then you are not doing critical thinking.
🛎️🔨
Paul Simon, the great song smith, wrote a line that has stuck with me for decades. "When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all." My experience proved the lyric's truth. I avoided math in college like a deadly disease. When I entered the real world I learned the algebra I needed for my job. My son, the electrical engineer, marvels that I do math in my head faster than he. Experience is life's best teacher.
As a parent of kids in elementary and middle school, I couldn't agree more with this article. The only way to get paper based assignments is to have and IEP or 504 accomodation plan. My academically gifted middle schooler struggles in classes where the majority of the curriculum is online. He's in 7th grade. As much as I didn't want my son to have smartphone, I had to get him one because some of his classes require students to take pictures of their schoolwork and upload the photo online in order to get credit for the assignment.
My other son is in elementary school and has learning disabilities. Iready, mentioned in this article, is the worst program but the district spent so much money on it that we can't escape repetitive, meaningless diagnostic testing in addition to the 3x per year state required testing. My son has always bombed the iReady diagnostics. During the pandemic, he had to do a diagnostic at the end of 2020 (2nd grade). I sat with him and helped him figure out how to make sense of what he was seeing. I did not give him any answers, but we read the questions and answers out loud together. He ended up scoring nearly 100 points more and was on grade level.
I am sorry to hear about your kids experience, I know there are so many others with the similar experiences! I am not sure how any child learning math is able to truly grasp it online. I can only hope that the more aware educators are, the more we can make a change!
The cult of progress continues to stumble into rampant iDiocy. Turns out our Tech Lords' "best intentions" serve their own interests best as they continue to fail up on the backs of our children. So glad that Public is publishing this work. Thank you Denise Champney for speaking up.
Excellent article, research and recommendations. Thank you!
I've said for years that no child should be introduced to computers including tablets and smart phones until at least the 5th grade. they should be taught how to read using phonics, memorize the multiplication tables, do long and short division, do arithmetic with pencil and paper. No student should learn how to use PowerPoint, word-processing and spreadsheets until they can do a presentation with a flip chart, write cogent essays by hand and are able to construct a paper spreadsheet.
Agreed!
I've been saying for a while that requiring students to get and turn in their homework on-line and often see course material, and read texts and perform tests on-line as well is like...
Set a desk in the middle of the largest most addictive amusement park in history, then put a student behind that desk and tell him to concentrate on his school work.
What could go wrong?
I've also noticed in my child that he's not learning to use the Table of Contents. Sure, there's a search function, but in a good text book, the TOC is like a preview of the topics and information to be covered and a summary of the relationships between some of the topics.
All of that is missing in on-line use.
There is also little impetus to internalize information. "I can just look it up." Well, if you don't have active information in your brain, how can you tell when someone is lying to you or is misinformed? How do you know when to "look it up" if you don't have knowledge in your own brain?
Knowing a bit of science and being able to do basic math is the quickest way to realize that the"energy transition" make no sense at all -- at least, not as a servant of the publicly stated goals.
And they don't know how to look up definitions in a dictionary! Sadly they just cut and paste, so many critical skills lost.
I found myself doing a lot of that during Covid. A high number of cases in Texas was not the same as, say, in Oregon. But our MSM wouldn't take the time to give us per capita numbers and continued to present useless information, driving fear and irrational decisions. Sadly I had to keep my own spreadsheet for comparison purposes.
And I agree with your take on the energy transition. As just one example in a long list, many won't bother to look at MW to KW to GW, space requirements for a single wind turbine vs space available, efficiency ratios, life expectancy, etc. versus the lofty net zero 2050 "vision," the huge amount of spent wind turbine waste and what that truly means for our environment. Same goes for solar.
And what about these foundations paying for research which gets turned around to make money for the foundations donors? If they create harm, shouldn't those who were harmed be compensated? I feel terrible for these kids whose brains have been fried with screens.
Great article thank you for sharing.
60 years ago in parochial school ADHD didn't exist. why? well halfway through the morning the nuns gave us a 15 min recess. The boys all ran outside and proceeded to run around like crazy, burning off energy. by the time we got back to the classroom we were able to sit still without fidgeting. The same happened at lunchtime and at mid-afternoon. now when did schools stop having recess? well about the sametime that ADHD started manifesting itself. boys until like girls can not sit still after a couple of hours. modern day teachers want boys to sit still like girls. not going to happen. so then what? well give the boys ritalin or some other prescriptive
Great post and all true. The old analog way (writing on and learning off paper) seems superior. I notice even in my own reading habits the inferior quality of attention when reading from a screen, despite the fact that is now the only way I read.
Yes, we must move kids away from overuse of technology.
I agree, I am so distracted when I read on line, I love an old fashioned book!
I've had dyslexia long before it was a 'thing'. My math skills were poor beginning in 6th grade. When I was in my 20s (in the 1980s), I sought counseling from a SUNY Stony Brook maths professor who was also a LCSW. He explained how using a pencil & paper informed one's neurons about how to solve maths problems, understand algebra, etc. His techniques changed my life. Further, when I was in high school, I spent afternoons as a 1st grade teacher's assistant in a low-income elementary school. Left-handed boys especially struggled, as their eye movement would go right-to-left instead of left-to-right. Now add laptops/tablets into the mix -- these things do nothing to reprogram one's neurons to read from left-to-right. [I am not referring to situations where left handed kids were forced to use their right hands, but rather to reprogramming one's brain to adapt, as that Stony Brook professor helped me to do.]
Now kids are encouraged to use speech to text and skip the entire hand writing process all together.
I'm an adult and I hate on-line courses. I'm not the only one.
I was struck by the comment about pen and paper strengthening brain development in children. I mentor an elementary school student and the Art teacher has opened my eyes to the same issue. My mentee is artistic and loves to draw. The Art Teacher encourages the students to create their own studios with a drawing pad and pencil. Not all families can afford art supplies so I am donating sketchbooks, etc. so my student and the other classmates can develop their skills.
Those students are lucky to have you!
They're leaving out one critical point that there was a selection bias and pass Educational Systems they simply removed the children who were doing badly and only counted those who were adapt at the school's teaching methods
“students multitask and divert their attention to popular games such as Roblox or streaming videos off YouTube and Netflix while simultaneously completing assignments, degrading their capacity to learn.” So true. I work in a middle school and see this every day.