What if the technology we’ve been adding to classrooms to improve learning is actually making learning harder?
I had an engaging chat with neuroscientist, educator, and author Jared Cooney Horvath about his newest book, The Digital Delusion: How Classroom Technology Harms Our Kids’ Learning and How to Help Them Thrive Again.
Jared makes a provocative argument that our use of technology in schools is hurting student learning.
Jared digs into decades of research on educational technology and explains why screens can interfere with some of the fundamental things our brains need for learning — including focused attention, memory, empathy, and transfer.
And if you're a school leader who is thinking, But what about differentiation? What about engagement? What about preparing kids for the future? What about AI? We get into all of those questions.
In this episode, we talk about:
· Why student cognitive performance has declined even as students spend more time in school
· What decades of research actually tell us about technology and learning
· The difference between engagement and learning
· Why reading on paper can produce deeper learning than reading on a screen
· Why handwritten note-taking can lead to deeper processing
· How technology can interfere with attention, memory, and transfer
· Why personalization and differentiation through technology may not produce the results we expect
· Jared's argument that AI should be for experts trying to offload, not novices trying to learn
· Practical ways teachers can bring more analog learning back into the classroom
· Four concrete steps school leaders can take to rethink their use of educational technology
Four things school leaders can do now:
1. Put a moratorium on new technology. Instead of continually adding new tools, take 12–24 months to evaluate the technology you already have.
2. Conduct a technology audit. What tools are you paying for? Which ones are actually being used? What evidence do you have that they’re helping students learn?
3. Put technology back under teacher control. Rather than one-to-one devices being the default, make technology something teachers intentionally choose when it serves a specific purpose.
4. Demand evidence. Before adopting a new educational technology tool, ask for independent, peer-reviewed evidence that it actually improves learning.
Walk away with MAIN IDEAs…
1 MAIN IDEA of the book: Humans have evolved to learn from other human beings. So allow us to learn from other human beings again and not let tech interfere with learning in schools.
1 RESOURCE: Neil Postman’s book, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
Connect with Jared Cooney Horvath: Substack, The Digital Delusion or Jared’s YouTube channel
Book: The Digital Delusion: How Classroom Technology Harms Our Kids’ Learning and How to Help Them Thrive Again
Connect with Jenn: [email protected]
Get monthly book summaries from Jenn (The Main Idea)
Join an outstanding learning experience for leaders: Jenn’s Mastermind
If you appreciated this podcast I hope you’ll subscribe or pass it along to a colleague!