The Learning Paradox of EdTech & AI
Why “teaching tools” often get in the way of learning and what we can do about it
This past week on the ScreenStrong Families podcast, Mandee sat down with attorney Andrew Liddel to discuss the false promise of educational technology, or “edtech.” Andrew discussed how these technologies create unforeseen issues around data privacy and provide our children access to inappropriate or even dangerous content. It was truly an eye-opening conversation, and if you haven’t listened yet, you should.
But if we are going to truly discuss edtech, we need to dive into another disturbing fact, which is that it doesn’t work. That’s right. There is no evidence that technology in the classroom, like iPads or Chromebooks, improves our children’s ability to learn. In fact, PISA scores have shown the opposite: the more time our children spend on devices in the classroom, the less likely students are to learn.
No one knows this better than my long-time friend Cris Rowan. Cris is not only a pediatric occupational therapist, but she has worked in schools for over 3 decades and is an expert in how technology impacts child development, behavior, and learning. In short: Cris is doing incredible work for kids and families. Just this past week, she wrote about the true impact of edtech on her blog, Moving to Learn, and she was kind enough to let me share it with the ScreenStrong audience. I love her clear, thorough research as well as her tangible takeaways for how parents can take control of edtech. Make no mistake, parents; we do have a say. And we need to exercise that right, especially with something as important as our kids' academic futures.
With that, here’s Cris.
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Screens in Schools – The Learning Paradox, AI and what you can do to ensure healthy learning environments
An analysis of 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2018 PISA scores validated what we’ve known for some time – the more we use technology in schools, the less likely students are to learn, termed The Learning Paradox. NAEP recently reported new all time low for reading scores, demonstrating that this ubiquitous yet erroneous belief that students can achieve literacy using screens, has resulted in the lowest achievement scores ever in educational history. Recent research published in JAMA reports that for every 6.5 hours teens go to school, 1.5 hours are spent using phones for entertainment (not learning). Yet, instead of reversing this worrisome trend of using screens in schools to the detriment of child physical and mental health, social and emotional wellness and cognitive performance, which is well documented in hundreds of research studies, educational governments are moving forward with yet another unresearched, unregulated, untested for potential harm supposed ‘teaching tool’ – artificial intelligence (AI). It’s beyond time to be worried. I am absolutely terrified about where this is going. This article reviews what we already know about foundations for learning and achieving literacy and explains the dangers regarding AI. We need to move quickly to remove all cell phones from schools Bell to Bell, and grossly restrict use of laptops, tablets and smartboards. Teachers teach; screens entertain.
Foundations for Learning and Literacy
What schools seem to have forgotten is that learning is ‘foundational’ meaning that to learn anything, students require achievement of basic skills and concepts to expand on and advance their knowledge. Achievement of printing, reading and math literacy requires development of spatial, motor and cognition skills as foundational components for advancement of literacy. Integration of 2nd level foundational skills including visual motor, visual memory, motor learning and visual perceptual skills, effectively promotes advancement in printing, reading and math literacy. Attainment of these 2nd level foundational literacy skills requires 3-dimensional movement patterns, and cannot be achieved on a 2-dimensional, fixed distance screen such as a Chromebook, tablet or smartphone.
Spatial, motor and cognition skills and concepts integrate at the brain/body level and require an integral ingredient – movement. Frequent movement combined with building things with hands during play, further enhances foundational literacy. Movement stimulates the vestibular system which provides core stability and optimal arousal for learning. Movement also activates the proprioceptive system to drain body energy and coordinate motor units for printing and reading. Both movement and building with hands activates spatial awareness. Movement also improves cognition by increased blood flow to the brain for improved attention, memory and concentrations. Take it outside and add some ‘green space’ and we’ve achieved the ingredients for optimal learning. We’ve all heard that ‘boredom is the origin of creativity’, ‘silence is golden’, and ‘repeat, repeat, repeat’ are also foundational to learning.
Let’s unpack how children learn to read. About 30 years ago both the US and Canadian ministries of education removed teaching children to write (print and cursive) from the curriculum and since that time, writing instruction is almost non-existent. When children learn to write, they first create a visual image in their mind of the letter that they’re going to try to print. With repetition, the child commits that visual image to visual memory and then applies their visual spatial and visual motor skills to replicate it. The student needs to know where to start, which way to go, when to stop, when to pick up their pencil to effectively print the letter. This takes A LOT of time and practice, and in the 90’s teachers spent an hour per day teaching this integral skill. Once they have practiced making letters over and over and over, the student creates a subconscious motor plan for that letter and they start to improve their printing output quality and quantity. This process of learning to write (print/cursive) is a precursor to learning how to read. I can’t tell you the number of student’s I’ve assessed that struggle with reading, when they don’t even have letter recognition. It’s astonishing how frequently these struggling writers are handed a tablet or laptop with the teacher thinking they are somehow going to attain literacy. Spending time on two dimensional screens is actually detrimental to and delays the development of reading. We need to teach every single student to write in order for them to attain foundational writing, reading and math literacy. Schools need to get rid of all screens (tablets, laptops, smartphones) until grade level literacy is achieved.
So, we’ve overused and inappropriately used screen-based technologies in schools with devastating effects, and then along comes the new kid on the block, artificial intelligence (AI) for the education system. AI education technology (edtech) is akin the wild west, but without a sheriff. With vast amounts of data showing harmful effects of screens on student physical, mental, social, emotional and cognitive health, the edtech industry marches forward unabated, unrestricted, unchecked, unregulated, and unlegislated with their multiple and costly “edtech solutions”. Historically, the edtech industry has been notorious for creating problems, and then creating a supposed solution for the very problem they created. Despite obvious harms caused to students, edtech has proceeded to infiltrate pretty much every school on the planet, sanctioned by every education government on the planet. Edtech AI is exponentially worse. Instead of repairing damage done by screens on students, schools are instead jumping onto the next edtech train that is travelling faster and faster into the dark void from which there is no return.
Artificial Intelligence in Schools
I want to review what edtech AI is, the bad, sad and the ugly, and why every health and education professional should be gravely concerned about this growing threat to students. The tech industry began designing artificial intelligence (AI) computer systems to take over tasks traditionally performed by humans ~ 25 years ago. There are many types of AI and in the education sector what has become quite popular is generative AI where large learning models (LLM) take text input and generate text output e.g. ChatGPT, MagicSchoolAI and most recently Deepseek. To function optimally, LLM needs to be ‘fed’ considerable amounts of data to build a sufficient database which can then predict what to output. Inherent problems associated with using AI in schools are as follows:
Harvested data for LLMs is exclusionary as it can only be harvested from digital sources including the Internet, Wikipedia, academic articles, news stories, digital books and computer code. LLM cannot take data from hard copy textbooks.
LLM data often violates copyright. The commercial companies that make the largest and most well-known LLMs no longer disclose the precise data that they use to train their models. There are pending lawsuits against many of these companies for violating copyright and other laws protecting intellectual property.
LLM data is inherently biased. Although the data used to train LLMs is vast, it does not encompass knowledge that is not encoded digitally. Further, the models available in the United States are primarily trained in English, and on data that academics label “WEIRD”: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic.
LLM data can be inaccurate and often made up as per reasons listed above with error rates thought to be in the range of 3-27%. If we don’t use textbooks that have low accuracy ratings of 3-27%, why would we use AI?
While students need to understand what AI is, how it can be used, its limitations, its biases and the ethics surrounding AI within the right contexts, there is a massive difference between ‘learning about AI’ and ‘using AI to learn’. There exists no solid evidence that AI can improve student outcomes. In fact, there is emerging evidence that they can harm outcomes and cognitive capabilities. Knowledge cannot be outsourced to AI, and students who have not built a broad foundational base of knowledge, will not be able to make best of use this new technology. Educators should continue to focus on building student knowledge across all subjects.
At present, AI is an uncontrolled experiment on cognition and learning which is widely sanctioned by education governments and is using our students as guinea pigs. We’ve seen this same story play out with smartphones and apparently have learned nothing. It is beyond the time to throw the edtech experimental baby out with the bathwater and do what is right, safe, healthy and proven to be effective learning tools for our students.
What We Can Do to Ensure Student Health
‘Healthy education’ is a new term…think about that. We used to have two outdoor recesses per day, in addition to lunch. ‘Everyday is an outside day’ was a principal mantra as they knew kids could learn easier and behave better after recess. Movement stations in classrooms would include standing tables, wobble boards and slam balls. Gyms would have fun and challenging obstacle courses with a huge variety of equipment for every age and ability. Playgrounds would be safe but include ‘risk components’ with fit core stations in high school. There would be books everywhere and printing/cursive instruction right through high school because if you can’t write, you can’t read. Math would be 3-dimensional with manipulatives and abacus boards. Lunchroom foyer would have chess and ping pong tournaments with a variety of games and activities. Cell phones would be banned Bell to Bell, smart boards and tablets in basement, and laptops ethernet wired in a computer lab accessed for research e.g. no social media, porn, videogames etc.
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For support navigating and eliminating screens in your home—including those supplied by your school!—join our free ScreenStrong Connect group. There, you’ll be able to chat and ask questions of like-minded families to get the support and advice you need. And for help explaining the effects of screens to your children, check out our Kids’ Brains & Screens curriculum. It’s the only book written directly to kids, and it explains all the latest science surrounding tech in a way that resonates.
ScreenStrong Resources
Podcast - “Tips on How to Create a ScreenStrong Classroom with Dory Suttmiller”
Melanie Hempe, BSN, is the founder of ScreenStrong, a nonprofit organization, and the author of the Kids’ Brains and Screens Series for students and parents. She is dedicated to preventing and reversing childhood screen addictions by providing scientific evidence and community for families around the globe. Her educational material is filled with everything she wished she had known before her oldest child suffered from a screen addiction. ScreenStrong has created what every family needs—education and the community—to skip toxic screens through adolescence so teens can reach their full potential.
Visit here for family resource materials and here for our Phone-Free Schools Guide, and visit ScreenStrong.org to learn more and join the community that is saving childhood.