Yuen: Don’t stop at smartphones. Can we limit all tech devices in the classroom?

Like any parent of a middle-schooler, you can bet I’m closely watching our school district’s upcoming policy on student smartphone use. School administrators across Minnesota are in the throes of finalizing their cellphone policies as they near a March 15 deadline mandated by state lawmakers.

Our district had better get this right.

Thanks in part to social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and his book “The Anxious Generation,” many parents and educators alike are embracing the movement toward phone-free classrooms (and delaying the purchase of smartphones for our children as long as possible). Our kids deserve to learn in an environment with fewer distractions fueled by Big Tech.

And our teachers are not professional entertainers. Let’s not make them compete for their classes’ attention with every dancing gorilla on YouTube.

Next up, I hope, schools will consider the tradeoffs of placing an iPad, Chromebook or other electronic device in the hands of every student.

Many districts have “1:1″ technology programs, meaning each child gets a school-issued device. In theory, the tablets and laptops offer personalized learning and democratize access to knowledge while preparing students for a digital world. The trend accelerated after COVID-19 shuttered school buildings in 2020, but it’s been around for longer than that. (St. Paul Public Schools introduced iPads to the classroom in what was then the largest 1:1 initiative in the state back in 2014.)

In my friend group — we are all parents of sixth-grade boys — many of our kids have struggled with the lure of powerful forces of tech design while on screens supplied by their schools. Some of the battles are at home, but many are at school. Teachers have told us that kids are watching YouTube or playing video games when they should be listening in class or reading a book. For sure, I’ll be the first to admit that my own children need to learn to make better choices.

Now layer on top of that the increasing rate of ADHD in this country, where one out of every nine children has been officially diagnosed. Demanding that students with ADHD incorporate distracting devices into their everyday learning is a tall order; overreliance on technology can worsen their symptoms.

Then there’s the question of content. Porn sites are blocked by the school’s filters, but a lot of sexually inappropriate or disturbing content can still skate past. Plus, kids always figure out a work-around. (Is your child a gamer? Ask if they know how to skirt school restrictions and play “unblocked games” on a special website.)

I feel sorry for the educators who have become practitioners in triage. A public school teacher with a large class whose hands are full with a few disruptive students may need to turn a blind eye to the kid who keeps to himself — but is scrolling through skateboarding videos on his iPad at his desk. One study found that students perform worse on a test simply by sitting next to a student who is surfing the web on a laptop.

So how did we get here?

Apple, Google (which owns YouTube and Chromebooks), Microsoft and other tech companies all have a vested interest in inserting themselves into K-12 classrooms. They give some of their software and other products to schools for free. And it’s easy to see why: Our children are their future customers.

If they can establish a relationship with the kids who use them, they can cultivate a kind of product loyalty that can span a lifetime.

And when a record amount of federal money came pouring into schools as part of pandemic relief, many large school districts spent tens of millions of dollars on software and services, from apps to tutoring websites, according to an AP investigation. The aid came with few reporting requirements, so it’s not even known if these investments helped students.

As tech companies squeezed their hold onto American classrooms over the past decade, did we ever require these companies to convincingly show that their products improve student learning?

A 2023 report from UNESCO found that impartial evidence about the effect of technology in schools is in short supply — and much of the evidence about the benefits of tech “comes from those trying to sell it.”

Now consider this: A bevy of research shows that writing by hand is better for memory and learning than typing on a device or pushing buttons on a screen, especially for younger children. The physical action of handwriting seems to activate different regions of the brain in a way that supports retention and digesting new material. This is why, even as adults, it’s generally better to take notes by hand than on the computer if you want the information to stick.

Middle-schoolers today are the same kids who missed out on crucial classroom time in their elementary school years during COVID. The tablets came home that day in March 2020, and parents and teachers did the best we could, propping up devices in front of our first-graders in place of paper and pencil. What our kids lost was the daily practice of writing by hand, distinguishing b’s from d’s, and honing their fine motor skills.

As I mentioned in my last column, only 28% of Minnesota eighth-graders are meeting federal proficiency standards in reading. Shame on us.

This isn’t to say there isn’t a place for technology in education. My friends who send their sixth-graders to a small Catholic school (granted, with much smaller class sizes) use Chromebooks, but most of their homework is handwritten. Students are expected to type up their papers after drafting their thoughts with pencil. They still use their devices and make slides for presentations and conduct research for reports, but their day-to-day work is not on their electronics.

I’m sure there are valid reasons for allowing school-issued devices in the classroom, as long as they are not overused. It’s cool that any student, no matter what their family’s income level is, can find engaging or collaborative educational materials at their fingertips. Assistive technology is probably life-changing for students with dyslexia and other learning disabilities.

But on the whole, I’m not convinced that the benefits of school-issued devices are worth the impediments to learning for many students. And parents or educators who speak out against the tide of technology in our schools may be cast as Luddites or fuddy-duddies.

Are you a parent, educator or student navigating this balance? I’d love to hear from you. Teachers, have you found a way to manage devices so they add value to your classroom, or have they made your jobs harder? Parents, what have you observed about the impact of tech on your child’s education?

Send me your feedback to laura.yuen@startribune.com, and I will write a future column on what I’ve learned.