In the scramble of 2020, Ann Arbor joined school districts across the country in making emergency adjustments to transition to remote learning. Students sat alone watching screens, without active, hands-on activities with a partner, or the challenge of working together in small groups, or the anticipation of seeing friends at breaks or recess. Teachers were also isolated, missing the instant feedback from students’ faces, and unable in real time to quickly scan student desk work to diagnose difficulties. The intellectual and social toll of that screen-bound isolation is now a matter of historical record. Yet, years later, Ann Arbor continues with increased computer use--even during precious class time!
Teachers can use a variety of activities to engage all types of learners. But instead of exchanging ideas with their teachers and classmates, many students are silently concentrating on their computer screens. As a former high school math teacher and volunteer tutor, I see the fallout. A math solution is supposed to be a story—a structured, logical sequence. Today, most students cannot write an orderly solution. They have been trained to treat math as a series of isolated calculations on scratch paper, followed by a frustrating battle with a keyboard to input symbols into a portal. It is a lonely, robotic process that strips away the human, collaborative nature of learning.
The lack of physical textbooks introduces severe inequities into our schools. For all students, but especially for English Second-language learners, math learning can be impeded by vocabulary, context, and reference point shortfalls—things a physical textbook provides naturally, but a scrolling webpage fractures. When a student is absent, or when a parent or tutor wants to help, there is no easily accessible anchor text with a table of contents and indices to consult. The computer meters out the content. The student’s hands are tied, and learning is impeded.
Reflect on the role of a teacher. Expert educators don't just grade; they diagnose. They design custom problems in real time to address and expose common misconceptions of specific groups of students and guide students safely through them. Educational software does the opposite. It delivers a blunt "incorrect" notice, flashes a pre-programmed solution, and prompts the student to try an identical problem again. Without guided instruction, students simply practice their mistakes over and over, solidifying the very misconceptions they should be learning to avoid.
Technology has a valuable place in the classroom. For example, in math classes, dynamic digital tools allow students to see what happens to the sides of a triangle when one angle increases or to see the impact on the steepness of a line when you change only the number in front of the variable. Screens can make scenes from literature come alive or present lively moments from history. Technology vastly increases the reach of students into a world of primary and analytic materials that prepares them for future careers. Such a tool can spark whole-class, individual, and small-group discoveries. However, a tool is always a craft enhancement, not a replacement for the craftsman.
Who really profits from this shift and what are the real and full costs to the district? Local districts get locked into software upgrades, licensing fees, IT contractors, and hardware maintenance. That broad series of costs, certain to appreciate steadily, significantly depletes the very scarce resources to hire an adequate number of teachers, maintain optimal class sizes, and provide well-rounded experiences for students at every level. AAPS is an eminent and highly regarded school system, and I believe it has an obligation to evaluate the impact on student achievement of sustaining and expanding this trend, replacing teacher time with screen time, born during a pandemic that is now behind us. AAPS also has an obligation to assess and potentially rebalance the real trade-offs guiding spending decisions. We can do better than accept and guide AAPS with the untested assumption that more screen time means improved student achievement and more efficient use of our precious system resources.