EdTech

Well into the nineteenth century, British and American writers, critics and religious leaders regarded novel-reading with a great deal of skepticism.

If our concerns about the enfeebling impact of the Internet and social media aren’t quite as gendered, they’re still grounded in a world view that regards the cultivation of individual morality, intellect, and productivity as a matter of public interest—and that regards shifts in personal media consumption as potentially inimical to the production of smart, informed, and upstanding citizens. But the history of the novel shows that it’s possible for us to move beyond this suspicion—though it took two centuries for novels to move from objects of derision to an accepted part of the modern reader’s diet.

Novel-reading was once regarded as an idle occupation, just as Internet use is now.

the total count is irrelevant, as long as the app has the functions you need

use basic formulas to do basic arithmetic on cell contents. But functions, which let you manipulate text and numbers in many other ways, are how you really unlock the potential of spreadsheets

several well-worn principles that parents, educators and app developers can use to determine what is truly educational and what is simply masquerading as such

minds-on, not minds-off

actively solving problems and thinking deeply

new research findings from the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford, has shown that screen time has very little practical effect on children’s sleep.

while the correlation between screen time and sleep in children exists, it might be too small to make a significant difference to a child’s sleep

Focusing on bedtime routines and regular patterns of sleep, such as consistent wake-up times, are much more effective strategies for helping young people sleep than thinking screens themselves play a significant role

Students need technology that will help them meet their existing learning goals. They don’t need new learning goals that rely on a fancy new technology tool the coach or teacher wants to use.

The claim that the students who didn’t use tablets performed better academically is based upon exam scores, which were only one-third of a standard deviation higher for the non-tablet crowd than the others. Some might see this as a large difference; I do not, and I doubt a majority of statisticians would either. But hey–why let the fact that this was a superficial study conducted with a small sample size of atypical students examining only one type of technology deter you from claiming that all technology in the classroom is bad? This is what people in the psych business call “confirmation bias,” I believe.

no mention of pedagogy at all

They don’t even acknowledge, much less control for, pedagogy.

a lot of such arguments employ the sexy word "brain" and so sound scientifically objective, but they are really socio-cultural arguments

So there needs to be a further demonstration that the "deep-reading brain" is something worth valuing. And this is never going to be a (neuro)scientific argument; it's a cultural argument.

This kind of paternalistic fatalism seems ably refuted by sales of Young Adult blockbusters

we see little to be concerned about with the game

Granted, kids’ enthusiasm for Fortnite can be a little much, but we are old enough to remember Garbage Pail kids and have played Pokémon.

one of the best things educators can do is bystander training. That is, we can teach kids appropriate ways to respond when they see distrustful, harassing, or hateful behavior.