The following is an article I wrote two years ago for the deputy principle in charge of e-learning at our local primary school.  It was in response to their decision to mandate iPads as compulsory learning devices from prep. To the school's credit, they did offer to make an allowance for our daughter which meant that she could do her learning without an iPad. However, we ultimately decided to enroll her in a school that did not use devices for learning.

I currently teach at Brisbane State High and was at QASMT for 7 years prior to that. I’ve been teaching in BYOD schools for the past 12 years now. At State High half of my time is spent teaching specialist maths and coordinating the Mathematics Olympiad program, and the other half is with learning support classes and coordinating grade 9 core maths.

This has led to some very interesting insights into how our kids are using their devices and the long-term impact it is having on their ability to engage with difficult content (i.e., much of the STEM learning areas). Below are my reflections on some of the negative impacts that BYOD programs have on student learning.

A hallmark of digital learning is the gamification of education: students engage in digital activities that constantly reward them with artificial incentives such as notifications and points, which allow them to do things like buy clothes for their avatar, compete with their peers, etc. The motivator for learning ceases to be the end result, but instead the game process.

Students are increasingly having the expectation that every aspect of the learning experience can and should be intrinsically enjoyable. The subjects that scale the highest toward their ATAR calculations are difficult, intentionally so, and require significant amounts of extrinsic motivation to master. Students increasingly struggle now that they are required to learn challenging material that cannot easily be turned into a game.

While instant feedback is useful when memorising content or practising skills, it is counterproductive when it comes to stimulating the mind to rewire. Being stuck on a problem (sometimes for days) is necessary to force neurons to make new connections and the brain to strengthen its neural networks.

In addition, the majority of the deep connections in learning are made while the mind is in its default mode network (rest state), where it resolves hitherto unsolved problems. However, the effect of devices frustrates this on two fronts: students are rarely left to be stuck on a problem due to the ability to instantly look up the answer, and secondly, they are so constantly engaged in superficial (however fun) activities that the mind never gets the downtime needed to make the deep connections necessary for higher-level learning.

Most of the online learning platforms that we use (Mathletics, Education Perfect, Stile, etc.) incorporate automated marking to give feedback to students and teachers. Due to the limited nature of questions that can be marked by a computer (multiple choice, cloze activities, etc.), the majority of the learning that can be assessed is only the more superficial recall of information or the practice of rudimentary skills. Higher-order thinking (analysing, evaluating, and creating, etc.) is neglected by the digital platforms due to the difficulty they have in assessing it.

IPADs and other devices are incredibly distracting. Most students (and many adults) lack the awareness and/or will to be able to stay focused while using their devices, particularly if they don’t perceive the current activity to be sufficiently interesting compared to what is available at the swipe of a finger. In the past, when a student became distracted in class, it was obvious and easy to bring them back to task. However, now, when a student gets distracted with a device, there is usually no disruptive behaviour, so it is much more difficult to identify and manage. This has significant long-term impacts on our students' ability to concentrate. The problem is even more acute for students with ADHD and other divergent neurologies.

While there are benefits to schools adopting BYOD programs, these are primarily at an administrative and not pedagogical level (ease and cost of distributing learning materials, base level of quality control in content, etc.). The benefit of long-term learning is less evident, with significant disadvantages (pedagogical and otherwise) already becoming apparent. 

The ability to concentrate for extended periods of time on difficult content without constant prompting will be a key competitive advantage in the future job market. However, this ability is something that we are currently doing a poor job at fostering at a school level. Increasingly, the majority of learning that is taking place in schools is based on lower-order thinking due to the digital platforms that we are using. 

It is ironic in the extreme that the types of thinking and skills we are now teaching our children due to our shift to digital learning are precisely the cognitions that will first, and indeed already are, be replaced by automation and artificial intelligence.