Technology

Tech Is Amazing for learning, but the unfortunate truth is that companies got a conflict of interests when it comes to education. The same companies who are pushing the most braindead brainrot and designing apps to be as addictive as humanly possible are then the same ones who sell school learning applications

As a Computer Scientist, I increasingly believe this tech might actually be poison for the human mind, and I'm not sure what to do about it.

I want to believe we can make it actually useful. But I don't know if that's possible or not.

There are studies that show the tactile nature of books and hand written notes improves retention and encourages more thought, so it would seem likely that going more digital would have negative impacts on education.

Even that grifter Sam Altman was talking about how he takes notes a while back.

Surely more blame for dumber kids falls on the Republican push to remove actual science from textbooks, than the format in which they are delivered.

People in my school literally failed PE, all you had to do was literally change your clothes. This is just people boogy manning tech so they feel smart. Fact is these kids will not be held back no matter what, and even if you hold them back they don't care. They don't see why they should bother learning in school, their parents don't care about how they are doing in school. Passing American K-12 is essentially putting 4 brain cells of effort. We spend more money on education per capita then the rest of the world. Talk about class sizes, text books blah blah blah dosen't matter when you have kids bullying teachers out of their jobs

Problem is its a balance. kids need to learn without technology but they also have to learn to responsibly use technology. In addition they need to be prepared to learn remotely. I actually think that at least by high school but as early as possible it would be good for every student to learn from home once a week. They will then be prepared for something like another covid as well as the modern work world.

I suppose what’s needed is to look at data from other countries and see if the data is similar. They’ve found a correlation but, as anybody remotely versed in science should know, correlation does not imply causation

I've been hearing about this. And the software isn't great, I hear stories of kids taking tests online and software glitches keep them from completing the tests. I love computers, but you know what always works? Pencil and paper.

• Correlation

• Causation

Hey, Computer, what's been happening to

• Average Class size
• Average teacher years of experience
• Average annual hours in school

Had it been?

• Up
• Down
• Down

But sure, also, they've replaced a stack of 5 lb textbooks nobody reads with a tablet computer nobody uses.

"The kids are so smart they figured out this computer stuff I could never" - 75 yo Deborah, School District Superintendent

No Deborah, the kids had a mandatory computer literacy class which helped them understand the fundamentals of computing.

Key word "had"

I'm sure the systemic defunding and dismantling of the public education system across the United States at the hands of Republican lawmakers over the same timeframe has absolutely nothing to do with it.

We should be investing in teachers not technology.

You know, it wasn't always like this

Not very long ago, just before your time
Right before the towers fell, circa '99
This was catalogs, travel blogs, a chatroom or two
We set our sights and spent our nights waiting
For you, you, insatiable you
Mommy let you use her iPad, you were barely two
And it did all the things we designed it to do
Now, look at you, oh, ha, look at you
You, you, unstoppable, watchable
Your time is now, your inside's out, honey, how you grew
And if we stick together, who knows what we'll do?
It was always the plan
to put the world in your hand

~ Bo Burnham

Welcome to the Internet

Kind of hard to take the article seriously when it ends with:

Join us at the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit May 19–20, 2026, in Atlanta. The next era of workplace innovation is here—and the old playbook is being rewritten. At this exclusive, high-energy event, the world’s most innovative leaders will convene to explore how AI, humanity, and strategy converge to redefine, again, the future of work.

Don't forget that Google made big bucks on that deal.

Public money gets funneled to the tech bros and the population gets dumber. It's a conservative win-win.

The problem isn't the technology, but the implementation.

The USA should have had a national digital textbook initiative, where free textbooks are developed and digitally distributed to all schools of every educational level. Each textbook can have modules and problem generators, designed to make it easy for teachers to assemble a custom curriculum for their class, to assign problems, and to quickly have generic quizzes graded.

The biggest problem with such a program would be things like essays, culture, and history, since many bad actors would want to press their beliefs onto students. Still, things like dates, locations, and people involved with events can be standardized. Maybe teachers can rate educational modules, to help keep bad material from being adopted by most teachers?

So who benefits from $30bn in spending on Laptops and Tablets? Oh Apple and Microsoft. Not students. Surprise surprise.

As with many of these articles there is a big caveat - Gen Z in the USA. It does not follow that this research applies across the world. It'd be interesting to see how other rich countries outcomes are different with their differing approaches to this. For example here in the UK I don't believe there has been a wholesale move to laptops/tablets for every student in schools. Technology is certainly used but it's not solely about students using laptops and tablets. Its things like smart wide boards, and the use of digital content to engage attention and so forth. Spending billions on laptops for all would be a scandal when school buildings need renewing for example.

I would hazard to suggest that the US education system is being corrupted in a similar way to other parts of the US state, with big expensive projects decided at state level by the Republicans and Democrats thanks to lobbying, benefiting big companies but not citizens. This is instead of money going to areas of proven benefit such as more teachers, school infrastructure renewal, or funding of homework clubs, after school activities, breakfast clubs or free school meals. Things proven to make a difference across the world but things that don't benefit big US corporations.

And lets be honest, if you wanted to give every student a laptop you wouldn't be going to Apple or Microsoft. You'd save money and go for generic hardware and a license free operating system like Linux. But that would be an anathema to both the Democrats and the Republicans, who have signed off huge spending on overpriced tech.

I studied things without technology. I take notes on pen and paper, and i hate having to do online tests too. I like my printed documents and physical books. Many students will say the same, and i also tend to dislike the trend to digitise every and each aspect of learning. The truth out there is that analog classrooms work better than this chromebook hellhole, but many of you are not ready to hear that. Technology is also the problem.

I completely blame ChromeOS.

Even on AD snafu'd windows, the first thing we all did was figure out how to bypass any block and do what we wanted to.

Kids are growing up not knowing there are things you can do aside from accessing the internet and loading crappy webpages.