SCREEN SCHOOLED

“An urgent wake-up call for anyone interested in how screen use in schools is damaging kids and education.” —Susan Greenfield, author of Mind Change

Over the past decade, educational instruction has become increasingly digitized as districts rush to adopt the latest tech gadgets and software and to dole out laptops and iPads to every student. Teachers mandated to “meet kids where they are” struggle to cram curriculum into the technology, rather than effectively using technology to enrich the curriculum. Meanwhile, the most important question, “Is this what is best for students?” is glossed over.

Veteran teachers Joe Clement and Matt Miles have seen firsthand how technology use is creating a wide range of cognitive and social deficits in our young people. Rather than becoming better problem solvers, kids look to Google to answer their questions for them. Rather than deepening students' intellectual curiosity and facilitating learning, educational technology is too often cumbersome, glitchy, and distracting, causing needless frustration and greatly extending homework time. Rather than becoming the great equalizer, electronic devices are widening the achievement gap.

On a mission to educate and empower parents, Clement and Miles lift the veil on what's really going on at school: teachers who have given up policing cell phone use in the classroom; students who are increasingly unfocused, unprepared, unimaginative, and antisocial; and administrators who are bamboozled by corporate technology purveyors. They provide action steps parents can take to demand change and make a compelling case for simpler, smarter, more effective forms of teaching and learning.

Joe Clement and Matt Miles are award-winning teachers, coaches, and mentors with a combined thirty years' experience improving the education of young people. They run the blog PaleoEducation.com and their writing has been featured in Psychology Today and the Washington Post.