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The Ed tech backlash

It started with cell phones in schools. Now the backlash has spread to school-provided devices. After a couple of decades of promises from big tech of an educational revolution, research now reveals there is little to show for the millions of dollars spent on all those devices. Studies are now beginning to suggest a correlation and a possible causal connection between daily educational screen usage and a decline in learning. Parent and teacher groups are beginning to push back saying enough with big tech in our classrooms, while others say we can't turn back now as our world becomes increasingly technological. Can paper and pencils save our students' learning, or do we just need to get better at using the technology?

An argument for why screen time in schools hurts students' cognitive development

As the fight against cell phone distraction in school gained momentum, one cognitive scientist began raising the alarm over what school-provided devices are also doing to our students. His testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation became an inflection point that got the movement rolling. Watch his 5-minute opening remarks below. (You can also read his submitted written statement here.)

Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath: "Even in schools, it doesn't matter what the size of the screen is...and it doesn't matter who bought it...All of these things are also going to hurt learning, which in turn are going to hurt our kids' cognitive development." Full video here: https://www.c-span.org/program/senate...

Quick facts

Over the past few decades there have been many reasons to hope that educational technology could play a critical role in improving education and opening new possibilities for students.
There has been no discernable learning gains at scale, in any metric, for the cost of all the devices.
Research has revealed the downward pressure of distraction overcomes any benefits.
Students do not retain as much information when they learn on screens even when they are more "engaged".
It turns out that by making learning easier, it was also easier to forget. Small measures of struggle, like deciding what elements to handwrite in a note, build strong memories.
Digital devices, with fast access to information, have eroded student attentional capacity over time.
Learning alone through screens does not take advantage of our evolved ability to socially construct knowledge.

Jared Horvath's complete arguments are outlined in his book The Digital Delusion.

The counter arguments

Lack of PD. The argument for the continued use of technology in schools is usually centered around how educators need to get better at using it. It is often stated that only effective use of the technology will help students—just using it will not. Research shows isolated examples of technology creating some gains in learning over traditional methods, however such gains never appear at scale, suggesting a problem with mass implementation, rather than the technology itself. Unfortunately, edtech is a very large expense, for both devices and PD, on an unproven hope.

Gotta get em ready. Preparing for the new digital reality is often cited as the need for ed tech in schools to prepare them for the future. Research on this is limited. Some evidence suggests that as devices proliferate at schools, digital literacy among students is on the decline as students simply trust whatever the device tells them.

It's engaging: Screens often do lock student's attention in a way that little else can. It is believe that this can be applied for learning. This has not been shown to be true. There is no evidence of a causal correlation between a student's "engagement" on a screen and their actual learning that sticks.

Major events in the ed tech backlash

The Anxious Generation is published. The causal link between smart phone / social media use and student mental health decline becomes clear.
A grassroots movement against smart phone and social media usage for children and adolescents gains international attention, especially their distracting use in schools.
Governments around the world begin to ban cell phones in schools and limit social media access to only those above 16. Ontario releases the first cell phone ban policy (with limited success) in 2019, and then added it to the provincial school code of conduct in 2024. The ministry is considering other ways to mandate and enforce a system-wide ban.
Jared Horvath testifies to a US Senate Committee on school devices delivering a sharp rebuke to big tech in classrooms (see video above).
Los Angeles Unified School District is the first in the world to release a resolution to limit the use of educational devices in classrooms. Other school systems begin to follow.
The Canadian grassroots movement, Skills before Screens, begins to set its sights on classroom ed tech.
Conflicts between Canadian parents who want to opt their children from screen usage in schools is on the rise.

Ed tech backlash in the media

Los Angeles becomes first major US school district to limit classroom screen time (BBC, April 2026)
America’s tech-filled classrooms are facing a backlash against school-assigned devices (Associated Press, May 2026)
The book fueling a movement against screens in schools (NBC News, May 2026)
LAUSD’s proposed screen time policy will harm students and teachers (EdSource, June 2026) (a counter opinion)
Educators Divided on Benefits of Ed Tech in National Survey (GovTech, June 2026)
Students learn less when they use tech. So why do schools keep giving kids devices? (CNN Health, June 2026)
The Ed Tech Backlash (School Library Journal, June 2026)
The Ed-Tech Backlash Is Here. What It Means for Schools (EducationWeek, April 2026)
Ed tech is profitable. It is also mostly useless (The Economist, January 2026, subscription required)

Related organizations pushing back on big tech

Skills before Screens - Canadian grassroots organization advocating for a reduction of ed tech usage in schools.
Schools Beyond Screens - California parent group behind the first school district to set limits to ed tech.
Unplugged Canada - Parents can sign a pledge to not buy their children a cell phone until they are at least 14.

Here's a look at classroom devices from the OECD

(PDF available here)

technology in schools.pdf

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