40 critical skills lost to EdTech in 2024
Remember back in the day, say 2005, when it was recommended to keep your family computer in the living room so you could keep an eye on your child when they used it? The pediatrician would even ask your child if there was a computer in their bedroom because back then, it was shameful to let your child have unfettered and unsupervised access to the internet.
Hard to believe that was only 20 years ago when those expectations were the norm. How did we go from a societal expectation to limit kids unsupervised access to the internet to a day where schools are gleefully handing all children (even those in PreK) their own device? It is rather disturbing when you sit and really think about it.
Since we are nearing the end of another year and many lists are released such as, The 52 best tech gifts and gadgets in 2024 or this disturbing one, The 9 Most Interesting EdTech Trends Of 2024, I thought it would be interesting to create a list of skills that are lost at school with the invasion of “educational” technology. Here’s what I came up with so far:
Using a dictionary to find a definition of a word
How to find said word alphabetically in a dictionary
Fine motor skills for handwriting/cursive
Doodling
Using the index in a textbook to search for information
Using the glossary in a textbook to define words
Cutting paper along the dotted lines
Highlighting important words/phrases
Looking up page numbers
How to make paper bag book covers
Flipping back through pages in a story to re-read a section
Being able to read and use a map
Showing work for math problems
Circling/underlining important words in directions
Using a paper agenda
Writing down assignments
Making flash cards
Reading an analog clock
Reading from a textbook
Daydreaming
The fine motor stamina to write more than a few sentences
How to hand write a letter to another person
How to sign your name
How to read cursive
How to create to do lists
How to sit and visualize what you have just read
Hand writing multiple versions of an essay
How to address an envelope
Passing notes to friends
Stamina to read an entire book
Visually seeing how many pages are in a chapter before reading it
Looking for the bold words on a page
How to take notes
Looking information up in an encyclopedia
Attending and persevering through a difficult task without distractions
Organizing a notebook
Organizing a binder
Studying the pictures on a page in a science or history book when bored in a class
Checking the names of the older students that had your textbook the previous years
The loss of thousands of tiny moments of human interaction that occur between a teacher or a friend because eyes are diverted to a screen instead…
There are so many immeasurable skills that get lost when a child is expected to learn with a device rather than pencil and paper. Alone these skills may seem meaningless, however altogether they are important building blocks for critical thinking and learning. I am sure there are a lot more that I missed so please add them in the comments below!
Parents need to be intentional with their kids’ tech devices at every age — especially pre-teens and young teens. The predators out in the ether are after them especially. From my experience, I would not allow my kids to have a so-called smartphone until they’re 18 (16 at the earliest). Kids that already have a so-called ‘smartphone’ must NEVER have their phone with them in their room, at night as they go to bed. And mom & dad should not allow any device — whether for education, specifically, or not — in a bedroom. The dangers are real! Do not fear them, but you had better respect them.