When school starts next year at Marian Catholic College in Sydney’s north-west, something will be conspicuously absent in the classrooms of years 7 to 10 students. Laptops, devices and associated technology students used during lessons simply won’t be there.
“There’s a strong sentiment that devices are a problem,” principal Matthew Smith said. A survey of teachers, students and parents this year supported the removal of tech from the Kenthurst school, which will be among a handful of schools across the state to effectively ban one-to-one technology.
The school started exploring the idea of a digital purge as part of its renewed focus on explicit instruction methods, whereby a teacher explains a concept in digestible chunks, contrasting with inquiry-based learning where students explored concepts for themselves.
“At our school, the one-to-one devices seemed to have an impact on focused attention,” Smith said. Laptops distracted from lessons, reduced students’ working memory and created a barrier between pupils and the teacher, he said. Teachers found tech use difficult to supervise, with teenagers adept at quickly flicking between applications to disguise what they’re really up to.
Feedback from teachers regarding the ban was not unanimous. “We had a handful of teachers who would have preferred a reduced use of devices,” he said.
Some parents are also pushing back against technology in schools. In Australia, the Heads Up Alliance is leading the fightback against decades of technology in schools. Its founder, NSW father Dany Elachi, described last week’s screen time caps and NAPLAN reforms as a step in the right direction. His group believes primary school should be device-free, foundational literacy and handwriting skills must be restored as core priorities and physical books must be the default. Generative artificial intelligence has no place in schools whatsoever.
“It turns out that Australia’s Digital Education Revolution of 2008 was, in effect, a vast experiment on our children. Today, the results of that experiment have become impossible to ignore,” he said. “The mood has shifted among parents and teachers – what was once a whisper has turned into a shout. We’re not at the stage of picketing outside of schools. But we have started a petition and hope to present it to [Education Minister] Jason Clare.”
The science is clear that handwriting is better for learning and information retention. Research has found poor transcription skills constrain thinking, planning and translating processes in students. Studies show brain connectivity patterns were far more elaborate for handwriting compared with typewriting on a keyboard. Researchers say unlike typing, handwriting requires fine motor co-ordination, visual processing and cognitive engagement, which leads to better retention, more in-depth understanding and stronger neural connections.
Charles Sturt University’s Adjunct Associate Professor Noella Mackenzie welcomed the push towards more analogue pen and paper, but said it must start with students having more time to perfect handwriting. “We’ve gone so far down the digital road in schools … handwriting drops off around year 3 and students fail to develop an efficient, automated style,” she said. The hybrid of handwriting and typing in primary meant students entered high school without being proficient in either. Other countries had reverted to pen and paper but said developing handwriting skills needs time and practice. “It is going to be hard,” she said of the work required to help students develop their handwriting every day. “Education is not entertainment. And not everything we learn to do is instantly going to be easy and fun.”
The Catholic Diocese of Parramatta’s head of primary learning, Lisa Crampton, said in response to the evidence they were buying more physical books for their schools and focusing on handwriting. “It is really clear that handwriting is part of the knowledge-building itself, rather than just a tool to record what we know,” she said.
La Trobe University initial teacher education lecturer Sarah Warby said in an age of teacher shortages, especially in certain hard-to-staff subjects, the edtech industry had been a useful gap filler with its learning platforms, banks of lesson plans and educational games. “If teachers are teaching out of their area of specialty, edtech comes in and fills that gap,” she said. Warby said technology in some cases had made learning entertaining. She noted Millennial parents might also need to adjust what they thought school should be for.
Professor Matt Bower from Macquarie University, who studies the intersection of technology and education, warns against a total rejection of technology in schools. “Many schools are using technology in a range of purposeful ways,” he said, citing how videos of ancient Rome or science simulations could bring subjects to life for students and provide clarity and understanding. He believes schools can navigate a middle ground so students get the benefits and avoid the pitfalls of technology use such as distraction. “I hope with the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence that we are adequately preparing students to both self-regulate their use of technology and benefit from all the numerous potential advantages,” he said.
Back at Marian Catholic College, Smith is confident the lack of laptops is going to make the schools a better place. “We are still using modern, contemporary pedagogies,” he said. “But it makes the teaching more relational if you don’t have the screen sitting as a barrier – the classroom has to be interactive, relational and not passive.”