Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

$30B for laptops yielded a generation less cognitively capable than parents

yahoo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 257 posts

Re: $30B for laptops yielded a generation less cognitively capable than parents

#11

Post by telman17 »

This article tries to put the blame on laptops when the real culprit could simply be boiled down to a failure in classroom management and lack of enforcement against cell phones in class, whiny parents who rage when their children are told they can't be playing video games in class, and teachers who are using computer programs to teach the kids instead of actually teaching.

Ban phones from class. For real. Lock down websites that are irrelevant to the subjects being taught. These are all technically possible with the tools schools have. Even Youtube. If something is important enough to show the class, the teacher can show it on their larger screen.

Half these issues can be solved by teaching kids how to use technology meaningfully instead of using it as a babysitter.

Re: $30B for laptops yielded a generation less cognitively capable than parents

#13

Post by Herring »

Article didn't explain why tech doesn't work in education. It's biological. We evolved to learn from and interact with other humans, preferably the same group over a long time, so we really get to understand/mirror/like/support each other. Anyone who has tried Duolingo gets this. Drop me in China with Chinese friends and I'll learn 100x faster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd-_VDYit3U

Re: $30B for laptops yielded a generation less cognitively capable than parents

#14

Post by nsainsbury »

Just wait until we start to see the full impact of AI on learning. I suspect the results are going to be so catastrophic that there will actually be attempts to hide it.

eg. See [1] which finds: "The report shows a rapid change over just five years. Between 2020 and 2025, the number of incoming students whose math skills were below high school level rose nearly thirtyfold and 70% of those students fell below middle school levels. This roughly translates to about one in twelve members of the freshman class."

and

"high school math grades are only very weakly linked to students’ actual math preparation."

There is simply no way you can dangle an automatic homework and assignment solver in front of kids and not absolutely destroy their motivation, desire, and ability to learn.

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/annaesakismith/2025/12/11/uc-sa...

Re: $30B for laptops yielded a generation less cognitively capable than parents

#15

Post by hedora »

I’m not convinced laptops were as big an issue as intentionally sabotaging the US educational system with things like No Child Left Behind and Common Core.

Are Gen-Z folks overseas as screwed as Americans, and is there a correlation between academic performance and classroom laptops?

Re: $30B for laptops yielded a generation less cognitively capable than parents

#16

Post by japhyr »

telman17 wrote: post #11

This article tries to put the blame on laptops when the real culprit could simply be boiled down to a failure in classroom management and lack of enforcement against cell phones in class, whiny parents who rage when their children are told they can't be playing video games in class, and teachers who are using computer programs to teach the kids instead of actually teaching. Ban phones from class. For real. Lock down…

> the real culprit could simply be boiled down to a failure in classroom management and lack of enforcement against cell phones in class

I was a middle school and high school math and science teacher from 1994 through 2019. I watched the advent of internet in schools, then desktop computers in classrooms, and finally smartphones in students' hands.

I've lived a life of watching teachers and schools get blamed for not dealing better with society's issues. "Just teach kids how to use technology", "just ban phones", and "lock down irrelevant websites" is a pretty big ask when the entire industry is focused on getting kids to use these devices, apps, and sites as much as they possibly can.

Re: $30B for laptops yielded a generation less cognitively capable than parents

#17

Post by zekenie »

It’s impossible to disengage the deployment of technology with the way the technology was deployed. I’m not saying anything that I’m not saying. I believe that there could have been a world where deploying technology in all these classrooms had a positive effect

Re: $30B for laptops yielded a generation less cognitively capable than parents

#18

Post by qsera »

bob001 wrote: post #7
walterbell wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unrelated to the laptops From the article: In written testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath said that Gen Z is less cognitively capable than previous generations, despite its unprecedented access to technology.. Horvath blamed.. tendency to get off-track as a key contributor to technology hindering learning. > low quality sources For…

Which is all fluff until someone links to a peer reviewed study.

>peer reviewed study..

So you trust the peer, but not the author? How come?

Re: $30B for laptops yielded a generation less cognitively capable than parents

#19

Post by telman17 »

japhyr wrote: post #16
telman17 wrote: post #11

This article tries to put the blame on laptops when the real culprit could simply be boiled down to a failure in classroom management and lack of enforcement against cell phones in class, whiny parents who rage when their children are told they can't be playing video games in class, and teachers who are using computer programs to teach the kids instead of actually teaching. Ban phones from class. For real. Lock down…

> the real culprit could simply be boiled down to a failure in classroom management and lack of enforcement against cell phones in class I was a middle school and high school math and science teacher from 1994 through 2019. I watched the advent of internet in schools, then desktop computers in classrooms, and finally smartphones in students' hands. I've lived a life of watching teachers and schools get blamed for not…

I can definitely see the push for using technology in schools - what you're saying makes sense.

It's not the individual teachers I blame. I come from a family of educators and a lot of the crappy enforcement falls to the district level, who just want to make the parents happy. There is literally no reason a child needs a cell phone in class. Computers are great. Lock them down. There is nothing unreasonable about this.

Post reply on HN