The Research

Evidence of harm related to technology use in schools is increasing.

UNESCO E-book: An Ed-Tech Tragedy?

• COVID-19 pushed education from schools to screens at a pace and scale with no historical precedent. For many students, formal learning became dependent on digital technology.

• This book examines the numerous adverse and unintended consequences of the shift to ed-tech, documents how digital-first solutions left a global majority of learners behind, and details how education was diminished even when tech was available/worked as intended.

C-SPAN: Lawmakers Hold Hearing on the Impact of Screen Time on Kids

• On January 15, 2026, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee heard testimony from experts on the impact of screen time on children and young adults.

• The witnesses said kids spend an average of five to eight hours a day on screens, warning it had fueled a mental health, learning, and creativity crisis.

• Neuroscientist Jared Horvath said Generation Z--those born roughly between 1997 and 2012 is the first generation to underperform across every cognitive measure.

• Witnesses urged Congress to act by banning artificial intelligence chatbots and companion apps for minors, implementing bans on phones and social media in schools during the school day, and enforcing changes to algorithms designed to keep children engaged.

Time Magazine: ChatGPT May Be Eroding Critical Thinking Skills, According to a New MIT Study

• Does ChatGPT harm critical thinking abilities? A new study from researchers at MIT’s Media Lab has returned some concerning results.

  • The behavioral data revealed that higher levels of neural connectivity and internal content generation in the Brain-only group correlated with stronger memory, greater semantic accuracy, and firmer ownership of written work. Brain-only group, though under greater cognitive load, demonstrated deeper learning outcomes and stronger identity with their output. The Search Engine group displayed moderate internalization, likely balancing effort with outcome.

  • The LLM group, while benefiting from tool efficiency, showed weaker memory traces, reduced self-monitoring, and fragmented authorship. This trade-off highlights an important educational concern: AI tools, while valuable for supporting performance, may unintentionally hinder deep cognitive processing, retention, and authentic engagement with written material. If users rely heavily on AI tools, they may achieve superficial fluency but fail to internalize the knowledge or feel a sense of ownership over it.

New York Times: Dependence on Tech Caused ‘Staggering’ Education Inequality, U.N. Agency Says

• Heavy reliance on online remote learning during the pandemic drew attention away from more equitable ways of teaching children at home, a UNESCO report says.

Santa Barbara Independent: Santa Barbara Students Exposed to Trauma on School Tablets

• Parents and School District Working Toward Stronger Security Measures for Classroom Devices

Bloomberg News: Google LLC is unlawfully using its products—ubiquitous in K-12 education—to secretly gather information about school age children, substituting the consent of the school for that of parents

• Google LLC is unlawfully using its products—ubiquitous in K-12 education—to secretly gather information about school age children, substituting the consent of the school for that of parents, a proposed class action filed in California federal court said Monday.

• The tech giant collects not only traditional education records “but thousands of data points that span a child’s life,” and “neither students nor their parents have agreed to this arrangement, according to the US District Court for the Northern District of California complaint.

The Tech Buzz: Google's leaked docs reveal Chromebook plan to lock in kids

• Internal presentations show Google views schools as pipeline for lifetime loyalty.

Change is happening.

• New York Times: Chromebook Remorse: Tech Backlash at Schools Extends Beyond Phones

• LAlist: LAUSD Will Limit Screen Time For Students At School

• Fortune: Schools across America are quietly admitting that screens in classrooms made students worse off and are reversing years of tech-first policies

• NBC News: Parents are opting kids out of school laptops, returning them to pen and paper

• NYTimes: In Backlash Against Tech in Schools, Parents Are Winning Rollbacks