Students in Windy Kelley’s fifth grade classroom at Union Elementary School in Montpelier work on computers. File photo by Roger Crowley/for VTDigger Blake Fabrikant is the dean of students at Sharon Academy, an independent school in the central Vermont town, where he also teaches a class on f ilm and philosophy. In his class, students watch films and are expected to write essays on them. In prior years, students would write their assignments on their Google Chromebook laptops. But this school year, it’s strictly pen and paper. And Fabrikant said it’s been the most successful class he’s taught in 10 years, in no small part because of the absence of technology. “It felt like the students, when you asked them to do something that was handwritten, were much more likely to turn it in, and much more engaged with the work,” he said. Fabrikant is one of a growing cohort of teachers, parents and others in education advocating against the use of education technology tools and software that have flooded Vermont’s classrooms over the last decade. They point to research that has shown these digital tools have not improved students’ academic results or test scores, and, in fact, may actually be harming their cognitive capabilities. This has only been accelerated by the rollout of artificial intelligence in some schools, they say. They also voice concerns about education technology companies’ use of student data. Their efforts were foreshadowed last year, when the Legislature passed a bill prohibiting smartphone use in schools. Now, two bills working their way through the Vermont Statehouse would set new parameters around the use of technology in the classroom altogether. One bill in the Senate Education Committee, H.650, would stand up a state registry and require educational technology providers to register annually. This would allow the state to develop procedures to vet all school technologies for efficacy before schools can use them. Rep. Edye Graning, D-Jericho, sponsored the bill with Rep. Angela Arsenault, D-Williston. Granning, in an interview, said she introduced the legislation because there’s “very little independent oversight into whether these products are actually doing what they say they’re going to do.” “The hope is that we can get some legislation started so that we can begin regulating the industry … and figure out how we can ensure that these products are actually educating,” she said. Meanwhile, a separate bill sponsored by Arsenault, H.830, would give parents the right to opt their students out of using education technology in schools altogether. “No one was ever made to prove that using technology the way we are in education currently was the right thing for kids,” Arsenault told lawmakers on the House Education Committee this month. “And now parents are being asked to prove why it’s not, and we have to flip that around.” Technology saturation Technology use in schools accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic, when Covid lockdowns forced schools to adopt an array of technological practices to allow for remote education. School-issued Google Chromebook laptops have since become ubiquitous, as have education programs like Google Workspace, Khan Academy, Magic School AI and Powerschool. Teachers and administrators use these programs to organize and provide curriculum content, structure classroom teaching, track student learning and communicate with parents and guardians. For educators, it’s a blessing and a curse. Technological products and software are “an incredibly important tool,” Chris Young, North Country Union High School principal, said in an interview. “And, technology in general is a real problem for us.” Learning management systems allow teachers to create lessons online so that students can access them if they aren’t in school. But Young also noted that much of the bullying, hazing and harassment cases in his schools usually occur via devices and social media. For teachers like Fabrikant, there’s a growing apprehension around technology’s use in schools. He is part of a volunteer parent group called the Vermont Coalition for Independence, Reconnection and Liberation, which advocates for less technology in schools and has pushed lawmakers to regulate it. “We want to make sure whatever is put in front of our children passes the level of scrutiny that is required for any other product that’s put in front of kids,” said Laura Derrendinger, a parent of four children, member of the volunteer group and a leading advocate for last year’s phone-free schools bill. After schools spent billions of dollars on tech products and years integrating them into curriculum, studies have found that these tools have not improved students’ test scores or academic progress.  Jared Cooney Horvath, a neuroscientist, educator and author of “The Digital Delusion,” told Senate Education Committee lawmakers that the “data is alarmingly clear that digital technology does not improve student learning.” “In fact, in almost every instance we have, it harms student learning,” he said. Horvath pointed to data showing that school systems that adopt digital learning methods also saw their test scores drop. In Vermont, test scores began to decrease in 2014, following a 20-year period of consistent improvement in fourth- and eighth-grade math and reading scores, he said. The state’s scores have been decreasing ever since. “We’ve wiped away 20 years of growth in less than 10 years because we went tech heavy,” he told lawmakers. “And it’s not just us. It’s across every country we’ve ever explored.” Likewise, Arsenault’s legislation notes that in 2016, when technology became more fully integrated in schools, the 85,000 Chromebooks in schools outnumbered Vermont’s student population. Since 2016, Vermont students’ reading test scores have declined significantly. “I think that just speaks to the utter saturation in our schools of classroom technology, and the way that it was adopted with a great deal of understandable optimism,” Arsenault told House Education Committee lawmakers this month. “But we have to take a look at what’s actually happening now and really critically review whether that optimism was warranted.” ‘We’re behind’ Granning’s bill faced some pushback during testimony in the Senate Education Committee.  Abigail Wilson, the director of state policy for the Software Information Industry Association, a trade association for digital and business software agencies, told lawmakers that H.650 misses the mark. She said the issue is not how much screen time students get, but what they use the screens for, and “who governs it.” “That distinction matters enormously because the technology these bills target and the technology that genuinely concerns most parents are not the same thing,” she told lawmakers. Wilson urged lawmakers against a “blanket prohibition.” Peter Drescher is director of technology and innovation at Essex-Westford School District and the vice president of VITA-Learn, a nonprofit of ed tech professionals to promote and support the use of information technology in Vermont’s schools. He told Senate lawmakers that many school districts have robust policies in place to protect students from harmful content on the internet. “We also try to empower our teachers in understanding, you know, that they don’t have to use technology all the time, and that there are appropriate times for it,” he said. He told lawmakers his district has moved toward using “less and less” technology for younger students based on teacher requests. Vermont Agency of Education officials said they agree with the intent of the H.650, but said the two prominent concerns, of educational technology effectiveness and student data privacy, “require different solutions.” H.650 remains in review in the Senate Education Committee. Arsenault’s bill, H.830, allowing parents to opt their students out of tech use, missed the Legislature’s crossover deadline, but there may still be an opportunity to tack the legislation onto a miscellaneous education bill. Regardless, Arsenault and Granning both see these as multiyear efforts. “Technology today and the way our kids use it is an enormous field, and it’s going to take a lot of targeted laws to help protect them,” Granning said. “And we’re behind.” Read the story on VTDigger here: Legislation would regulate what technology kids use for learning. Lawmakers and advocates say it’s overdue.. ...read more read less