Now THAT's a headline.
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@skua @markhurst Show me graphs of Maine's classroom teacher to student ratios for the last fifteen years. Show me teacher pay and average educational achievement. Show me child poverty rates. Show me data on kids needing food assistance and whether they are getting it. Show me vaccination rates.
@skua @markhurst There are lots of confounding variables other than laptops and tablets, yet we always see articles like this and almost never on the other factors. Yeah, a lot of this predates Covid, but there is a general lack of willingness to even consider or acknowledge the effects of this disease on children and the culpability that schools, school boards and society at large have in not making every effort to reduce exposure in an environment they are forced into.
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Now THAT's a headline.
"The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents"
@markhurst imagine being the kid picked for this picture
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Now THAT's a headline.
"The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents"
@markhurst My totally unfounded opinion is that any tentative to enrich didactics with totally new "special effects", "added interaction", etc., has had the finally effect of disrupting *attention*.
They've lost the basic attention that's needed to follow a (boring) old book, because they've found the /entertaining/ part of the process more interesting.
Who writes educational texts should follow a good course on psychology of communication. -
@jonathankoren We used to give farmers more latitude back then, the farmer and the Dell notwithstanding.
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Now THAT's a headline.
"The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents"
Wow... So it wasn't AI afterall

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Now THAT's a headline.
"The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents"
I can't be the only one unsurprised that billions into corporate profits produced far worse results than those same billions funneled directly into local school districts?
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Now THAT's a headline.
"The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents"
@markhurst why does that matter when Dell and Apple's quarterly earnings looked so good? /s
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Now THAT's a headline.
"The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents"
@markhurst I remember complaining about this as a parent and getting nothing but shit
ah well
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Now THAT's a headline.
"The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents"
AI will only make it worse.
I joked that we have seen peak human intelligence but now I am convinced it is true.
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Writing by hand is critically important to cognitive development. Probably eating ants out of small holes with a honey covered stick serves the same purpose, but we don't do that anymore. We are tool users. Our brains are wired for it.
@oldoldcojote @markhurst My step granddaughter attends a Montessori school where they teach kids to write in cursive at an early age. I think it is brilliant!
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Now THAT's a headline.
"The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents"
@markhurst - May I point out that their parents elected Trump. Twice.
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Now THAT's a headline.
"The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents"
And moving right along from dodgy ed software to AI: next gen bandwidth shrinkage is next.
Eloi for Morlocks?
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Now THAT's a headline.
"The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents"
@markhurst do kids even learn how to write anymore?
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@skua @markhurst There are lots of confounding variables other than laptops and tablets, yet we always see articles like this and almost never on the other factors. Yeah, a lot of this predates Covid, but there is a general lack of willingness to even consider or acknowledge the effects of this disease on children and the culpability that schools, school boards and society at large have in not making every effort to reduce exposure in an environment they are forced into.
@Infoseepage @markhurst
I get that there are a lot of possible and probable contributors.Maybe I'm misreading your posts but it seems that you're confident that "laptops and tablets" and "the screen" more generally are not significant contributors.
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