Also, this is a claim in the essay's introductory paragraph and the claim is supported by paragraphs and citations in the rest of the essay. This knee jerk "citation needed" on HN is getting tiresome.
The claim that "technology in schools actually lowers test scores in reading, math, and science" is not supported by identifiable sources, so some skepticism is warranted.
Later in the essay, the author has supporting examples AND references for his opening claims. For lowering test scores there are two examples that I found in a few moments of looking.
> In a study of over seven hundred students at West Point, those with computers in class had test scores 0.2 standard deviations below those of students who did not.12
> In one study, the final exam scores of students whose class permitted electronic devices were 5 percentage points lower than those whose classes did not.13
I was talking about the figure claiming to show changes in PISA scores caused by various technologies, for which I can't find the source.
I didn't look closer at the West Point study, but I did read reference 13, which by the way required the use of electronic devices for in-class testing, so it did not actually compare classes permitting electronic devices against those that did not. Rather, it had a proctor remind students to put their devices away when they weren't using them for the lecture.
yeah but which one of the 38 citations makes this statement? I vastly prefer wikipedia's style of having direct inline citations for statements that are making claims.
The citation for lowering test scores is probably supposed to be PISA, which doesn't get listed in the footnotes, so who knows which report he got it from.
The citation for harming long-term memory is https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01443410.2018.1... which specifically investigates the distracting effect of allowing the use of phones and laptops during class for purposes other than the class itself. (Ironically, the in-classroom questions had to be answered electronically.)
Having now looked at http://www.oecd.org/pisa/publications/pisa-2018-results.htm I didn't find anything like the figure included in the article, nor any indication PISA actually involves collecting information about technology use, which makes me wonder how reliable that article's statements really are.
