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- cross-posted to:
- news
- [email protected]
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/49390565
In 2002, Maine became the first state to implement a statewide laptop program to some grade levels. Then-governor Angus King saw the program as a way to put the internet at the fingertips of more children, who would be able to immerse themselves in information.
By that fall, the Maine Learning Technology Initiative had distributed 17,000 Apple laptops to seventh graders across 243 middle schools. By 2016, those numbers had multiplied to 66,000 laptops and tablets distributed to Maine students.
King’s initial efforts have been mirrored across the country. In 2024, the U.S. spent more than $30 billion putting laptops and tablets in schools. But more than a quarter-century and numerous evolving models of technology later, psychologists and learning experts see a different outcome than the one King intended. Rather than empowering the generation with access to more knowledge, the technology had the opposite effect.
Could this possibly be a function of how much experience you have? I’m 50 and I remember being in my twenties and knowing a lot of rote knowledge but then not being really great at some more abstract thought. It took a while to start intuiting my way through problems And connecting different ideas.
I really hate the “you’ll know better when you’re older” arguments people make to dismiss a younger person’s opinion or whatever, but I will say I have grown to appreciate how experienced people, regardless of age, can better adapt to certain situations because they’ve had to deal with them more often than I have.
All that to say my gut reaction is that this is a “kids these days” article dressed up with some flowery scientific buzzwords that all of us new old people can smugly latch on to and tut-tut about.
Very much could be, and I consider this to be an alternative explanation. Time will tell, I guess :)