As I gaze around a classroom filled with students, all eyes are glued to their screens. Three are playing games on their laptop, two are scrolling on TikTok and one is watching Netflix. Often, we fail to realize the tremendous amount of distractions hiding in plain sight.
If life as a high school student is hard enough, why is modern-day technology being used to distract us even more?
I’ve always preferred doing assignments and tests on paper rather than on a laptop. Whether it’s chemistry, math, Chinese or history, the feeling of pen to paper allows my brain to work ten times faster and helps eliminate any distractions.
When COVID-19 conquered the world in 2020, schools across the globe were forced to transition to a fully digital curriculum. At some point during COVID, I practically lived in Google Drive. All my Chinese quizzes went from written vocabulary tests to online typed tests. Considering handwriting Chinese characters and typing them are completely different skills, it felt as if I were taking a step backward in my education.
Fast forward five years and life has finally returned to normal, but one piece of the past still lingers. The digital takeover. After teachers became acclimated to a fully digital curriculum, many felt reluctant to let go of automatic grading systems and easy-access assignments.
Palo Alto High School 9th and 10th grade English teacher Arya Min is one example. “It’s hard to keep track of late work, individual work and what’s missing,” Min said. “If you do paper handouts, there are piles of paper everywhere.”
However, I think it’s necessary for teachers to find a balance between paper and digital classwork. By cutting out paper from our classroom, we’ve taken away the advantages of handwriting.
According to a study by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, handwriting activates almost the whole brain compared to typing, which hardly uses any of the brain. While students still have some leeway, a growing number of classes at Paly require students to solely use online notes.
Min is a strong proponent of restoring handwritten notes and tests back to her classes. “Students’ brains are more engaged when they handwrite things because they don’t have the option to delete it all with one stroke,” Min said. “I feel like this [handwriting] is a bit of a lost art.”
Digitizing assignments creates a straightforward process for teachers as it enhances their efficiency when grading assignments, but students are missing out on opportunities that allow them to simultaneously complete their homework and memorize the content. Finding a middle ground gives us the best of both worlds. In an ideal situation, students would have options. Rather than forcing students to comply with digital classroom resources, students should be able to choose what medium they prefer to work with.
It’s a running joke among students that teachers believe we only take one class, and therefore we have all the time in the world to finish assignments. As a student athlete and someone who is in multiple extracurriculars, the most valuable thing I possess is time.
Using paper assignments lets me build muscle memory while finishing my homework. Now that’s a win-win. On top of that, completing assignments with paper and pencil helps reduce academic dishonesty. No AI, no SparkNotes, just you and your brain. When I’m taking an online test with no secure browser and open tabs, I’ll admit there’s a lot of temptation to cheat. Sometimes my entire grade is riding on one test. Each day I hear more and more students using AI and other browser extensions on tests, and worst of all, they score better than everyone else.
This normalizes cheating and creates the false reality that academic dishonesty is “okay” since everyone does it. By eliminating computers, you avoid putting students in these situations in the first place. The digital takeover gets even more dangerous when you consider the health impacts it has had on teens.
According to a study by the National Library of Medicine, pre-COVID screentime for children between the ages of 15 and 17 was four hours a day. During the pandemic, that number increased to 5.75 hours per day and remained elevated even after many public health precautions were lifted.
I experienced this shift first-hand and noticed more frequent eye fatigue. Though schools have reverted back to the in-person experience, I’m still constantly looking at TVs and computers to learn in class. For example, one day in 7th grade my teacher pulled me aside and asked if I had been crying earlier. I simply explained that my bloodshot eyes were a combination of sleep deprivation and hours of homework the night before.
Although paper resources can damage the environment, completely turning a blind eye on the impacts of the Internet can also be devastating for our future. On average, each year users spend 3,200 hours online which results in the emission of 229 kilograms of carbon dioxide, according to a report from Anthropocene Magazine.
Many colleges see the environmental and academic benefits of transitioning. Laura Moon, a professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, said that her college students’ education is starkly different from that of teenagers.
“In my Product Strategy course for MBA students, we do not use digital resources during class — no laptops, no phones,” Moon said. “Class time is dedicated to live discussion, where students engage directly with each other to analyze and debate strategic ideas.”
If Stanford professors are promoting a non-digital classroom, why isn’t Paly?
As we become more and more connected to our screens, the classroom should be an opportunity for students to disconnect from technology and focus solely on learning. While tech has its benefits, maybe it’s time to hit pause.
