Do tablets, instead of slates, make good or bad students? From interactive whiteboards to virtual classrooms, new technologies are becoming more and more widespread in schools across the United Kingdom and other advanced countries. However, its detractors are worried about the impact of screens on students’ health and academic results.

How does digital technology transform education? Will computers completely replace books?

For some teachers who have decided to replace traditional textbooks with more interactive screens, they believe that digital tools make it much easier to access authentic materials. The challenge of bringing digital technology into the classroom is to complement the parental watch— which may or may not happen at home— and to learn how to sort through information, which is the key point for tomorrow's citizens. These teachers maintain that digital technology allow students to work in a more personalized way, according to their academic level.

However, do hyperconnected students perform better than the others?

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has conducted a study on the impact of equipping students with digital tools on their academic results in more than 60 countries worldwide. Philippe Bihouix, author of the book "The disaster of the digital school", points out some of its surprising conclusions. The author finds that the level of use of digital tools in school is associated with significantly lower academic results. He adds that there is no positive correlation between the level of digitalization equipment of school systems and student performance. OECD studies show that the more students use the screen, the less they are likely to succeed. For example, in a reading comprehension test, a child who reads a text on a screen will get a lower understanding of what is written than another child reading the same text on a printed document.

However, despite these findings, the report still recommends the use of new technologies at school.

For François Taddei, a researcher and director of the interdisciplinary research center that advocates for educational innovation, it is not just a matter of putting children in front of tablets, it is necessary to master the content, especially to know how to use them.
For other teachers, operating without the digital is no longer an option. Companies today go digital. Letting students leave school without appropriate digital education would be a real danger nowadays.

Sources: The Digital School, Evidence for Learning, Cambridge International, The disaster of digital school, The interdisciplinary Research Center