Sweden Swaps Screens For Books In the Classroom (arstechnica.com) 68
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: In 2023, the Swedish government announced that the country's schools would be going back to basics, emphasizing skills such as reading and writing, particularly in early grades. After mostly being sidelined, physical books are now being reintroduced into classrooms, and students are learning to write the old-fashioned way: by hand, with a pencil or pen, on sheets of paper. The Swedish government also plans to make schools cellphone-free throughout the country.
Educational authorities have been investing heavily. Last year alone, the education ministry allocated $83 million to purchase textbooks and teachers' guides. In a country with about 11 million people, the aim is for every student to have a physical textbook for each subject. The government also put $54 million towards the purchase of fiction and non-fiction books for students.
These moves represent a dramatic pivot from previous decades, during which Sweden -- and many other nations -- moved away from physical books in favor of tablets and digital resources in an effort to prepare students for life in an online world. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Nordic country's efforts have sparked a debate on the role of digital technology in education, one that extends well beyond the country's borders. US parents in districts that have adopted digital technology to a great extent may be wondering if educators will reverse course, too. As for why Sweden is pivoting away from digital devices, researcher Linda Falth said the move was driven by several factors, including concerns over whether the digitization of classrooms had been evidence-based. "There was also a broader cultural reassessment," Falth said. "Sweden had positioned itself as a frontrunner in digital education, but over time concerns emerged about screen time, distraction, reduced deep reading, and the erosion of foundational skills such as sustained attention and handwriting."
Falth noted that proponents of reform believe that "basic skills -- especially reading, writing, and numeracy -- must be firmly established first, and that physical textbooks are often better suited for that purpose."
Further reading: Digital Platforms Correlate With Cognitive Decline in Young Users
Educational authorities have been investing heavily. Last year alone, the education ministry allocated $83 million to purchase textbooks and teachers' guides. In a country with about 11 million people, the aim is for every student to have a physical textbook for each subject. The government also put $54 million towards the purchase of fiction and non-fiction books for students.
These moves represent a dramatic pivot from previous decades, during which Sweden -- and many other nations -- moved away from physical books in favor of tablets and digital resources in an effort to prepare students for life in an online world. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Nordic country's efforts have sparked a debate on the role of digital technology in education, one that extends well beyond the country's borders. US parents in districts that have adopted digital technology to a great extent may be wondering if educators will reverse course, too. As for why Sweden is pivoting away from digital devices, researcher Linda Falth said the move was driven by several factors, including concerns over whether the digitization of classrooms had been evidence-based. "There was also a broader cultural reassessment," Falth said. "Sweden had positioned itself as a frontrunner in digital education, but over time concerns emerged about screen time, distraction, reduced deep reading, and the erosion of foundational skills such as sustained attention and handwriting."
Falth noted that proponents of reform believe that "basic skills -- especially reading, writing, and numeracy -- must be firmly established first, and that physical textbooks are often better suited for that purpose."
Further reading: Digital Platforms Correlate With Cognitive Decline in Young Users
when in doubt (Score:2)
Don't computer.
Paper, iPad, Kindle Peperwhite - all of the above (Score:2)
For non-reference stuff, regular books for fun
Re:Paper, iPad, Kindle Peperwhite - all of the abo (Score:4, Interesting)
For really important technical references I still prefer paper books. For the most important of these I also get the digital version on iPad, just in case I need the reference when on the road. But a regular work office, home office, or in the lazy room recliner just keeping up to date ... I prefer paper books to iPad. Readable charts and graphics and better high lighting and notes in the margins.
I don't use technical references much these days, but when I do I like to have both digital and paper, especially for data books and app notes. The digital version is easier to search, but the paper version allows for using my fingers to hold two or three sections open simultaneously. Paper is the best for random access.
And that's why when I'm reading fiction or scholarly / scientific stuff, I only use the electronic version if have no other choice. For those kinds of reading, I will frequently flip back and forth by dozens or hundreds of pages to confirm my memory, or to find what a character said. In my experience, trying to do that on a device utterly sucks.
Reading a book and reading a screen are, for me, very different experiences. If I had to choose, I'd drop e-books in favour of paper and never look back. Except in the pages of my dead-tree books, of course...
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As for why Sweden is pivoting away from digital devices, researcher Linda Falth said the move was driven by several factors, including concerns over whether the digitization of classrooms had been evidence-based.
Of course it wasn't, that would be going against decades of practice. Changes in education are based on a technique called analytical advocacy in which (typically) a teacher observes that something they do seems to be helping one or two kids (alternatively, a non-teacher thinks that some new thing will help kids), they spend a lot of time writing about it and talking about it at conferences, eventually it gets noticed when the previous analytical-advocacy fad has obviously failed, and then it gets pushed i
Physical books good (Score:3)
Maybe it was just because I was a nerd, but I found the annual new crop of textbooks and workbooks exciting. I can't imagine my reaction to the same old device (more or less) every year.
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Dunno! Ebooks have grown on me: the fact that I can carry any number of them on an iPad and not have to worry about their weight, their physical shelf storage or the question of paper rotting over time. Also, if I use dark mode to read them, then I can even do it at night lying down in bed
As for writing, while I used to write in school and college as a kid, ever since computers, I've been using software like Word and over the decades, I'm now a faster typist than writer. I also find myself wasting a lo
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As for using a laptop for taking notes, I find that to be way more distractin
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Quantity vs Quality.
All of your points are true, but they are arguments of quantity over quality. You have more books, you can write faster, etc.
Especially at an early age, students benefit from an emphasis on quality over quantity. Real books, with subjects read slowly and studied in depth. Thoughtful consideration before putting pen to paper. Taking physical notes. (I absolutely hated taking notes in class but it has a documented relationship to remembering the information.) etc.
Introducing computer-
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Points taken. But that said,...
If I type something, I'm just as likely to remember it as if I write something. Question is - which of them do I do faster? If one is new to computers or typing, then probably writing would be faster, and that's what one should do. But in university, when I was for a while addicted to Usenet, I used to type a lot of stuff in newsgroups, which made me a fast typist very quickly. And that has followed me since
I don't completely disagree w/ you on introducing computers/t
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If I type something, I'm just as likely to remember it as if I write something.
I feel that way as well, but the evidence is that for the general population it is not true.
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... I can carry any number of them on an iPad and not have to worry about their weight ....
To be fair, walking a mile to school with several heavy textbook in a backpack was good physical conditioning. :-)
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I'd recommend swimming for a more well rounded exercise. All one's body muscles get exercised, and bonus - one doesn't end up w/ more BO as a result of sweat
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And, it taught you to be careful with the textbooks, because your parents didn't wanna have to buy the textbook because you scribbled in it.
Not sure how that works when the school gives the kid a Chromebook, although now if the kid bangs the Chromebook too hard and breaks the screen or wears out the wires on the charger, they're 'up the creek'.
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I'm critical of certain global societal trends that have emerged over this millennium, such as addiction to devices, getting too dependent on AI and associated behaviors. But that doesn't go as far as thinking that a computerless society is the answer, or that education shouldn't use computers as a tool.
If you were actually critical of those trends, then you would understand how wrong your last statement really is.
The digital learning era has managed to create a unique problem we haven't seen since we started measuring education a couple of centuries ago. The next generation, is now dumber for it.
And I mean that literally. In every measurable way.
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I do think that it's important for students to be physically present in a class, even if they may have videos of lessons that enables them to peruse them at will. But once there, I do think it's okay for them to have a laptop on which they can type certain notes that the instructor gives, just like they would write on paper. Or maybe even iPads.
Even though I use a keyboard almost exclusively these days, I'm going to play Devil's advocate here. I would at least want to see the time split between screens and paper. Taking notes on paper is - brain-wise - a qualitatively different thing than typing. Also, the ability to draw pictures, or even to just doodle, can be a valuable thought and memory aid.
Additionally, when you've written something in pen and then change your mind, you have to cross it out; whereas on a device you simply make it disappear a
Digital workbooks can personalize, that helps .... (Score:1)
Maybe it was just because I was a nerd, but I found the annual new crop of textbooks and workbooks exciting. I can't imagine my reaction to the same old device (more or less) every year.
Well that old device does have a new set of digital textbooks and workbooks. :-)
And digital workbooks, when done correctly, watch you solve a problem and evaluate your understanding of key concepts. Allowing the workbook to be more personalized and not bore the student with things they have already mastered.
But absent such advanced software, yeah, paper is probably better than a PDF for K-12 students. Plus young students do need to learn to use paper, pen, and pencil as a backup to the digital.
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Digital (a tablet or phone or something, because everyone buys their kids the newest stuff) is a backup to paper and pen/pencil, actually.
Don't the "fill the bubbles" cards still work? Can't the teachers read some student's essay? How's digital everything going to work when the network goes down for some reason? I grew up in the days of a backpack full of books, and several notebooks of notes and stuff, and it was amazing tech when my elementary school got a CD-ROM (the old cartridge ones). Us kids from back then knew about reading a dozen books to find enough info for that 1-page essay about Australia... now, if the network is down, "I can't do my homework". Politics didn't really figure into our reports back then (aside from like the big wars, and then it was based on the books and whatever your dial-up internet showed you).
Really, no school should have gone away from books... while either can be biased as hell, if everyone has a textbook that says "last admin was bad", it's easier to judge the essay... if the content of the article changes 5 times a day, that becomes a little more difficult (especially once the teacher gets the papers back and spends the next two days reviewing each one). Although, it seems to be assumed that all kids in school these days will be sitting in a cushy chair at some big outfit, and not having to 'make do' with less than whatever the standard is.
I have no idea why you've been modded down - your comment on this story is one of the most insightful ones I've read. Sadly, I commented just before I got to yours - otherwise I'd have modded you up.
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I get modded down all the time by the political trolls, because I don't agree with their arguments.
Let me be the first cranky old guy to complain... (Score:2)
Let me be the first to complain about the improper use of the DEC logo. Again.
What the heck does DEC have anything to do with this story?
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Re:Let me be the first cranky old guy to complain. (Score:4, Funny)
it involves fingers, so it's digital
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Maybe there is a course on OpenVMS?
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Let me be the first to complain about the improper use of the DEC logo. Again. What the heck does DEC have anything to do with this story?
All those VAX and PDP-11 books and manuals on paper. I still have mine for some reason. :-)
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I once had a thick book on the Alpha, which I donated to the local library after Compaq discontinued the CPU. Looking back, I wish it had existed as an ebook, when I see YouTube videos resurrecting retro boxes
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It's an inside joke. I came to appreciate it. It does not create confusion since the brand is defunct and reminds us of a glorious past. Like they could put a Sun logo for photovoltaics.
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Would be pretty misleading, since neither Sun Microsystems nor Oracle ever got into PhotoVoltaics. Just like DEC never created computers that could be easily used in classrooms: schools were never their target market segment
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It's just a pictogram, or a rebus.
I believe to the contrary, it would be misleading if Sun Microsystem had gone into photovoltaics. Then by watching the headline and icon you could not determine if slashdot were seriously referring to Sun (photovoltaics) technologies. Since the Sun brand is inactive and Sun never was doing photovoltaics, we can be sure it's ironical, and enjoy seeing again a great logo form the past.
I could have made the obvious suggestion to use the Apple logo for food-related topics, but
good (Score:3)
Too many distractions (Score:5, Insightful)
There are some features that are missing in physical books, such as the ability to long-tap on a word and get a definition, but those sorts of benefits do not outweigh the downsides.
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Maybe have them locked down such that students can't install any new software on them, and also ensure that they only have the programs needed by the course - electronic textbooks, maybe MS Office - Home & Student.... Maybe keep these computers on a LAN (so that school staff can communicate w/ them), but not connected to the internet! Then kids wouldn't be able to go to OnlyFans or play online games
As for making sure that kids are doing their exercises, either walk around the class, as they might do
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Maybe have them locked down such that students can't install any new software on them, and also ensure that they only have the programs needed by the course - electronic textbooks, maybe MS Office - Home & Student.... Maybe keep these computers on a LAN (so that school staff can communicate w/ them), but not connected to the internet! Then kids wouldn't be able to go to OnlyFans or play online games
When I was a high school teacher (2014-2019) most students had school-issued chromebooks. These were locked down pretty hard and I never saw students install unapproved software on one. But it didn't matter. There are plenty of games you can play in a web browser, or just watch youtube videos of other kids playing games.
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That's what: since these chromebooks are school issued, the school should do something like have them all connected to a school LAN server, but w/ no connection to the external internet. That way, everything is locked down. Even if one opens Chrome, one wouldn't be able to access anything outside the LAN
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That's what: since these chromebooks are school issued, the school should do something like have them all connected to a school LAN server, but w/ no connection to the external internet. That way, everything is locked down. Even if one opens Chrome, one wouldn't be able to access anything outside the LAN
True, it would reduce the time spent playing games in the browser. It would also seriously reduce the utility the student having a PC. Good luck getting permission (or the hard drive space) to cache every useful academic source on the LAN. At which point, you might as well do what the Swedes have done - allocate proper funding to a library of good textbooks, and revert to pen and paper. It also makes it much, much harder for a student to have an LLM do work on their behalf... though if I ever hear of a kid
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It would just take a quick search to find instructions about bypassing the education-only locking software, unless it's some never-before heard of locking system.
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The biggest problem with screen-based classrooms is that the devices themselves are not designed for that purpose. There's too many games, chats, reminders, notices, updates, etc. etc. etc. that make it a fun and engaging device as a toy but terrible for maintaining concentration and focus on specific content. It is also more difficult for the teacher to be able to quickly look across a group of 30 and see who is doing the assigned task when the screens are all pointed away from the teacher (toward the student). There are some features that are missing in physical books, such as the ability to long-tap on a word and get a definition, but those sorts of benefits do not outweigh the downsides.
You've just listed every reason why the classroom Chromebook, should have been nothing more than a Kindle.
In education, pen and paper lasted for literal centuries. The digital era only proved we can make a better idiot through addiction.
Re:Too many distractions (Score:4, Interesting)
Screens are still infinitely better as reference material because of the ability to do rapid searches. They aren't as good when you are trying to learn. Human beings need a lot of physical motion in order to create the mental pathways that go with learning.
Honestly we've known this for a long time. It's why educational software isn't as big as it was back when most of the people reading this were kids. As much fun as Odell lake and Oregon trail can be they Don't really teach you anything except maybe how to work a computer. Which to be fair is a skill.
DEC logo? (Score:2)
Why does /. use the old logo of Digital Equipment Corporation when it wants to signal that the story is about societal trends about whether or not to embrace computerization? That has nothing to do w/ the company which hasn't been around since 1998. Maybe use something different, like a computer logo or something
Infinite scrolling ... (Score:5, Funny)
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No No, you just need to call help desk and they will get you sorted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Need to go back to film strips! (Score:2)
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Books good, no batteries required (Score:3)
When it comes to computer topics, I seek out good book, like `The C Programming` language when I was 14 or research papers for a coding project. PDFs ok in a pinch, but being able to sit in a cafe, a waiting room, airplane, etc. and read without issue is nice. They go any where and don't need a power outlet. For my own books, I pencil notes in the margins. And not just tech. books, but fiction too. A good'ol paperback tuck in my wait band behind my back or in a large coat pocket. Books work. They exercise memory, improve reading and writing skills (more you read, the better your writing becomes by example), and a new book smells nice, like a new car but cheaper.
We had a six day blackout a few years ago in Ottawa after a hurricane. My to-read pile staved off boredom and filled a void. Analogue tech has a place.
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I do now prefer ebooks to pdf's, since the former can be read almost in a book form using apps such as Nook
AI can help here (Score:3)
When they were introducing the chromebooks in the US it was a mess of assertions not backed by any facts I could discern, and competing motivations, I suspect the biggest among them was the idea that if the kids submitted all their work digitally it would be less of a chore to grade, and that kids could be more heavily tested and auto-graded if all the tests were computer-based.
All the benefits seemed to go to the teachers, administrators, and polititians, with little benefit to the students.
With AI, I suppose the kids can be freed from their data entry tasks and their papers can be scanned and the AI can still grade them - a win-win perhaps
Re:AI can help here (Score:4, Insightful)
Everyone wants digital tracking of every human: governments (via ID programs), Google, Meta (both are pretty much governments at this point), Anthropic, OpenAI
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This is why we all used the TI-82 instead of the cheaper casio. The TI calculator was something like a hundred bucks while the Casio had three times as many features and cost $50. But if you had a problem with the Casio you had to figure it out on your own where is the teacher would tell you exactly what you need
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Chromebooks had zero to do with education. They were 100% about Google forcing every high school student to have a Google account as early as possible. I bet less than 1% of parents said, "No, we're not doing that. Here's a Ubuntu laptop instead. Never sign in to Google, cause I said so." Everyone wants digital tracking of every human: governments (via ID programs), Google, Meta (both are pretty much governments at this point), Anthropic, OpenAI ... they all want to know exactly who everyone is. They all want a Technocracy.
Almost the work is centered on school-based google account it's impossible not to use. There is even locked-down functionality that requires that actual school-issued chromebook, such that students need to take the school-issued device to class daily. Even two years ago, the account was required, but seldom was the actual school issued device (which sends all device history to the district IT office). If it were up to me, computer use would be reserved for research, typing up papers, and preparing presen
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When they were introducing the chromebooks in the US it was a mess of assertions not backed by any facts I could discern, and competing motivations, I suspect the biggest among them was the idea that if the kids submitted all their work digitally it would be less of a chore to grade, and that kids could be more heavily tested and auto-graded if all the tests were computer-based.
All the benefits seemed to go to the teachers, administrators, and polititians, with little benefit to the students.
And Google. Those bastards got piles of money and even bigger piles of data to mine.
Turn to page 24 (Score:2)
(in the margins)
Turn to page 122
Turn to page 65
Turn to page 89
Turn to page 44
Turn to page 12
Turn to page 56
Turn to page 35
Turn to page 55
Turn to page 77
Turn to page 130
Turn to page 120
Turn to page 110
Thank you for letting me waste your time.
Other measures (Score:1)
They will also be replacing the LED lighting in the schools with candles, and heat will be provided by hand-stoked coal furnaces.
For you youngsters ... (Score:2)
[*Scottish accent*] ... a book - if you don't know - is like a blog except bigger.
-- Craig Ferguson [wikipedia.org]
It's also more papery.
It should have been technology to assist (Score:2)
The kids have to use Google Classroom and Google Docs for everything, and it does matter what the topic is. They've built AI into
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Remember the days when a parent could help their kid with a math problem without the parent having to go back to school? --> https://athomaspointofview.com... [athomaspointofview.com]
I think part of the computers for every kid is to "get them ready for their future working in an office" because that's the goal that the administrators of the district expect of every kid.
I only learned math the old way, I still handwrite my grocery list, I still pay rent with a paper check.
Misunderstanding... (Score:2)
Why is the compter the problem ? It seem pretty obvious that the issue lies in the curriculum and how the tools are used. Educators figured that just having a computer would promote learning...they were wrong. Now the same educators are convinced that just having books will promote learning...again they are wrong. Modern education has become indoctrination and lacks critical thinking tools because that would enable the students to realize what a shit sandwich they were being fed.
Mixed Feelings (Score:2)
I'm not easily swayed by the idea that digital means better. I like physical books, and a lack of distractions. However, I do think there is merit to using computers in the classroom.
I have a son who has dyslexia and ADHD. If he went to school in my day, he would just be labeled as a bad student and would be in remedial English. Instead, his teachers recognize that the quality of his ideas (and even his reading comprehension) have nothing to do with his inability to spell or write by hand. He's given an all