A piece I wrote for Inc. magazine went live last week, and if you work in or around education technology, or care about public policy being built on faulty foundations, it’s worth a quick read.
I came across a YouTube video of a neuroscientist testifying before the U.S. Senate. Typically, a clip of this sort would have a few hundred views. This one had 2.5 million views. Yes, he’s likeable and persuasive. But still.
The claim: the $30 billion schools have spent on laptops and tablets has produced a generation cognitively worse off than their parents.
The clip went viral because the argument feels true. Students’ test scores are down. Parents and teachers alike believe children’s attention spans are shorter. Something does feel wrong.
But when a complicated problem gets a cleanly packaged, simple explanation that goes viral, my instinct is to check it out. Having advised EdTech and learning companies for over 15 years made it easier to spot the problems with the argument. So when I looked at the data behind the claim, I wasn’t surprised that the evidence being used to indict ALL classroom technology is either misread, misattributed, or flat-out wrong.
That gap between the popular narrative and what the research actually shows is what I wrote about. Read the full piece here.
Adil Husain is the founder of The Intelligence Council and Managing Director of Emerging Strategy, a global advisory firm specializing in competitive strategy and international growth. He has spent over 15 years advising companies operating at the intersection of education and technology, and writes about strategy, global markets, and institutional behavior.
You can reach Adil at [email protected]