The EdTech Masterplan 2030 rightly aims to build digitally literate, self-directed learners. But at age eight or nine, children may not yet have the executive function that this vision assumes.
Digital literacy is not the same as screen familiarity. A child who reads, focuses and reasons well at 12 will pick up new platforms quickly. The foundations come first.
BETTER GUARDRAILS ARE NECESSARY
I am not saying no to EdTech. I am saying: not this much, not this young and definitely not untracked.
First, count screen time. Every digital assignment could come with an estimated completion time, and schools should keep track of the total screen time they require across all subjects.
This total should then be considered alongside existing guidance that recommends limiting children’s recreational screen time to no more than two hours a day.
Second, keep digital HBL an exception and not the norm. Use technology only where it does what paper cannot – such as native-speaker audio – and rely on paper for tasks where writing itself is a crucial part of the learning process, such as practising Chinese characters.
Third, let the balance shift with the child’s age. Those in lower primary should spend most of their learning time on paper, with use of digital devices increasing only as their attention and self-control mature.
Personal devices should still be largely kept to secondary school, as is already the case today.
Fourth, make SLS quieter. Scale back on “gamification” and, where possible, remove features such as speed buttons that reward the child for rushing through activities rather than engaging in thoughtful, uninterrupted learning.
Back at my dining table, I would rather have the same passage read aloud and copied out on paper – no chipmunk voice, and no queue for the iPad.
My nine-year-old son does not need his own device for schoolwork. He needs the adults around him to be honest about how many hours we are asking him to spend on one.
Wang Yingyu is a technology and intellectual property lawyer, and a mother of three.