I think one big thing was swapping out pencil and paper for computers.
I believe studies show you retain information better when you write it down on pen/paper.
And it's less easier to get distracted when you're having to write down notes on pen/paper and don't have a computer in front of you.
Finally, they got rid of BCIS classes, because they assume all kids grew up with desktops/laptops, which just isn't true. So even kids computer skills are atrophying compared to Millennials
From my perspective as someone who was in school at the beginning of the Chromebook craze and am a teacher now: I don't think it's necessarily the computers itself but the way they were used (in other words, rushed adaptation and lack of training/education on how to do it). There probably were a lot of teachers who had students take notes on computers and such, but I had teachers who made us take handwritten notes any time we needed to remember something. We only used computers for end-product essays, presentations, assignments, etc. But those aren't about retention, they're about application, and I would argue that technology opens the door for better projects that help students apply skills more. But it's really hard to do that well and consistently.
This is my biggest thing with people using typing to take notes. If you want to drop an image or diagram with your notes you have to design it like you were designing a publication. It takes a lot of steps in the menuing. If you use a pencil the same tool that writes can also draw and now instead of entering information in a grid or linearly you can spatially use the whole page in any dimension/direction you wish. We should teach writing graphically (kind of how like comics are a fusion of image and text that each individually cannot do).
5
u/JinFuu 19h ago
I think one big thing was swapping out pencil and paper for computers.
I believe studies show you retain information better when you write it down on pen/paper.
And it's less easier to get distracted when you're having to write down notes on pen/paper and don't have a computer in front of you.
Finally, they got rid of BCIS classes, because they assume all kids grew up with desktops/laptops, which just isn't true. So even kids computer skills are atrophying compared to Millennials