Not even twenty years ago, students’ cellphones and more were banned in classrooms across the nation.
Now, they are not just allowed but sometimes used as part of the class. And it's not uncommon today for students to use artificial intelligence to do homework and other things.
Sheri Few is the President of United States Parents Involved in Education.
"Well, here at United States Parents Involved in Education, we believe that technology should be very limited in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade," Few states.
Why? Because she says it is imperative for brain development.
"We believe that those years of brain development are extremely important, that children are able to learn using books, paper, pencils, taught how to use cursive, and these things have been proven to be far more effective than technology,” explains Few.
Few said there is plenty of research that shows that tech can be detrimental to brain development. She thought about the recent past.
"I remember when my youngest was in high school. That was the first high school that had laptops in every school, and so, that's been 15 years ago. Since that time, every child has had some sort of device to use for learning ... Chromebooks, laptops," Few reflects.
She said they have introduced competency-based education. All this technology moved into education at the very youngest ages, but she said achievement has plummeted since that time.
Few also talked about a new MIT study, saying it was an early one that has not even been peer-reviewed yet. An internet search finds the study “Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of cognitive debt when using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task.”
"The paper's main author thought it was so important to go ahead and get the findings out to get people concerned about this because she believes in six to eight months…” Few begins.
The paper predicts there will be "some policy maker" who decides to bring AI to kindergarten.
"…and she thinks that that would be absolutely bad and detrimental because their study showed that the group that used AI only, over time, got lazier, and with each subsequent activity, they resorted to just simply copy and pasting,” Few continues.
She said that according to the study this is affecting their brain development and could actually harm learning.
The solution? Few reiterated she thinks we need to put the brakes on AI in kindergarten through 8th grade. She agrees that, while AI is a valuable tool and wonderful in many markets, it can be detrimental when it comes to the human brain.
"My son is even an engineer, and he's on the cutting edge of some AI in production, but (when it) comes to learning and the human brain, it will be detrimental to children, and I think we have to be extremely cautious as we move forward," Few said.
