Bruticus
Mark HurstNow THAT's a headline.
"The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents"
Becca@markhurst yeah it's pretty grim out there
Dr Suzanne she/her@markhurst there are so many problems with this article. The first being the researchers relied on standardized tests as an accurate measure.
Mark Reeves 📚 🎸@markhurst All according to plan: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/google-schools-aims-pipeline-future-users-internal-documents-rcna255175
Google’s work in schools aims to create a ‘pipeline of future users,’ internal documents say
Newly filed internal documents show how Google viewed its work with schools as a way of turning children into lifelong customers — while the company simultaneously acknowledged research suggesting that YouTube, one of Google’s main platforms, can be unsafe and distracting.
Simplicator@markhurst Sounds like success… for the owner class :(
Nicole Parsonshttps://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/10/education-decline-low-expectations/684526/
https://plus.flux.community/p/the-science-behind-why-donald-trump
Koch Network and its tech allies have worked very hard at dropping the average literacy of the American electorate.
https://www.ft.com/content/fc508005-aefc-43a4-a40e-d5317f9c3c13
https://archive.ph/tdt8v
It has paid off handsomely. For the 1%
https://www.politico.com/video/2016/02/donald-trump-i-love-the-poorly-educated-044575
https://www.vox.com/2016/2/24/11107788/donald-trump-poorly-educated
https://jacobin.com/2021/04/take-me-to-your-leader-the-rot-of-the-american-ruling-class
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/30/kochs-public-schools-shakeup-244259
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/09/whats-driving-decline-in-u-s-literacy-rates/
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In an effort to resegregate public education, billionaires & their bigots have torched the engine of American innovation & progress.
https://thehill.com/opinion/education/5484190-literacy-crisis-national-literacy-month/
https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/2025/12/america-read-below-6th-grade-level/
https://www.mentalfloss.com/geography/maps/adult-literacy-rates-by-state
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/us/12th-grade-reading-skills-low-naep.html
What's caused reading scores to drop to worst point in decades? Education expert weighs in
Math and reading scores dropped to their lowest levels in more than two decades among high school seniors. That's according to the Nation’s Report Card put out by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. It shows that student achievement has continued to decline since the pandemic. There are many theories about what’s going on, and William Brangham explored some of that with Thomas Kane.
Levka
nimx@markhurst if that laptop is what they are using I'm sure they will have some kind of cognitive incapability 😭😭
oscarfalconWhich is exactly what they wanted, more stupid gringos...
CindyGAlarming given that, as Horvath put it:
“We’re facing challenges more complex and far-reaching than any in human history—from overpopulation to evolving diseases to moral drift. Now, more than ever, we need a generation able to grapple with nuance, hold multiple truths in tension, and creatively tackle problems that are stumping the greatest adult minds of today.”
Stefan Ihringer@CindyG @markhurst No climate catastrophe in this list but the boogeyman of overpopulation. I kinda wanted to stop reading the article at that point.
Cedar Fen Farm
Cedar Fen FarmWriting by hand is critically important to cognitive development. Probably eating ants out of small holes with a honey covered stick serves the same purpose, but we don't do that anymore. We are tool users. Our brains are wired for it.
Mre. Dartigen [maker mode]@oldoldcojote @markhurst You could probably get some fine motor dexterity improvements out of art and craft classes (especially covering skills like knitting and crochet, or ceramics, but even just pencil sketching helps) but it may not be regular enough in comparison to hand writing.
Joyce Bell 🇺🇦🇨🇦🇲🇽🇬🇱🚫🧊@oldoldcojote @markhurst My step granddaughter attends a Montessori school where they teach kids to write in cursive at an early age. I think it is brilliant!
Eye@joycebell @oldoldcojote @markhurst
This is how we were taught to write (at a normal, state-funded school here in UK). I'll never understand why they stopped teaching it.
Adam Trickett 
@grb090423 @joycebell @oldoldcojote @markhurst cursive handwriting is hard to read and slower than independent letters. It's also a pretty useless skill, compared to other things you could learn to do.
Not saying people shouldn't learn to write, but being able to type properly is more use than copybook cursive handwriting.
Most of what I was taught in school/uni has been directly useless in life but most has been transferable. Cursive handwriting is on the non-transferable list.
@drajt @grb090423 @joycebell @markhurst
I have no problem reading it. Have helped read historic letters for people who didn't learn it. Its all about what you care to practice.
@oldoldcojote @grb090423 @joycebell @markhurst obviously everyone is different and if you read it all the time you become more familiar with it.
I find it like reading scribbles, my mother's for example was very typical, it looks pretty from a distance but was in fact almost impossible to read. My step-father could only print in block caps, but it was far more legible and far easier to read.
@drajt @grb090423 @joycebell @markhurst
I find it faster. I take notes with a lot of abreviation and have also made my cursive harder to read on purpose so my meeting notes can't be so easily read. Just a bit paranoid here. Lol
My moms was very hard to read. She was a journalist and wrote really fast. My one grandmothers was beautiful, but she made r, s, a, q and some capitols different. I think british or scottish? Al the recipies my other grandma left me are very legible, but in a strange mix of swedish, english, and possibly sami. Lol
My greatgrandma left history notes on the back of family photos in dramatic swirly cursive cajun french. She also told fortunes.
Cursive is very much a matter of personal style. It kinda fascinating.
@oldoldcojote @drajt @joycebell @markhurst
Absolutely. 👍👏 Your written family mementos must be fascinating 💕
But I do understand that some folk would rather not have to use it. We're all different and have differing abilities.
@oldoldcojote @grb090423 @joycebell @markhurst yes very much a matter of style and personal preference.
People who need to take notes east often use some form of shorthand which is definitely not like copybook cursive!
@drajt @grb090423 @joycebell @markhurst
I found it pointless to learn shorthand. 😂💚
@drajt @joycebell @oldoldcojote @markhurst
It helped me write quickly when needed in many jobs I had.
@grb090423 @joycebell @oldoldcojote @markhurst I was told it was faster when in school, but apparently there is little or no evidence to support this but there is evidence to suggest it is actually slower.
Obviously everyone is different, but I almost never took notes at school or university in full cursive handwriting as I found mixed cursive and printing faster to write, and with hindsight easier to read.
After decades of note taking at work I find I almost never use cursive.
@grb090423 @joycebell @markhurst
I taught my kids both cursive and printing at an early age. They prefer cursive.
Juan Per¢ent,🇲🇽 🍉,🇻🇪@markhurst Technosolutionism is a very bad habit.
Bill Gates has also implemented Ill conceived education schemes with bad outcomes for students https://apnews.com/article/bill-gates-670d3c2eb90c4a6db6cdb92ada3daa3b
Bill Gates has also implemented Ill conceived education schemes with bad outcomes for students https://apnews.com/article/bill-gates-670d3c2eb90c4a6db6cdb92ada3daa3b
xs4me2Illustrates the utter stupidity of the Trump administration, pure evil…
Luka Rubinjoni@markhurst Brainrot is real.
Carlos Solís@markhurst Tablets were supposed to complement textbooks, not replace them entirely!
Flaming Cheeto@markhurst imagine being the kid picked for this picture
jonathankoren™@markhurst that stock photo looks like it's from 2000 or earlier. There doesn't even look to be a USB port anywhere on that Dell Latitude.
The caption says the photo is from 2002. 💪
Nu Modular@jonathankoren We used to give farmers more latitude back then, the farmer and the Dell notwithstanding.
luca@markhurst My totally unfounded opinion is that any tentative to enrich didactics with totally new "special effects", "added interaction", etc., has had the finally effect of disrupting *attention*.
They've lost the basic attention that's needed to follow a (boring) old book, because they've found the /entertaining/ part of the process more interesting.
Who writes educational texts should follow a good course on psychology of communication.
They've lost the basic attention that's needed to follow a (boring) old book, because they've found the /entertaining/ part of the process more interesting.
Who writes educational texts should follow a good course on psychology of communication.
skuaLet's put your post up on the networked smart screens and student's tablets, and then look at whether it fits with the synergies between genAI in education, so called "individual learning plans", flooding teachers with adminstrative paperwork and removing music, fine art and crafts from the curriculum?
/(Is this marking the end of a sarcastic post? So hard to be sure these days)
@skua Oh yes, I still think it fits well: too much attention would be lost on side "enriching" content, than payed to main subject.
I mean, it's a good thing explaining with examples and collateral facts that may help getting into the subject. I love that. However, beyond some limits, the focus may be moved.
LLM responses are then of a specialized kind, where with many well combined words, you fool your interlocutor to always be right and well informed. This is another very complex issue.
Wulfy—Speaker to the machinesWow... So it wasn't AI afterall 😑
Chris HessertI can't be the only one unsurprised that billions into corporate profits produced far worse results than those same billions funneled directly into local school districts?
Bogdan Buduroiu@markhurst why does that matter when Dell and Apple's quarterly earnings looked so good? /s
Jacqueline@markhurst I think that if kids were encouraged to use computers intelligently, as programmers rather than Internet users, and if kids were encouraged to go deep on their own, this would be less of an issue
anlomedadBut brains are wired differently, work differently, learn differently.
What the computerisation of the school experience does is brushing all kids with the brain_brush of the hard- and software designers.
And these designer_types are a tiny minority. Moreover, they're a tiny minority tending toward thinking that they are smarter than all others, so they are the brain types least suitable for learning from their mistakes.
I call them Excel brains for short.
Memory creation uses all sensory input, touch and smell too.
When memory creation in the brain is hindered because of the use of computers for content presentations – which inevitably deprive the process of sensory input –
it's obvious that cross-wiring memory later for creative or cognitive efforts also loses out.
But programmer brains don't get it. They also do not want to get it. Probably because it'd show them how their brain type is really not a desirable one at all...
What I mean by "Thinking like a programmer" is being able to take a problem and break it down into the smallest possible constituent parts, the way someone writing a piece of software is able to.
It's also a skill used in the sciences and the arts, but in a different way.
You can do the process of designing a computational solution to a problem, without having a computer.
Humanity did it for hundreds of years
Leonard Euler and Euclid both developed kinds of mathematical algorithms that are run on computers today.
They did them by hand. They didn't have a computer back then
The computational way of thinking is geared towards a continuous process of iterating and improving on your past results, which requires admitting your mistakes.
An algorithm that gives the wrong answer... Is a bad algorithm. Although, if it gives the rough approximation of an answer, that's a different story entirely
LisPi@markhurst I have some considerable suspicions it's not about technology strictly speaking and more about how it's used and the kind.
Of course given fortune.com hates my browser and Tor, I can't really say.
edit: Ah, it loaded after a few tries. Guess I was just unlucky with that exit node.
The fact the same drop isn't observed in dyslexic students given computational aids makes me wonder though.
“Learning is effortful, difficult, and oftentimes uncomfortable. But it’s the friction that makes learning deep and transferable into the future.”
The problem mostly occurs when you fail to make it interesting enough to sustain attention anyway.
Sustained attention to a singular subject is anathema to how technology today has been deployed,
Possible, that's after my time.
the loss of critical thinking
Yeah I'm going to disagree there observing the history of my own country.
There are other factors involved.
John Maxwell@markhurst - May I point out that their parents elected Trump. Twice.
Glen T, heated, not stirred@markhurst The problem is Taylorism being applied to teaching. Classroom computing is assisting in that, but it is not the cause.
rexiAnd moving right along from dodgy ed software to AI: next gen bandwidth shrinkage is next.
Eloi for Morlocks?
Tricot Feelya@markhurst do kids even learn how to write anymore?
Margret Kuarell@markhurst 😖 why do they always have to do one or the other, that's not how humans work
TenPastTwo@greensofshade @markhurst I was going to say just that. Same with assessment by coursework or exam, governments swing fully to one or other when a mixture gets the best of both.
George Saich@markhurst
Bummer.
Bummer.
Eoin O'Beara@markhurst Our local school in Ireland tried that.
We protested. It stopped.
We protested. It stopped.
Ciara@markhurst That was quite a read. Thanks for sharing.
"A less capable population […] endangers how humans are able to overcome existential challenges in the decades to come. We’re facing challenges more complex and far-reaching than any in human history—from overpopulation to evolving diseases to moral drift. Now, more than ever, we need a generation able to grapple with nuance, hold multiple truths in tension, and creatively tackle problems that are stumping the greatest adult minds of today.”
Downes 🍁@markhurst @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social
Laptops don’t inherently degrade cognition or learning. Poorly designed instructional systems using laptops do.
Numerous studies have shown this.
@markhurst @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social
Laptops do not inherently degrade cognition or learning. Poorly designed instructional systems using laptops do.
Numerous studies have shown this.
Here's an AI-authored article in response to the (likely) AI-authored article in Fortune: https://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2026/02/laptops-in-schools-are-not-problem.html
Alan is @cogdog 🇨🇦@Downes @markhurst @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social I knew the rumors of Snarkbook were true! Someone has built an agentic AI system where bots write sarcastic blog posts, reply with more posts and comments, plus rail more in social media.
All freeing us up to do, um, oh, yeah!
Brave New World finally is here. Great hockey match BTW, but oh the curling gold!
@cogdog @markhurst @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social Yeah, I know, I have mixed feelings about what I did.
But I couldn't help it... someone was *wrong* on the internet!