Covid launched a new era of technology-led learning. Now, some parents and school districts are ready to toss devices

Dr. Yair Lev said his second-grade daughter suddenly went silent midsentence as she scrolled through a math app on her school-issued Chromebook last year. Her eyes glazed over like a “zombie.”

His daughter appeared to be overwhelmed by the stimulation from her device. She struggled through passwords, folders and apps with her “little fingers typing and typing,” he said.

“It was like a short circuit in her brain … she just lost immediately all connection with reality, with me, and me and my wife, we just stared at her in disbelief,” he said. “It was almost like a trance state.”

That startling moment was a turning point for Lev’s family: Lev and several other parents are pushing the Lower Merion School District in suburban Philadelphia to change its policy on device-led learning and allow parents to opt out of devices altogether. A school board meeting earlier this year grew so contentious parents were yelling at the district to curb its tech-led policy.

In school districts from Los Angeles to Philadelphia, parents shared how they are battling to put stricter limits on device-led learning, most commonly tablets and laptops, such as iPads, Google Chromebooks and MacBooks. Nationwide, some parents, educators and students told CNN they worry about bullying, access to adult content, the use of artificial intelligence for cheating and the little evidence that devices are better learning tools than pencils and paper.

Klaus Vedfelt/Digital Vision/Getty Images

Students learn less when they use tech. So why do schools keep giving kids devices?

The swing back to traditional methods follows an explosion of device-led learning ushered in by the Covid-19 pandemic, when school administrators desperately sought ways to engage students at home and ensure lower-income students had the same access as wealthy peers. Nationwide, roughly 96% of public schools reported providing students with their own take-home devices by the 2021-2022 school year, up from around 45% in 2020, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Advocates for devices in school are adamant technology-led learning ensures equitable experiences for students and helps prepare them for a technological world.

“To ban it, to act as if it doesn’t exist — that’s not protection. That’s abandonment,” said National Parents Union Founding President Keri Rodrigues.

Data on the impact of devices can send mixed messages to parents and administrators. For example, a September report from the American Psychological Association revealed devices aren’t inherently beneficial, nor are they inherently harmful.

Nearly 20 parents, educators, experts and students who spoke with CNN largely believe some technology in the classroom is helpful in specific circumstances, as parents and teachers search for the right balance.

Lila Byock said her older son began bringing home D’s and F’s after starting middle school, despite understanding the material.

The Los Angeles Unified School District student’s interest in school quickly “went in the toilet” and his self-esteem declined, she said.

“He started to think he was just stupid,” she said. “There was a tremendous amount of shame.”

His teachers attributed the problem to his inability to stay focused while using an iPad throughout the day, Byock said. When she asked how often students used iPads, she said teachers told her they used them all day – even during physical education and band.

In early 2025, she brought parents and teachers together around her dining table after realizing multiple families were concerned about classroom devices. The small gathering eventually grew into Schools Beyond Screens , a grassroots movement with thousands of members and roughly 230 chapters in school districts across 40 states, Byock said.

Across the country in Pennsylvania, Lev and several other parents started a similar movement called Pencils Over Pixels to push the Lower Merion School District to change its policy toward device-led learning.

Michele Abercrombie/CNN

In June, the district repealed a policy parents said allowed them to opt out of device-led learning for their children. Some parents became so frustrated with the district’s position that the school board vote devolved into shouting from the audience as board members tried to speak over the crowd, video from the meeting showed. At one point, the board walked out for a brief recess due to security concerns.

“When you’re on the same side as the bullies and Big Tech, you know you’re on the wrong side,” one parent told the board. Another parent who addressed the board compared the technology policy to expired milk.

The district’s new policy categorizes technology device use by grade level, increasing independence by grade and stressing teacher direction, according to materials shared by a district spokeswoman:

kindergarten through second grade: limited, non-routine use

third and fourth grade: less than 30 minutes per day

fifth and sixth grade: less than 60 minutes per day

seventh and eighth grade: less than 90 minutes per day

ninth through 12th grade: less than 120 minutes

Now, Lev, other parents and one student are suing the district, superintendent and board members, alleging that requiring students to use devices without allowing families to opt out violates their Fourteenth Amendment right to direct the care and education of their children, according to the August complaint. The parents argue students face excessive screen time, distracting or inappropriate material, privacy risks, inadequate supervision and AI-assisted cheating.

“Instead of paying attention in class, students consume an endless stream of short-form videos, browse social media, and shop,” the complaint said. “They chat with strangers and bully each other.”

A spokeswoman for the district told CNN it denies the allegations in the lawsuit and will respond through the judicial process.

“The Lower Merion School District is aware of a lawsuit filed by some parents, not all of whom have students enrolled in LMSD schools, alleging the School Board’s decision to repeal a School Board Policy represents a violation of their civil rights,” Amy Buckman said.

In rural western Michigan, nearly an hour south of Traverse City, Mesick Consolidated Schools Superintendent Jack Ledford dropped Chromebooks altogether in his district’s elementary school after seeing consistently low reading scores on the M-STEP, the state’s annual standardized test.

“I’m not the kind of educational leader that wants to put a plan in place for the next two years and three years,” Ledford said. “I want to do something that could move the needle quickly.”

Despite some initial grumbling from students, teachers saw a positive impact, Ledford said.

Axl Werdon, a fifth grader in the district, said he is reading more this year and has noticed other students picking up books and dictionaries during downtime in class.

“It’s just like a lame thing just to sit on your bottom, just doing something on your Chromebook,” Werdon said. “It feels way better to focus on other things.”

The movement away from devices has been led primarily by grassroots organizations like Schools Beyond Screens and educators like Ledford.

Whitney Shannon Wilson, principal of Simons Middle School in Flemingsburg, Kentucky, said her school now limits Chromebook use to a maximum of 60 minutes per week after hearing a list of challenges from teachers.

“Students were not mastering the standards that we were setting before them,” Wilson told CNN. “They were relying too heavily on their computer to do everything for them.”

Wilson said students often played games during school, and in some cases, shared secret Google Docs that resulted in bullying.

“Even though you can limit how they interact with each other, as long as teachers are watching and paying attention, they’re very sneaky,” Wilson said.

Zaylee Ovington and Kynslee Black, eighth grade students at the school, said they are relieved Simons has moved away from primarily using Chromebooks.

“(The Chromebook) would hurt my eyes. It would give me headaches because of just how much we used it,” Ovington said.

“There was not much hands-on learning,” she added.

Now, both girls say there is less conflict among their peers, and their learning has noticeably improved.

“My worst subject was math, and I feel like it was because we did all of our math on a Chromebook,” Ovington said. “This year, I feel like it’s going so smooth. I’m doing great in math.”

“For me, once you write it down and you physically do it, it’s a lot easier and it gets into your brain better,” Black said.

When asked about the potential negative impacts of Chromebooks in classrooms, a spokesperson for Google said its technology “solves real classroom challenges and helps improve learning outcomes for students.”

“We build our products in partnership with educators based on rigorous learning science, while giving schools control over school-issued Chromebooks and keeping teachers at the heart of learning,” Google told CNN in a statement.

The company also has strict policies against bullying through Google Classroom and Google for Education products, as well as offering tools for students to report instances of cruelty to administrators, according to Google.

When Sarah Dooley’s first-grade twins joined a summer production of “KPop Demon Hunters,” AI helped them rehearse, translate Korean lines and practice pronunciation. Their science fair projects – a bird feeder and a device producing the smoothest smoothies – were also crafted with AI assistance after developing their own hypotheses and plans.

They’re in the early days of this, Dooley of Austin, Texas, said, describing her children’s AI use as part of “this big experiment that we find ourselves in right now.”

But Dooley, who founded the website AI-Empowered Mom to reduce parents’ mental load through AI, distinguishes passive, isolated screen use from productive or interactive uses. Her family signed a household tech agreement: Her children are instructed to use AI with an adult, do their own thinking first and discuss its mistakes.

“While I’m a tech optimist for my life, I’m choosy and intentional about wanting to bring it into my kids’ lives,” she said.

Courtesy Sarah Dooley

Dooley is part of a group of parents who advocate for a selective yet intentional approach to classroom technology: While they believe screen-free families rightfully focus on children’s safety and educational outcomes, blanket bans would eliminate useful opportunities for personalized learning and disproportionately harm students who lack devices at home or benefit from alternative learning methods.

“The messy middle is probably the best place to be, rather than all in or all out with technology,” Dooley told CNN.

In Boston, Rodrigues of the National Parents Union – a nonprofit advocacy and grassroots organization – objects to schools using devices merely to occupy students. Her five sons sometimes question attending school when their class plans to watch a nonacademic film like “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” she said.

Rodrigues advocates for establishing age-appropriate limits, transparency with parents, parental consent and safety controls while teaching students how to use AI and digital tools responsibly.

But Rodrigues believes technology can augment traditional teaching methods by examining how a student solves an algebra problem or structures a piece of writing and identifying learning gaps. Tech can also help students prepare for their futures: Three Virginia students built a media literacy tool using AI to teach peers to question sources and evaluate credibility, for example, she said.

Data show parents and educators alike have conflicting feelings about the right approach.

Bryan Bedder/Getty Images

A May Gallup poll of 2,101 public schoolteachers found 61% of them believe students should spend less time on devices, while 59% of teachers believe digital tools or apps help students learn more effectively.

Crafting a technology policy for a wide range of students can be particularly challenging. Kids learn in myriad ways, and what works for some ages may not be appropriate for others.

“(Parents) want guardrails, not handcuffs,” Rodrigues said.

Among teachers surveyed by Gallup , 34% supported a daily time maximum for students using learning devices.

But there isn’t a consensus around using a daily time maximum. Stacy Hawthorne, a former Ohio educator and current Board Chair for the Consortium for School Networking , said her organization recommends against using minutes on screens as a benchmark.

The organization, which is a professional association for education technology leaders in K-12, advocates for a three-pronged approach: tech use should be purposeful, students should be protected online and decisions about tech need to be made locally, she said.

Furthermore, the APA report found time and engagement are poor metrics for learning. Engagement measures attention, not retention.

“What young people do on screens matters as much as, or more than, how long they spend on them,” the report states.

It’s not as simple as being anti-technology versus pro-technology, said Nicole Barnes, executive lead psychologist for the APA and lead author of the report.

“When technology is used well, it gives students focused practice, useful feedback, or access to something that they could maybe not experience otherwise,” Barnes said. “The benefit comes from whether that technology is connected to that clear learning goal and whether it’s guided by an educator who knows what that student needs next.”

The APA report recommends software that has no pop-up ads, prohibits switching and multitasking and limits information that is not directly related to the lesson.

“Stories, images, sounds, animations, and interactive features that are unrelated to the learning goal have been associated with lower recall and weaker understanding than materials that focus only on the information being taught,” the report said.

This spring, Schools Beyond Screens successfully worked with members of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, including Board Member Nick Melvoin, to remove devices for students in early education, kindergarten and first grade and significantly limit the amount of screen time students receive in school.

Melvoin authored the district’s policy, marking the first time LAUSD solidified a specific policy toward device-led learning after ramping up technology use during the Covid-19 pandemic , he said.

“When kids came back in person, they had these devices, and there are instructional benefits to certain types of technology,” Melvoin said. “But we also saw kids spending a lot of time on YouTube and spending time surfing the internet.”

Christina House/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

The district’s curtailed screen time and other measures began taking effect this school year.

The district was conscientious of ensuring students with special needs, developmental challenges and those requiring additional tutoring requirements or English translation services continue to have appropriate access to devices in class and at home, Melvoin said.

Students can still choose to take home the devices, but it is no longer the default option, he said.

“This is a systemic problem; it’s not an individual problem,” Byock said of the overuse of devices. “The only way that I think we’re going to see real change is for parents and educators to come together and engage in collective action and attack this problem systemically.”

Elsewhere, Ledford, the Michigan superintendent, said it’s too early to quantify the impact of trading devices for books. But he said teachers have already observed calmer and more focused students.

“We’ve seen some really good things, and I think that this will translate into increased literacy scores and proficiency,” Ledford said. “It may not happen overnight, but this is something that we’re committed to.”

Once Byock’s son began replacing technology with pencil and paper, both his grades and demeanor improved, she noticed.

“He’s got a thriving social life. He is pleasant to be around,” Byock said. “For us, the change has been really miraculous.”

亚伊尔·列夫博士说，去年他上二年级的女儿在学校配发的Chromebook电脑上浏览数学应用程序时，突然话到嘴边又咽了下去。她的眼神呆滞，像个“僵尸”。

他的女儿似乎被电子设备带来的刺激弄得不知所措。他说，她“小手不停地敲击键盘，艰难地输入密码、打开文件夹和应用程序”。

“就像她大脑短路了一样……她瞬间失去了与现实、与我的一切联系，我和妻子都难以置信地盯着她，”他说。“她几乎进入了一种恍惚状态。”

那令人震惊的一幕成为了莱夫一家的转折点：莱夫和其他几位家长正在敦促费城郊区的下梅里恩学区改变其以电子设备为主导的学习政策，允许家长完全选择不使用电子设备。今年早些时候的一次学区委员会会议气氛紧张，家长们大声疾呼，要求学区限制其以科技为主导的政策。

从洛杉矶到费城，各地的学区家长纷纷表示，他们正努力争取对电子设备（最常见的是平板电脑和笔记本电脑，例如iPad、谷歌Chromebook和MacBook）的使用进行更严格的限制。在全国范围内，一些家长、教育工作者和学生告诉CNN，他们担心网络欺凌、学生接触成人内容、人工智能被用于作弊，以及几乎没有证据表明电子设备比纸笔更适合学习。

Klaus Vedfelt/Digital Vision/Getty Images

学生使用科技产品时学习效果会下降。那么，学校为什么还要继续给孩子们配备电子设备呢？

在新冠疫情期间，学校管理者迫切希望找到各种方法让学生在家也能参与学习，并确保低收入家庭的学生拥有与富裕家庭同龄人相同的学习机会，由此引发了以电子设备为主导的学习方式的爆炸式增长。然而，随着疫情的蔓延，传统教学方式的回归也随之而来。据美国国家教育统计中心的数据显示，到2021-2022学年，全美约96%的公立学校都为学生提供了可带回家的电子设备，而2020年这一比例约为45%。

支持在学校引入电子设备的人士坚信，以技术为主导的学习能够确保学生获得公平的学习体验，并帮助他们为科技世界做好准备。

“禁止它，假装它不存在——那不是保护，那是抛弃，”全国家长联盟创始主席凯瑞·罗德里格斯说道。

关于电子设备影响的数据可能会向家长和学校管理者传递出相互矛盾的信息。例如，美国心理学会9月份发布的一份报告显示，电子设备本身既非天生有益，也非天生有害。

近 20 位接受 CNN 采访的家长、教育工作者、专家和学生普遍认为，在特定情况下，课堂上使用一些技术是有帮助的，家长和老师们正在努力寻找合适的平衡点。

莉拉·拜奥克说，她的大儿子上初中后，尽管理解了学习内容，但开始带回家的成绩却是D和F。

她说，这名洛杉矶联合学区学生的学习兴趣迅速“跌至谷底”，自尊心也随之下降。

“他开始觉得自己真是个笨蛋，”她说。“他感到非常羞愧。”

拜厄克说，老师们认为他的问题在于整天使用iPad时无法集中注意力。当她询问学生使用iPad的频率时，老师们告诉她，他们整天都在用——甚至在体育课和乐队排练时也是如此。

2025年初，她发现许多家庭都对课堂电子设备感到担忧，于是便邀请家长和老师们到她家餐桌旁聚会。拜厄克说，这次小型聚会最终发展成为“超越屏幕的学校”（Schools Beyond Screens）草根运动，拥有数千名成员，并在40个州的学区设立了约230个分会。

在宾夕法尼亚州，莱夫和其他几位家长发起了一场类似的运动，名为“铅笔胜过像素”，旨在推动下梅里恩学区改变其以设备为主导的学习政策。

米歇尔·阿伯克龙比/CNN

六月份，学区废除了一项政策，家长们表示该政策允许他们选择不让孩子使用电子设备进行学习。一些家长对学区的立场感到非常不满，以至于在学校董事会投票时，旁听席上爆发了激烈的争吵，董事会成员试图盖过人群的声音发言，会议视频显示。期间，由于安全问题，董事会成员一度退场短暂休会。

一位家长对董事会说：“当你和那些欺凌者和大型科技公司站在同一阵线时，你就知道自己站错了队。”另一位发言的家长则把这项技术政策比作过期牛奶。

据学区发言人分享的材料显示，该学区的新政策按年级对科技设备的使用进行分类，随着年级的升高，自主性逐渐增强，教师指导的重要性也随之提高：

幼儿园至二年级：有限的、非常规用途

三、四年级：每天少于30分钟

五六年级：每天少于 60 分钟

七年级和八年级：每天少于90分钟

九至十二年级：少于120分钟

现在，莱夫和其他几位家长以及一名学生正在起诉学区、学监和董事会成员，他们声称，强制学生使用电子设备且不允许家长选择退出，侵犯了他们根据美国宪法第十四修正案享有的指导子女照护和教育的权利。家长们认为，学生将面临屏幕时间过长、接触到分散注意力或不适宜的内容、隐私风险、监管不力以及人工智能辅助作弊等问题。

投诉称：“学生们上课不专心，而是没完没了地观看短视频、浏览社交媒体和购物。他们与陌生人聊天，互相欺凌。”

该学区的一位发言人告诉 CNN，学区否认诉讼中的指控，并将通过司法程序作出回应。

“下梅里恩学区已经注意到一些家长提起的诉讼，这些家长并非全部都有子女在下梅里恩学区就读。他们声称，学区委员会废除一项学区委员会政策的决定侵犯了他们的公民权利，”艾米·巴克曼说道。

在密歇根州西部乡村地区，特拉弗斯城以南近一个小时车程的地方，梅西克联合学区总监杰克·莱德福德在看到该学区小学在州年度标准化考试 M-STEP 中的阅读成绩持续偏低后，彻底放弃了 Chromebook 电脑。

莱德福德说：“我不是那种想要制定未来两三年计划的教育领导者。我想做一些能够迅速产生效果的事情。”

莱德福德说，尽管学生们最初有些抱怨，但老师们看到了积极的影响。

该学区五年级学生艾克塞尔·沃登表示，他今年读的书更多了，并且注意到其他学生在课堂空闲时间也会拿起书和字典阅读。

“整天坐在那儿，用 Chromebook 做点什么，感觉太无聊了，”沃登说。“把精力放在其他事情上感觉好多了。”

这场远离电子设备的运动主要由像“超越屏幕的学校”这样的基层组织和像莱德福德这样的教育工作者引领。

肯塔基州弗莱明斯堡西蒙斯中学的校长惠特尼·香农·威尔逊表示，在听取了教师们提出的一系列挑战后，她的学校现在将 Chromebook 的使用时间限制为每周最多 60 分钟。

威尔逊告诉CNN：“学生们没有达到我们设定的标准。他们过于依赖电脑，让电脑替他们完成所有事情。”

威尔逊说，学生们经常在学校玩游戏，在某些情况下，还会共享秘密的谷歌文档，导致校园欺凌。

“即使你可以限制他们之间的互动方式，但只要老师们在观察和注意，他们就会非常狡猾，”威尔逊说。

该校八年级学生 Zaylee Ovington 和 Kynslee Black 表示，她们很欣慰 Simons 不再主要使用 Chromebook。

“（Chromebook）会伤眼睛，而且因为我们使用得太频繁，还会让我头疼，”奥文顿说。

她补充说：“实践学习的机会不多。”

现在，两个女孩都表示，她们与同龄人之间的冲突减少了，学习成绩也明显提高了。

“我最差的科目是数学，我觉得是因为我们所有的数学课都是用Chromebook做的，”奥文顿说。“今年，我觉得一切都很顺利。我的数学成绩很棒。”

“对我来说，一旦你把它写下来并实际去做，就容易得多，也更容易记住，”布莱克说。

当被问及 Chromebook 在课堂上可能产生的负面影响时，谷歌的一位发言人表示，其技术“解决了课堂上的实际挑战，并有助于提高学生的学习成果”。

谷歌在一份声明中告诉 CNN：“我们与教育工作者合作，基于严谨的学习科学来打造我们的产品，同时让学校掌控学校发放的 Chromebook，并将教师置于学习的核心地位。”

据谷歌称，该公司还通过 Google Classroom 和 Google for Education 产品制定了严格的反欺凌政策，并为学生提供了向管理员举报欺凌事件的工具。

莎拉·杜利的一年级双胞胎参加了暑期剧目《K-Pop恶魔猎人》的演出，人工智能帮助他们排练、翻译韩语台词并练习发音。他们的科学展览项目——一个喂鸟器和一个能制作出最顺滑冰沙的装置——也是在人工智能的帮助下完成的，此前他们已经提出了自己的假设和计划。

来自德克萨斯州奥斯汀的杜利说，他们还处于这个领域的早期阶段，她将孩子们使用人工智能描述为“我们现在所处的这个大实验”的一部分。

但杜利（Dooley）创办了网站“AI赋能妈妈”（AI-Empowered Mom），旨在通过人工智能减轻父母的心理负担。她区分了被动、孤立的屏幕使用和高效或互动式的使用。她的家人签署了一份家庭科技协议：孩子们被要求在使用人工智能时必须有成年人在场，先独立思考，然后再讨论人工智能的错误。

“虽然我对自己的生活持乐观态度，但对于如何将科技引入孩子们的生活中，我却很挑剔，也很有目的地选择。”她说。

图片由 Sarah Dooley 提供

杜利是倡导对课堂技术采取有选择但有目的性方法的家长群体中的一员：虽然他们认为无屏幕家庭理应关注孩子的安全和教育成果，但一刀切的禁令会消除个性化学习的有用机会，并对那些家中没有设备或受益于其他学习方法的学生造成不成比例的伤害。

“与其在技术方面要么全盘接受要么全盘否定，那么保持中间立场或许才是最好的选择，”杜利告诉 CNN。

在波士顿，全国家长联盟（一个非营利性倡导和基层组织）的罗德里格斯反对学校仅仅为了让学生消磨时间而使用电子设备。她说，她的五个儿子有时会质疑是否应该去上学，因为班级计划观看像《超级马里奥兄弟大电影》这样的非学术性电影。

罗德里格斯主张，在教导学生如何负责任地使用人工智能和数字工具的同时，应设定适合年龄的限制，与家长保持透明沟通，征得家长同意，并采取安全控制措施。

但罗德里格斯认为，科技可以通过分析学生如何解决代数问题或构建文章结构，并找出学习差距，从而增强传统的教学方法。科技还可以帮助学生为未来做好准备：例如，她提到，弗吉尼亚州的三名学生利用人工智能开发了一款媒体素养工具，教同伴们如何质疑信息来源并评估其可信度。

数据显示，家长和教育工作者对于正确的方法都持有不同的看法。

Bryan Bedder/Getty Images

盖洛普五月份对 2101 名公立学校教师进行的民意调查发现，61% 的教师认为学生应该减少使用电子设备的时间，而 59% 的教师认为数字工具或应用程序可以帮助学生更有效地学习。

为不同年龄段的学生制定技术政策可能极具挑战性。孩子们学习的方式多种多样，适合某些年龄段的方法可能并不适合其他年龄段。

罗德里格斯说：“（家长们）想要的是护栏，而不是手铐。”

盖洛普调查显示，在接受调查的教师中，34%支持对学生使用学习设备的每日时间设定上限。

但对于是否应该设定每日屏幕使用时间上限，目前还没有共识。曾任俄亥俄州教育工作者、现任学校网络联盟理事会主席的斯泰西·霍桑表示，她的组织不建议将屏幕使用时间作为衡量标准。

该组织是一个面向 K-12 教育技术领导者的专业协会，倡导三管齐下的方法：技术的使用应该有目的性，学生的在线安全应该得到保护，有关技术的决策需要由地方做出，她说。

此外，APA的报告指出，时间和参与度并非衡量学习效果的可靠指标。参与度衡量的是注意力，而非记忆保持情况。

报告指出：“年轻人使用屏幕的内容与他们使用屏幕的时间一样重要，甚至更重要。”

美国心理学会执行首席心理学家、该报告的主要作者妮可·巴恩斯表示，这并非简单的反科技与支持科技之争。

巴恩斯说：“如果技术运用得当，就能为学生提供专注的练习、有用的反馈，或者让他们接触到一些他们原本可能无法体验到的东西。关键在于这项技术是否与明确的学习目标相联系，以及它是否由了解学生下一步需求的教育者指导。”

APA 报告建议使用没有弹出式广告、禁止切换和多任务处理、并限制与课程无直接关系的信息的软件。

报告称：“与学习目标无关的故事、图像、声音、动画和互动功能，与只关注所教授信息的材料相比，会导致记忆力下降和理解力减弱。”

今年春天，“远离屏幕的学校”组织与洛杉矶联合学区教育委员会的成员（包括委员会成员尼克·梅尔文）成功合作，取消了早期教育、幼儿园和一年级学生的电子设备，并大幅限制了学生在学校的屏幕使用时间。

梅尔文表示，他起草了该学区的政策，这是洛杉矶联合学区在新冠疫情期间加大技术使用力度后，首次制定了以设备为主导的学习的具体政策。

梅尔文说：“孩子们返校后，他们有了这些设备，某些类型的技术确实对教学有益。但我们也发现孩子们花了很多时间在YouTube上，上网冲浪。”

Christina House/洛杉矶时报/Getty Images

本学年，该学区开始实施限制屏幕时间和其他措施。

梅尔文表示，学区一直尽心尽力确保有特殊需求、发育障碍以及需要额外辅导或英语翻译服务的学生，在课堂上和家里都能继续获得适当的设备。

他说，学生仍然可以选择将设备带回家，但这不再是默认选项。

“这是一个系统性问题，而不是个人问题，”拜厄克在谈到过度使用电子设备的问题时说。“我认为，要想看到真正的改变，唯一的办法就是家长和教育工作者团结起来，采取集体行动，从系统层面解决这个问题。”

另一方面，密歇根州教育总监莱德福德表示，现在量化用电子设备换取书籍的影响还为时过早。但他表示，教师们已经观察到学生们变得更加平静和专注。

莱德福德说：“我们已经看到了一些非常好的成果，我认为这将转化为识字率和阅读能力的提高。这可能不会一蹴而就，但这是我们致力于实现的目标。”

拜厄克注意到，自从她的儿子开始用铅笔和纸代替电子产品后，他的成绩和举止都得到了改善。

“他现在社交生活非常丰富，和他在一起也很愉快，”拜约克说。“对我们来说，这种变化简直是个奇迹。”