Primary school returns to pen and paper after ditching iPads

A primary school that was an early adopter of iPads in class has ditched the technology, returning to pen and paper for its youngest students.

At the start of the year, Omata School in New Plymouth packed the iPads away for years one to four.

It started as a one-term trial, but the school has decided to stick with it until the end of the year and then reassess.

The Paediatric Society recommends maximum screen sessions of 10-15 minutes for 2-6 year olds. For 6-12 olds it suggests no more than a third of the school day using screens for a maximum of 20 minutes at a time.

Omata School principal Karen Brisco told Checkpoint she read research about the impact of screens on young developing minds, and it "started to ring alarm bells" about the use of screens at school.

"I kept thinking 'I wonder if we should give them a rest and see how it goes', because the research was concerning around the type of learning and the depth of learning that children do on screens.

"It seems that the screens, the activities that they do on screens, are not lighting up the learning pathways as strongly as when they are hands-on."

Brisco said when iPads and laptops first became available for children, teachers thought it was a new way to engage with the children and give them lots of positive learning experiences.

"And it has, to a certain extent. But I think this is a new generation of children that seem to be growing up on screens from a very, very young age, so I think we have to be cautious."

She said teachers had seen that some children had become "highly attached" to screen-based activities and were reluctant to stop using the devices when asked, and there were some difficult transitions - but she said that angst had largely stopped by the end of the first term.

Older children used laptops for research and to produce documents, with no games on the devices, said Brisco, and were useful for some educational purposes.

"We're not against technology at all - we were early adopters of iPads and laptops right at the very beginning - but for young children in particular, it's hands-on learning that seems to be more beneficial than significant amounts of time of learning through a screen.

"When you know better, you do better. So as the science is telling us new information, we must take it on board as educators of young people.

"It's imperative that we do the best for the children that are in front of us with the best research and ideas that we can, to engage them and help them achieve."