What Happened After a Teacher Ditched Screens - The Atlantic:
Education, Kane knows, is profoundly and stubbornly social. “There are a lot of students who need accountability,” he said. The answer is not more surveillance, but more companionship in the struggle. “Students benefit from being in a room with a bunch of other people who are learning the same thing, the collective effervescence of all trying to make progress together,” he said. “And they benefit from an adult who knows them, who is in the room, who says ‘I care about your learning.’”
Screens, Kane noticed, had made it easier for students — and, if he’s being honest, for teachers — to opt out of that contract. “Chromebooks can be a classroom-management strategy,” he said. “Students tend to be a little more docile with a screen in front of them. And it was just so easy for me to sit behind my screen and watch the little dots marching across the dashboard and not really teach.” He’s noticed that teaching in an analog environment is more demanding. “I’m more fatigued,” he said. “But I’m happy with that.”