EP356 The digital delusion: Is classroom tech hurting how kids learn? (with Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath)

"My toaster has undergone more safety and efficacy testing than any piece of ed tech that's been put in front of our kids in the past 20 years." That's according to Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, a neuroscientist, university professor, and former classroom teacher whose book "The Digital Delusion" has become the center of a national conversation about screens in schools. He's testified before the U.S. Senate, and parents are handing out copies at school board meetings. Jared's argument is that we've spent decades and $400 billion building an ed tech industry on a promise that never materialzed, and that the tools we've handed kids are working against the way human beings actually learn. I came into this conversation agreeing with a lot of his premise and pushing back on some of it, particularly the reliance on standardized test scores as evidence of learning outcomes and the assumption that school was working well before devices showed up. Jared took the pushback seriously, and what came out of it is one of the deepest (and certainly lengthiest!) conversations I've had about whether the ed tech promise keeps failing and what teachers can actually do about it. We dig into: Why the work...