“Books make a come-back!”

By Scott Hamilton

In 2009, Sweden chose to replace books with computers across its entire public education system. The headfirst jump into technology was initially thought to be a great benefit to students. The idea was to prepare students as early as possible for our vastly digital world. They thought using tablets and computers would make learning more interactive and fun. Over time they learned that the digital textbooks were much cheaper and more adaptable. Their concept was good for meeting what they thought was an admirable goal, arm students with the skills they need in a high-tech age. This idea did not come without issues, and over the last 15-years they just kept piling up.

So what are some of the issues they faced that have made them decide to make the shift back to printed books after their educational experiment failed? One of the first things they learned was that reading on screens caused more eye strain and made it harder for students to focus on the material than with paper books. They also learned that the material was harder to comprehend and easier to forget when read from a screen.

A secondary issue is the fact that the same devices used for digital textbooks are also capable of and often used for online gaming. Without extreme effort to lock down the devices, it was nearly impossible to prevent students from surfing the web and playing games instead of reading the assigned materials in class. The increased screen-time also caused a decrease in social interaction and lowered the attention span of the students. These were the main issues brought up by both educators and parents, but it took a while for Sweden’s department of education to make a shift.

In 2022 Sweden set aside 104 million euros to bring books back into the classroom over the course of three years. The money was set aside to ensure that every student got a paper textbook for each subject, as well as retraining educators to make the shift back to the traditional methods of teaching. You see they are even looking to shift away from technology during classroom presentation and a shift back to using the blackboard. They are trying to find a sweet spot that balances the use of technology to support education instead of allowing it to take over entirely.

So why spend all this money to make a shift seemingly backwards in education? Swedish officials noticed a drop in key skills like reading and writing among students. Two weeks ago I wrote about the same problem occurring in our schools with the dropping of cursive writing from most schools. These skills have dropped because the students have been “glued” to screens for nearly all of their educational careers. It took a while, but the Swedish government learned their misstep; they ditched traditional learning methods too quickly without thinking about long-term consequences.

Bringing back books does not mean they are removing technology from schools, just that they are going to utilize it more wisely. Digital technologies can bring a fresh way of learning to the classic methods without removing the classic methods completely. I have learned over the years that most students type papers and complete homework on computers and devices, even with printed textbooks. I never forgot all the effort put into a paper when I was in high-school in the late 1980s. We had to complete a three page, handwritten “theme” every week for our English class. It had to be written in pen, double spaced with correct spelling, neatly written in cursive and with no corrections. I spent many nights rewriting papers to fix spelling errors.

I am a firm believer that we need to bring back a lot of the old methods to improve thinking, writing, planning, and attention skills. You see, if you have to rewrite to fix errors and rearrange thoughts, you slow down while working. This improves your attention span, forces you to plan your papers ahead of full writing, and to really think before you write.

We should take Sweden’s example as a warning sign as we start to make the same type of shifts in this country. We need to look at the warning signs and use them as an example while we look for a balance between innovation and tradition in our education systems. Until next week stay safe and learn something new.

Scott Hamilton is an Expert in Emerging Technologies at ATOS and can be reached with questions and comments via email to sh*******@te**********.org or through his website at https://www.techshepherd.org.