Put the brakes onEdTech
The best interests of children's well-being and their educational attainment should drive decisions about education provision, yet a growing body of evidence raises serious questions about the net benefit of educational technology in the learning process.
Although devices and educational technology (EdTech) have been widely adopted by schools, any evidence of EdTech producing a net learning benefit is extremely limited. We are raising the alarm on the unchecked growth of EdTech in schools and early years settings. Independent research increasingly suggests that unevidenced, unregulated educational technology is deleterious to academic outcomes.
campaignPUT THE BRAKES ON EdTech
Children and parents are the key stakeholders for education initiatives, yet the voices of families are largely unrepresented
We are extremely concerned about the rapid proliferation of smart devices in educational settings and the fact their use has never been properly risk assessed for children, despite a growing body of evidence that screen use is negatively impacting academic attainment across schools and socio-economic groups.
Device schemes in schools rarely offer a genuine opt out for parents, even though 1:1 devices and EdTech platforms are implicated in an increase in bullying, access to inappropriate content, poorer educational outcomes, elevated unhealthy levels of screen time, safeguarding, privacy and data security issues and a wide array of negative physical, emotional & social health impacts.
Our Campaign
Join our mailing list
Concerned about electronic devices and pupil-facing EdTech in schools?
We are calling on the Government to pause the use of devices and EdTech in schools until such time as net educational benefit can be demonstrated, and independent studies can confirm that 1:1 device use does not pose unacceptable safety and wellbeing risks for school-age children.
We have created an online petition that you can sign if you share our concerns about the use of 1:1 devices and pupil-facing EdTech in schools.
Our proposals
We are calling for the Government to prioritise these three key steps:
Early Years and Primary Education
Early Years and Primary Schools should be havens free from EdTech and personal devices Parents must have a statutory right to opt out of digital learning and homework materials
Secondary Schools
Secondary Schools must suspend the use of student facing EdTech, apps and personal devices until safety, privacy and net educational benefit is independently proven
Parents right to opt-out
Parents must have a statutory right to opt out of digital learning and homework materials
Students who use computers very frequently at school do a lot worse in most learning outcomes.
OECD
Briefing Document
View and download our EdTech briefing document, with cited evidence of all the associated harms, and more details on our proposals.
download PDF
What arethe issues
Discover what parents and educators say about the way that EdTech is shaping our children's academic and social development. These short interviews share some of the thoughts and concerns we hear regularly regarding EdTech.
Tell us your concerns
If you have specific concerns about EdTech or if your child has experienced an issue that you feel able to share please tell us here.
- Please keep it concise (around two paragraphs or max 100 words)
- Please do not include any personal information which could directly or indirectly identify your child
We may use the information provided in this form, in an anonymous format, that will not identify your name to support our EdTech campaign objectives, for example when we submit evidence to parliament or to our media contacts. If you submit this form we shall assume that you agree to this limited use of your contribution.