What started off more than five years ago as one-off bans in individual classrooms grew into statewide efforts to curb student cellphone use during school. Now, the idea of limiting children's tech use has arrived at the Capitol steps in Washington, D.C., where bipartisan efforts are reaching even further by considering plans to ultimately ban kids under 13 from using social media at all.
The proposed legislation comes at a time when technology is being pushed harder than ever, both by tech companies and by the White House.
And it raises questions about whether and how lawmakers, educators and parents should draw distinctions about the various ways children use screens — for learning, for socializing and for entertainment...
Brian Jacob, the co-director of University of Michigan's Youth Policy Lab, believes the two initiatives can co-exist, as they address two separate ideas. One expresses enthusiasm for applying AI for educational purposes, while the other centers fear of screen time spent on non-educational uses, like watching social media videos.
"There is a bit of an odd nature of these things happening at the same time," he says. "I think you could want students to be off devices more, but when they're on them, [to be] utilizing AI or having AI be part of intelligent tutoring systems that would better assist students. I think in practice you could try and incorporate AI more into the education space while still limiting, having less, online time."
Continue to read on EdSurge
