Laptop-free lessons, screen limits: Schools re-think tech in class

In the 12 years Christine Harding has been marking final HSC exam papers, she’s noticed students’ handwriting skills slip and their stamina for completing long essays wane.

“You need a lot of practice to write for three hours straight, and that’s a big challenge as students are on technology more and more,” she says.

It is one of many reasons Harding, principal of Our Lady of Mercy College at Burraneer, near Cronulla, is set to have students return to old-fashioned hard copy textbooks from next year, ditching the school’s bring-your-own device policy for year 7 students in favour of pen and paper.

“It’s a bit of a circuit breaker,” she explains. “We need to look carefully at what age students start using screens in class, the impact it has on academic growth, their attention span, social skills and their wellbeing.”

Five years after the pandemic forced students to switch to online learning, schools are grappling with the after-effects of a rapid acceleration in screen use. The issue has prompted principals and teachers across school sectors to re-think their use of technology, and its impact on a child’s learning.

A 2022 OECD report reveals Australian students are among the world’s biggest users of technology in the classroom, spending up to four hours a day on screens at school. Almost 40 per cent of pupils are likely to be distracted by digital devices in lessons when compared with an average of a third of students in comparable nations.

Another study, from Macquarie University and online safety company Ctrl+Shft published in June, found primary-aged children are spending up to 6½ hours a day on screens, while one in 10 Australian students are at risk of smartphone addiction.

Some schools, such as liberal arts boys’ school Hartford College in Daceyville, have introduced school-wide laptop-free mornings, while primary students use pen and paper for all homework tasks. Earlier this month, St Ignatius College in Adelaide announced students in kindergarten to year 3 will have no access to screens.

Sydney Catholic Schools executive director Danielle Cronin says many schools are now actively encouraging less reliance on technology-driven teacher instruction.

“Technology must be thoughtfully incorporated into learning,” she explains, rather than “dictating the educational approach”.

Cronin’s organisation, which oversees 147 schools, is reviewing its position on the best use of devices in classrooms.

“We believe optimal learning happens when a teacher is actively front and centre with his or her students and not taking a back seat to devices,” she says.

At Hartford College, principal Ian Mejia says teachers have a set of laptops that can be used when needed for learning, and “as a result, we’ve become very intentional in the way that we teach students how to use laptops”.

“I don’t like the idea that the most screen time any young person gets is at school. For me, that does not sit right.”

St Ignatius principal Lauren Brooks explains the Adelaide school’s policy was in response to “an increasing dependence on devices, and a need for clearer boundaries”.

From next year, students in years 4 to 6 will be limited to an hour a day on screens, and younger students will not use digital devices. Year 7 to 9 will have about half of their learning without digital devices, while seniors will use laptops when needed.

“Primary students will focus on building traditional foundational learning skills with limited device time, and secondary students can use technology more flexibly but in structured guidelines,” she says.

Brooks said the school had witnessed the “growing dominance” of digital technology in education, “and now we are questioning its true impact”. She believes best practice teaching has a balanced approach between digital and non-digital learning.

PLC Croydon is reviewing its use of technology in the classroom too.

“We want to both celebrate and utilise high-tech equipment to enable young women to thrive, and we want to really make girls think by using pen and paper and having them write,” says PLC principal Paul Burgis.

Harding says Our Lady of Mercy College’s renewed focus on handwriting is critical for students to embed knowledge in their long-term memory, and for improving spelling without autocorrect and spell check.

“Students are coming to high school without core spelling and grammar skills, unsure where to put a full stop,” she says.

“The question I’m asking is: what is the best use of devices for students’ wellbeing and for their learning? Students learn through positive teacher-student relationships. I think laptops are an important tool for learning, but from what age? And they cannot come at the expense of teaching.”

NSW schools set their own technology policies. Overseas, some governments restrict how much time children should spend on devices in schools: in Madrid, for example, primary students’ use of screens is limited to two hours a week.

Earlier this year, the NSW government announced funding for a study comparing students’ screen time and mental health with NAPLAN results. The report is due at the end of 2026.

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