Digitalization seems to be a one-way journey. Digital tools are increasingly taking part in our lives, from desktop computers to computers. wearable devices like smart watches. But the Swedish education system has embarked on a process to redefine its path: removing screens from classrooms.

Backtracking. It all started in May last year, when Swedish Education Minister Lotta Edholm announced a change in the strategy of the National Education Agency, which until then had prioritized digital technologies in education.

This change primarily affects the plan to make the presence of screens mandatory in pre-school education. According to the British newspaper GuardThe plan also calls for the complete elimination of digital education for children under the age of six. After the summer vacation, changes began to be made in schools. digitize Swedish classes.

150 million in three years. Reversing won’t be cheap. As the French newspaper explains Le MondeThe Swedish Government had allocated 1,685 million Swedish krona, or approximately 150 million euros, to implement this change and return textbooks to classrooms.

The first 685 million kroner (about 60 million euros) will be invested later this year, and the rest will be distributed in the two-year budget allocation of 500 million kroner (45 million euros) in 2024 and 2025.

Less reading comprehension. One of the arguments put forward by the detractors is based on the decline in scores achieved by Swedish students in the International Progress in Reading Comprehension Study (PIRLS) in recent years. The reason for this may be related to the fact that reading comprehension is worse when we read digitally, as observed in the meta-analysis conducted in 2018.

Criticisms of the system, which was put into practice very quickly with the belief that digitalization would be beneficial for many “for the sake of digitalization”, are many and varied. Although the change was implemented by a conservative government, there was also criticism from those who thought that the digitalization of classrooms was based on a “neoliberal” discourse.

Recently UNESCO also called for “appropriate use of technology” (without explicitly mentioning Sweden). He did this while announcing the 2023 education status report, where technology in education is the center of attention.

Opposition to the measure. However, due caution does not mean that digitalization in the classroom is negative. Therefore, the measure is not immune from criticism. Neil Selwyn, professor of education at Monash University in Melbourne, pointed out that the aim of this measure was merely to “signal commitment to traditional values”, as reported by Australian media. ABC News.

“The Swedish government has a valid argument in saying there is no evidence that technology improves learning, but I think this is because there is no clear evidence of what works,” Selwyn added.

Weigh the pros and cons. The debate should go beyond weighing the pros and cons of using new technologies in teaching: it is about maximizing benefits while reducing costs as much as possible. This means being clear about what functions the technology is supposed to perform and being aware of its limitations.

Alejandro Gómez Miguel, Research Technician at the Reina Sofia Adolescence and Youth Center, has written some guidelines to follow in order to properly implement technologies in classrooms. In his article he talked about the need to plan and coordinate the introduction of new technologies and highlighted the figure of the ICT manager, which, according to the expert, is a “fundamental” figure.

From screens to artificial intelligence. These things need to happen, even if that means slow progress. The entry into the market of tools we know as artificial intelligence or artificial intelligence has brought a new shock to education.

Many students have incorporated resources like ChatGPT into their daily academic lives, and removing screens from classrooms is unlikely to stop them from continuing to do so. This is just one example of how technologies continue to increasingly feature in education in one form or another.

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*An earlier version of this article was published in November 2023.