Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / Can We Ban Laptops From Primary School?
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Hello, this is the Happy Families podcast.
- 0:07Speaker 2: We're kicking off our Monday with a controversial, provocative topic
- 0:10Speaker 2: and a petition that.
- 0:11Speaker 1: You can sign at the end of it if you
- 0:12Speaker 1: really like it.
- 0:13Speaker 2: Screens in schools in 2007, 2008, Kevin Rudd introduced the
- 0:17Speaker 2: education revolution.
- 0:19Speaker 1: Why?
- 0:19Speaker 2: Because apparently every student needed to have a laptop or
- 0:22Speaker 2: a tablet so that they could learn better. There was
- 0:24Speaker 2: no evidence for it, and there are some pretty strong
- 0:26Speaker 2: arguments that it has not just not worked, but been
- 0:29Speaker 2: an absolute, catastrophic, colossal failure. Today on the podcast, an
- 0:34Speaker 2: interview with Danny Alachi, the founder of the National Grassroots Movement,
- 0:40Speaker 2: the Heads Up Alliance, and Steph Chalice, a mum of two,
- 0:43Speaker 2: a Victorian high school teacher, and somebody who's getting right
- 0:46Speaker 2: on board with what this is all about. The conversation
- 0:49Speaker 2: about kids, screens, and the classroom is next.
- 0:53Speaker 1: Stay with us.
- 0:56Speaker 2: This is the Happy Families podcast. So glad you could
- 0:58Speaker 2: join us today. Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast.
- 1:01Speaker 1: My name's Dr. Justin Coulson. Today, joined by Danny Elachi.
- 1:03Speaker 2: Danny's the father of five and the founder of the
- 1:05Speaker 2: Heads Up Alliance, a national grassroots movement of families navigating
- 1:08Speaker 2: a tech-saturated world with their children.
- 1:10Speaker 1: Father of five, Danny. Congratulations. Are you young enough to
- 1:14Speaker 1: go for the record? Are you going to try and
- 1:16Speaker 1: meet me at six or do you think five will do?
- 1:19Speaker 3: No, I'll have to give you the accolades, Justin. There's
- 1:22Speaker 3: no way I'm going to be able to meet you
- 1:25Speaker 3: at six.
- 1:26Speaker 1: I'll carry the trophy with pride.
- 1:28Speaker 2: Heads Up Alliance is a national grassroots movement of families
- 1:30Speaker 2: navigating a tech-saturated world with their children. And Steph Chalice,
- 1:34Speaker 2: Steph and I met when I was speaking at Moama
- 1:37Speaker 2: at Chuka. In fact, Steph got me down there to
- 1:39Speaker 2: speak to about 400 people in, was it the local
- 1:41Speaker 2: RSL or something, Steph?
- 1:42Speaker 1: And we had such a great night.
- 1:44Speaker 4: It was a fantastic night. Yeah, we really, really brought
- 1:47Speaker 4: a lot to our town, Justin.
- 1:48Speaker 2: Yeah, Steph's a mum of two, a Victorian high school teacher.
- 1:52Speaker 2: and is passionate about ensuring Australia's classrooms are the best
- 1:55Speaker 2: possible places for our students to learn. Okay, before the
- 1:58Speaker 2: podcast starts, before we talk about any of the questions
- 2:00Speaker 2: I have, the main thing that I want you to
- 2:03Speaker 2: get out of this is that in the show notes,
- 2:04Speaker 2: there's a link to a petition. The Heads Up Alliance
- 2:07Speaker 2: has a petition at change.org asking Australian parents to sign,
- 2:13Speaker 2: agreeing that Australian parents and teachers are demanding less screen
- 2:15Speaker 2: time in classrooms. There are five propositions. We're going to
- 2:18Speaker 2: talk about them at the end of today's podcast. But
- 2:21Speaker 2: I want to be really clear, the whole purpose of
- 2:22Speaker 2: today's pod is to get you to take a couple
- 2:24Speaker 2: of seconds, click on the link and sign this petition, please.
- 2:28Speaker 2: It matters so much for our children and their learning outcomes. Steph,
- 2:32Speaker 2: make the argument for me that Kevin Rudd's education revolution,
- 2:36Speaker 2: bringing screens into the classroom for every student, has not
- 2:39Speaker 2: made our classrooms the best possible places for our students
- 2:43Speaker 2: to learn.
- 2:44Speaker 4: Well, these devices came in, Justin, in around 2008 with
- 2:49Speaker 4: Kevin Rudd's government, as you mentioned. We are now almost
- 2:53Speaker 4: 15 or more years on from that. When they came in,
- 2:56Speaker 4: we didn't have any evidence that they would increase our
- 3:00Speaker 4: learning outcomes, increase education for our students. We're now so
- 3:03Speaker 4: far down the track that we have that evidence and
- 3:05Speaker 4: it is overwhelming that it's not doing the job that
- 3:08Speaker 4: they promised.
- 3:09Speaker 2: Danny, we met at Kirribilli House at the Prime Minister's
- 3:13Speaker 2: residence in December last year. We got to catch up
- 3:15Speaker 2: when the brand new social media minimum age legislation was
- 3:20Speaker 2: enacted the very day. And Heads Up Alliance was instrumental
- 3:25Speaker 2: in getting that legislation into Parliament and to pass. You
- 3:30Speaker 2: formed in 2020 during COVID with the idea that we
- 3:35Speaker 2: just need to help parents not just delay social media access,
- 3:40Speaker 2: engagement but delay the age at which kids are getting smartphones.
- 3:45Speaker 2: Based on what Steph said, you guys have created a
- 3:47Speaker 2: petition about screens in schools. Can you go a little
- 3:51Speaker 2: bit deeper? Tell me more about this petition.
- 3:54Speaker 3: First thing I have to say is that the credit
- 3:56Speaker 3: for this petition has to go to the teachers in
- 3:58Speaker 3: our movement like Steph and many others who have obviously
- 4:03Speaker 3: been part of our journey over the last few years
- 4:06Speaker 3: but have also been saying to us very quietly in
- 4:08Speaker 3: the background that What about schools? What about the screens
- 4:12Speaker 3: in schools? And, you know, as you know, Justin, we've
- 4:15Speaker 3: been really busy with all these other campaigns, particularly the
- 4:18Speaker 3: minimum age legislation over the last few years. But once
- 4:23Speaker 3: that was behind us in terms of lobbying, I thought,
- 4:27Speaker 3: you know, maybe it is time to address this issue.
- 4:30Speaker 3: And we formed a little subcommittee of teachers, including Steph
- 4:35Speaker 3: and many others, to work on this. We've been working
- 4:39Speaker 3: on it for the last, seven or eight months thereabouts.
- 4:44Speaker 3: We've been consulting experts, consulting neuroscientists, psychologists. It isn't something
- 4:50Speaker 3: we've just revved up overnight. We've really done a lot
- 4:52Speaker 3: of reading. A lot of conversations have gone into this petition,
- 4:56Speaker 3: which is based on five principles. And we think that
- 4:59Speaker 3: now is actually the right time to be bringing this forward. Particularly,
- 5:03Speaker 3: you know, we saw the results that came out nationally
- 5:07Speaker 3: through NAPLAN a couple of weeks ago. You know, we
- 5:11Speaker 3: thought the 2025 reading results were bad and then we
- 5:15Speaker 3: saw the 2026 results and they've gotten even worse. So
- 5:18Speaker 3: the distraction that these screens are bringing into the classroom,
- 5:22Speaker 3: I've had teachers screaming at me for the last couple
- 5:25Speaker 3: of years and not just the parents, but the teachers
- 5:28Speaker 3: as well. So I do need to make that really
- 5:30Speaker 3: clear that this is not just parent driven. It's parents
- 5:33Speaker 3: who also are teachers who know exactly what's going on
- 5:36Speaker 3: at the coalface.
- 5:37Speaker 1: I'm on your side on this. I'm absolutely biased. I
- 5:40Speaker 1: completely agree.
- 5:41Speaker 2: This is a good thing. And I want to talk
- 5:43Speaker 2: about the petition specifics shortly. But I want to talk
- 5:46Speaker 2: about a couple of counter arguments that people might make
- 5:48Speaker 2: because not everybody is as on board. And there will
- 5:51Speaker 2: be some people who have skepticism. And I would even
- 5:54Speaker 2: admit some of that skepticism is healthy. One of the
- 5:57Speaker 2: things that pops into my mind as I'm listening to
- 5:59Speaker 2: what you're describing, Danny, is you can ban screens, but
- 6:01Speaker 2: that's not necessarily going to improve NAPLAN scores because if
- 6:05Speaker 2: kids aren't reading well, that has less to do with
- 6:07Speaker 2: what's happening in the classroom and more to do with
- 6:09Speaker 2: what's happening at home where the kids are going to
- 6:12Speaker 2: be surrounded by screens and consumed by screens all the time.
- 6:16Speaker 1: How do you respond to that?
- 6:18Speaker 3: Well, of course, we've been working on screens in the
- 6:21Speaker 3: home for years. Some of the comments we've received in
- 6:24Speaker 3: the last few weeks is, you know, don't ignore what's
- 6:26Speaker 3: happening in the home. We're like, no, absolutely not. We
- 6:30Speaker 3: know a lot of this starts in the home and
- 6:32Speaker 3: we've been working on that without any rest for six
- 6:35Speaker 3: or seven years. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't try
- 6:38Speaker 3: to improve the classroom environment as well. If I could
- 6:42Speaker 3: just take you back a step, we're not asking for
- 6:43Speaker 3: a ban on screens in the classroom. We're saying that
- 6:46Speaker 3: when the teacher introduces it, particularly in high school, if
- 6:49Speaker 3: she says, take your laptops out, then please do by
- 6:52Speaker 3: all means, as long as the teacher has considered why
- 6:55Speaker 3: and what is the purpose of using a screen in
- 6:58Speaker 3: this particular lesson, that's absolutely fine. Not only is it fine,
- 7:01Speaker 3: we want that. What we don't want is the mindless,
- 7:04Speaker 3: open up your laptops at 9 a.m., and mediating every
- 7:08Speaker 3: single lesson throughout the whole day through that screen, and
- 7:13Speaker 3: no one's really paid any close attention to why. We
- 7:17Speaker 3: want to bring back the why. Now, in primary school,
- 7:19Speaker 3: we have taken a harder stance. We have said in
- 7:21Speaker 3: primary school, we don't see a need for iPads. That
- 7:26Speaker 3: doesn't say that the teacher can't use screens in her
- 7:29Speaker 3: own considered way, but we don't want one-to-one iPads in
- 7:33Speaker 3: the hands of children We know the science tells us
- 7:36Speaker 3: when you learn to read, it's best done with a book,
- 7:39Speaker 3: a tangible tool in your hand. You know, the writing.
- 7:45Speaker 3: So many of our high school teachers are complaining we
- 7:47Speaker 3: can't even read the handwriting of our high schoolers anymore.
- 7:51Speaker 3: It's just really fallen off a cliff. We're saying we
- 7:53Speaker 3: need to bring back those fundamentals because without the fundamentals
- 7:57Speaker 3: of reading and writing and basic numeracy, then everything else
- 8:01Speaker 3: in high school falls apart, including technology.
- 8:04Speaker 2: After the break, I want to confront probably the biggest
- 8:07Speaker 2: objection to this petition, plus get into the details of
- 8:10Speaker 2: the petition and give everyone a chance to get on
- 8:13Speaker 2: board if they like the sound of it. That's next
- 8:15Speaker 2: on the Happy Families podcast. We're back with the Happy
- 8:24Speaker 2: Families podcast. Steph, listening to what Danny has just said
- 8:28Speaker 2: brings up what I would consider to be the biggest
- 8:30Speaker 2: objection of all that people might have to this idea
- 8:33Speaker 2: that we need to either minimize or to the degree
- 8:36Speaker 2: that is reasonable, eliminate access to screens, particularly in those
- 8:39Speaker 2: primary school years. There will be some people who say,
- 8:44Speaker 2: we've got personal agency. Everyone's got devices. We're flooded with
- 8:47Speaker 2: devices in our lives. Therefore, wouldn't it be better rather
- 8:50Speaker 2: than getting them out of schools? Wouldn't schools have a
- 8:52Speaker 2: responsibility to embrace them and teach children how to use them?
- 8:56Speaker 1: You're in the classroom. You're dealing with this. What's your response?
- 8:59Speaker 4: I think there's probably two answers to this question. In
- 9:02Speaker 4: terms of families expecting schools to teach digital literacy, because
- 9:06Speaker 4: screens are everywhere and we'll never deny that, schools probably,
- 9:10Speaker 4: we do have a responsibility at some point. So we
- 9:14Speaker 4: are all for computer labs, maybe bringing out the one-to-one
- 9:19Speaker 4: devices on rare occasions to teach digital skills, to teach
- 9:23Speaker 4: touch typing, to teach how to file a document, all
- 9:26Speaker 4: those sorts of things that Students will need to know
- 9:29Speaker 4: as they get older and older and into the workforce.
- 9:32Speaker 4: But we've fallen into the trap of teaching all our
- 9:36Speaker 4: subjects through technology. And that has been one of the
- 9:40Speaker 4: downfalls of bringing these devices in. So that's the first point.
- 9:44Speaker 4: The second point that you made that could be an
- 9:47Speaker 4: objection where families say, well, screens are everywhere. We're using
- 9:50Speaker 4: them at home. Why aren't you using them at school?
- 9:53Speaker 4: Schools need to remember what they're for. They're for to
- 9:56Speaker 4: teach children how to learn. And so regardless of what
- 10:00Speaker 4: is happening in the rest of society, we have a
- 10:02Speaker 4: responsibility to teach in a way that we know works,
- 10:05Speaker 4: that is evidence-based. We now have the evidence that one-to-one
- 10:09Speaker 4: devices is not doing this. And so we need to
- 10:11Speaker 4: remember the job of the school and stick with that.
- 10:14Speaker 2: I've been really fascinated by the research that shows that
- 10:17Speaker 2: When we do things analog, I mean, Danny, you were
- 10:20Speaker 2: talking about the old school. And, Steph, as I was
- 10:22Speaker 2: listening to you, I was thinking there is no school
- 10:24Speaker 2: like the old school.
- 10:26Speaker 1: There's a lot of.
- 10:26Speaker 2: Arguments for progress and keeping up with modernity. And yet,
- 10:31Speaker 2: the best research that I've seen seems to indicate that
- 10:34Speaker 2: if we're learning analog, if we've got pen and paper
- 10:36Speaker 2: in hand, if we're holding a book rather than a
- 10:37Speaker 2: tablet as we consume content, we process it differently. We
- 10:43Speaker 2: learn better. We retain more. It seems like there is
- 10:46Speaker 2: not a single– to doing it the old-fashioned way and
- 10:51Speaker 2: nothing but drawbacks when we do it the modern way.
- 10:53Speaker 2: So if you've been reading the research, you're in the classroom,
- 10:56Speaker 2: you're dealing with this on a day-to-day basis, what's your
- 10:59Speaker 2: experience been like at the coalface?
- 11:01Speaker 4: I guess over the last 12 months, I've really brought
- 11:04Speaker 4: my screen use in my classroom back in terms of
- 11:07Speaker 4: my students. So... I have some year 11s who use
- 11:10Speaker 4: them on a very rare occasion, but all year levels
- 11:12Speaker 4: below that. I'm a high school teacher, I should say.
- 11:15Speaker 4: I don't even allow them to bring their devices to
- 11:17Speaker 4: class because we don't use them. I've spoken about how
- 11:20Speaker 4: they don't aid educational outcomes or learning outcomes. But the
- 11:24Speaker 4: other thing that we need to think about is how
- 11:26Speaker 4: much distraction they put in front of our students. So
- 11:30Speaker 4: there might be an app or a program that is
- 11:32Speaker 4: good for learning that But if we couple that with
- 11:35Speaker 4: the distraction that the device itself is providing to our students,
- 11:39Speaker 4: you really need to question whether it's worth it in
- 11:41Speaker 4: the first place. If we think about how we as
- 11:43Speaker 4: adults use our laptops and our iPads, we use them
- 11:46Speaker 4: to multitask. So as I was logging on to talk
- 11:49Speaker 4: to you this morning, Justin, I was quickly checking my
- 11:52Speaker 4: LinkedIn because I had a message from someone. I was
- 11:55Speaker 4: checking a work email. I was trying to get on
- 11:57Speaker 4: before you brought me up onto the screen. And that's
- 12:00Speaker 4: me as an adult. So a child's going to do that.
- 12:03Speaker 4: A child is going to open up a laptop or
- 12:05Speaker 4: an iPad that they use at home for gaming, for
- 12:08Speaker 4: social media, for whatever else. So they don't see this
- 12:13Speaker 4: as a learning tool. That's the first thing. They will
- 12:15Speaker 4: log on. They will not say this is a learning tool.
- 12:17Speaker 4: And then they will multitask. And the worst thing that
- 12:21Speaker 4: you can do for learning and retention is to multitask.
- 12:24Speaker 2: Danny, is there anything else that you've seen in the
- 12:26Speaker 2: evidence that convinces you that this is necessary, that we've
- 12:30Speaker 2: got to minimize and even where possible, eliminate the use
- 12:33Speaker 2: of screens in classrooms like Steph has done with her
- 12:36Speaker 2: high school classrooms.
- 12:37Speaker 3: I've read recently the book written by Dr. Jared Kuhnhilva
- 12:42Speaker 3: talks specifically about the distractions that screens seem to be
- 12:48Speaker 3: bringing into the classroom. The studies are good to tell
- 12:51Speaker 3: us the level of distraction, but any teacher will tell
- 12:54Speaker 3: you that half their job these days is trying to
- 12:57Speaker 3: maintain the focus of the students because, you know, they've
- 13:01Speaker 3: got their screens open. Often they're shopping or gaming or
- 13:05Speaker 3: looking up goodness knows what else while they should be
- 13:08Speaker 3: paying attention to the teacher at the front of the class.
- 13:11Speaker 3: And the book that I mentioned seems to suggest there
- 13:15Speaker 3: are studies showing that out of 60 minutes of learning,
- 13:18Speaker 3: 38 minutes if a screen is in front of the
- 13:20Speaker 3: child is spent off-task. So, you know, that alone, put
- 13:26Speaker 3: aside the science of learning and how we learn best
- 13:29Speaker 3: as humans, the fact that it's distracting, just like a
- 13:32Speaker 3: screen is distracting when you drive a vehicle. I mean,
- 13:35Speaker 3: we don't even ask for the studies. It's against the law.
- 13:39Speaker 3: It all makes sense to us. Of course, it's against
- 13:41Speaker 3: the law because you need your eyes on the road. Now,
- 13:43Speaker 3: a student needs his or her eyes on the teacher
- 13:46Speaker 3: in the classroom. Instead, we've opened up the world and
- 13:49Speaker 3: given them every reason to be distracted and completely off task.
- 13:54Speaker 3: That alone would be reason enough to try to roll
- 13:59Speaker 3: back the screen-based classroom, in my view.
- 14:02Speaker 2: Danny and Steph, I really appreciate this conversation. You want
- 14:04Speaker 2: people to sign the petition. I want people to sign
- 14:06Speaker 2: the petition. Let's go through the five steps of the
- 14:08Speaker 2: petition nice and quick, and then we'll tell people where
- 14:10Speaker 2: they can go to sign it so that we can
- 14:12Speaker 2: help our kids to learn better in classrooms and have
- 14:14Speaker 2: better classroom environments. Steph, what are the first couple of
- 14:17Speaker 2: things on this petition?
- 14:18Speaker 4: So our first point of the five principles is no
- 14:22Speaker 4: one-to-one devices in primary schools. We're also calling for, I guess, books, paper,
- 14:29Speaker 4: pen to be the default in high schools. And when
- 14:33Speaker 4: one-to-one devices are used, only used very intentionally, and when
- 14:37Speaker 4: there is solid evidence that they improve learning outcomes. We
- 14:41Speaker 4: are asking for a pause on generative AI to be
- 14:45Speaker 4: used in classrooms, which is a whole other beast in itself,
- 14:48Speaker 4: until it's proven that that is aiding our students. We
- 14:53Speaker 4: are also asking for any school endorsed apps to be
- 14:59Speaker 4: proven safe and effective.
- 15:01Speaker 2: And just before you go on, we haven't even talked
- 15:03Speaker 2: about AI, but on each of these things, you're highlighting
- 15:06Speaker 2: that you want evidence before it's implemented. And the reality
- 15:09Speaker 2: is for several of these things, we don't have any
- 15:11Speaker 2: evidence for them. Some of the most popular apps have
- 15:15Speaker 2: little to no evidence behind them. There's certainly no evidence
- 15:17Speaker 2: that using AI is going to be aiding our children's
- 15:20Speaker 2: learning at this point. In fact, all the evidence points
- 15:21Speaker 2: the other way. And even having that one-to-one screen, the
- 15:25Speaker 2: evidence is questionable.
- 15:26Speaker 1: What's the last one?
- 15:27Speaker 2: Danny, I might get you to just chime in with
- 15:28Speaker 2: the last one and tell us where people can go
- 15:30Speaker 2: to sign the petition.
- 15:32Speaker 3: There's one more principle, and that is the restoration of
- 15:35Speaker 3: handwriting and reading as core principles for a primary school student.
- 15:43Speaker 3: That seems to have fallen by the wayside to some degree.
- 15:46Speaker 3: We think these things will never go out of fashion.
- 15:50Speaker 3: If they do, it would be a sad moment for
- 15:52Speaker 3: us as human beings. Imagine the love letter being lost
- 15:56Speaker 3: for all eternity. You know, I mean, how long has
- 15:58Speaker 3: it taken for humanity to get to this point where
- 16:01Speaker 3: we've got near universal literacy rates, particularly in our countries
- 16:05Speaker 3: in the West? And then imagine we're going to lose
- 16:07Speaker 3: that beautiful art in a generation or two because we're
- 16:11Speaker 3: just so busy typing. I think it takes something away
- 16:14Speaker 3: from us as people, as humans, and we're not ready
- 16:19Speaker 3: to give it up. We also happen to have the
- 16:22Speaker 3: science behind us that tells us that this is the
- 16:25Speaker 3: best way for learning, the best way of thinking, the
- 16:27Speaker 3: best way of gathering your thoughts and presenting them in
- 16:31Speaker 3: a way that also helps you if you wish to
- 16:34Speaker 3: be a learner in older grades and indeed in adulthood. So, yeah,
- 16:40Speaker 3: we think that's really fundamental. We need to refocus on
- 16:43Speaker 3: those core basics.
- 16:46Speaker 1: Where do people go to sign this petition, Danny?
- 16:48Speaker 3: People can go to www.change.org forward slash pure screens, more learning.
- 16:54Speaker 3: We've already got tens of thousands of signatures and the
- 16:58Speaker 3: more we can garner, the easier it will be for
- 17:01Speaker 3: Steph and other teachers to take this up to the
- 17:05Speaker 3: premiers and to the education ministers around the country. We
- 17:08Speaker 3: really hope that this is going to affect at least
- 17:12Speaker 3: a serious conversation, if not some serious change.
- 17:15Speaker 2: We will link to the petition in the show notes
- 17:17Speaker 2: for the podcast. We really want you to sign this.
- 17:19Speaker 2: Please go and have a look at it.
- 17:21Speaker 1: Every signature matters. Dani, Steph, what a treat to be
- 17:24Speaker 1: with you.
- 17:24Speaker 2: Thanks so much for spending some time with me this morning.
- 17:27Speaker 4: Thanks, Justin.
- 17:28Speaker 3: It's been a pleasure. Thank you, Justin.
- 17:29Speaker 2: The Happy Families podcast, sound and audio engineering by Justin
- 17:32Speaker 2: Rulon from Bridge Media. M. Hammonds looks after our admin
- 17:35Speaker 2: and additional support. For more information about making your family happier,
- 17:38Speaker 2: visit happyfamilies.com.au.