US schools invested billions in technology, now turnaround

Only a few years ago, American public schools were competing to equip every student with a laptop. Now the perspective has changed, as the APB reports on its website, and after investing billions of dollars in tablets and educational apps, classrooms are now saturated with screens and a growing number of parents, teachers and school districts believe it is time to scale back their use. "The idea was that technology was the future, so you had to put it in the hands of every student," says Anna Soffer, an English and history teacher at a Los Angeles middle school, "But the Chromebook is a constant source of distraction.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, where Soffer teaches, recently became the first major school district to decide to stop distributing devices to younger students. The measure is part of a new policy that will go into effect this autumn in the country's second largest school system. A far-reaching resolution, passed last month by the Los Angeles school board, requires the district to eliminate the devices through second grade, set daily and weekly usage limits for all subsequent grades, block YouTube, and ban the use of the devices during lunch and recess in elementary and middle schools.

The district will also conduct a review of contracts for educational technology, which, according to the teachers' union, amount to USD 1.6 billion.