Why Queensland hasn’t followed interstate crackdown on screens in classes
Eastern states are cutting back screen time for students but the Queensland government says it’s not sold on current research and is instead championing a balance between pens on paper and eyes on screens.
From term 1 next year, schools in NSW and Victoria will introduce dedicated time away from devices – including computers, tablets, and interactive whiteboards – and limits on their use as restrictive as 15 minutes each day.
Queensland Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek has made no such promise, instead saying schools would “maintain an appropriate balance between digital and non-digital learning, including pen-and-paper tasks where suitable”.
Brisbane father-of-two Terry Dube said although screens had not yet noticeably crept into his twin daughters’ prep classroom, he was already considering how technology would affect their education.
“In terms of cognitive abilities, things will stick better if done on pen and paper than using screens,” he said.
“They’re OK in moderation – say if it was maybe 5 or 10 per cent of the day – just for getting basic literacy with computers … like an IT subject for their curriculum per se.”
The crackdowns follow lagging national results in reading, writing, numeracy, and a 20-year-low in digital literacy – with Queensland lagging other mainland states – and growing concerns about artificial intelligence disruption in schools and universities.
In early September, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) ranked Australian classrooms as among the world’s most disruptive, blaming distracting digital devices.
Langbroek said he was among several state education minsters who had asked the commonwealth for more research into digital learning tools.
University of Queensland director of the Learning, Instruction & Technology Lab, Professor Jason Lodge said existing research paints a conflicting picture.
“Kids are brought up in these digital environments, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they have the right skills, so the question is, ‘what are the right skills to have?’” he said.
Lodge said younger students were more likely to find technology disruptive.
For these students, educational games could inhibit their ability to focus and read deeply, and AI tools could encourage them to offload critical thinking before they could develop it.
“Once kids get to about 13, 14, 15, they become obviously more mature and … able to make better judgements about these things, but the education system plays a huge role in preparing them for that,” Lodge said.
However, he said screen time was a “blunt measure” in conversations concerning any kind of “digital detox”, especially where AI was concerned.
“It’s not just about today’s technology, but how do we set kids up for whatever that technology might look like in the future,” he said.
Lodge said it may take several years to determine the right approach for technology in schools, supporting the state’s decision to hold back.
“We’ve got to trust our professional teachers at some point in this,” he said.
“We want to empower them to make good decisions on the ground rather than making these blanket decisions.”
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