“This debate paints screens as a menace, which doesn't reflect the reality of the small screens that are actually used in schools.”
This is what associate professors Lenka Garshol and Susan Lynn Erdmann express in the new anthology, Logg på! (Log On), where they join several other contributors from UiA.
77 students, teachers, academics and researchers explore topics related to young people, screen use and learning. The book aims to foster better and more informed discussions about technology in education.
More than mindless scrolling
“Sometimes a digital tool will be the best educational tool, and sometimes it won’t. A modern and proactive learning environment will accommodate both,” Garshol and Erdmann continue in their chapter (in Norwegian).
They conducted a pilot study where they observed screen use in English classes, involving two primary school teachers and three secondary school teachers. They found that screens were mostly used to streamline and facilitate tasks that traditionally would have been completed on paper.
To the extent that they found unsuitable screen use, it resembled “boring old-fashioned dictation” more than “brain-rotting doomscrolling.”
“These could be tasks that offer students little creative freedom and instead concentrate on the technical execution of assignments,” Garshol explains.
The teachers they observed also emphasized the importance of using the appropriate technology to support students’ learning, particularly for those facing challenges such as reading and writing difficulties.
Reduced to a question of “for or against screens”
“The key question should be: What promotes good learning? We must emphasize the opportunities digital learning resources provide,” says Kjerstin Breistein Danielsen.
She is the head of the Teaching Lab at UiA, and her chapter, co-authored with colleagues from other educational institutions (in Norwegian), also seeks to add nuance to the polarized debate about screen use in schools:
“Today, these are often overlooked when discussions are reduced to a question of ‘for or against screens.’ This is about more than just screen time. It’s about developing students’ digital literacy in an increasingly complex information landscape.”
At the Teaching Lab, teachers, students and teacher trainers work together to explore teaching both with and without technology.
“Teachers need a professional community where they can develop the digital skills needed for today’s and tomorrow’s classrooms – and the same goes for our student teachers. We must ensure they gain the experience and training they need to strike a good balance between analogue and digital methods, which enhances student learning,” she says.
When screens contribute to an inclusive school environment
For several years, Assistant Professor Line Reichelt Føreland has worked on a project where researchers and teachers at UiA and the Sámi University of Applied Sciences use the video game Minecraft to teach about Sámi topics in schools.
This work has taken her to countless classrooms to test the game with students and teachers. Through Minecraft, they can explore the Sámi world and visit places like the Sámi Parliament in Karasjok.
“Sometimes I receive feedback on how using games in classrooms can promote inclusion. It brings attention to students who typically don’t get a chance shine, either because they’ve withdrawn or aren’t used to being seen as academically strong,” she writes in her contribution to the book (in Norwegian).
Reichelt Føreland is clear that screens and video games are not the solution to all challenges in the classroom. Some issues are best addressed by setting screens aside or reducing their use:
“But sometimes the screen is a good solution – both for students who have fallen a bit behind and for those with different types of needs.”
However, video games in schools should not be similar to gaming during leisure time.
“At school, games should have educational value and support learning,” she says.
Digital challenges in schools must be taken seriously
But although digitalization in schools offers opportunities, it has also created challenges.
“Particularly related to privacy, advertising and manipulative design,” points out Associate Professor Niamh Ní Bhroin.
“Some apps collect personal data and display ads based on students’ behaviour. They also use designs that make it difficult to stop, like notifications and rewards. Although there is broad agreement that children should not be exposed to such advertising, it is challenging for schools to prevent it.”
Ní Bhroin is a specialist in children’s and young people’s screen use and has been part of the government-appointed Screen Use Committee, which delivered a report with recommendations on children and screen use in November 2024.
The committee points out three challenges affecting students:
“It’s about teachers having varying levels of digital knowledge, municipalities having different capacities to check the quality of digital tools, and there being little control over the companies that produce these tools for schools,” Ní Bhroin says.
In her chapter in the book (in Norwegian), she calls for stronger cooperation between local authorities and the EU to ensure that digitalization in schools promotes learning, equal access and privacy for all students:
“The EU Digital Services Act was passed in 2022. It prohibits manipulative design and behaviour-based advertising aimed at children. But this has not yet been implemented in Norway. Therefore, Norwegian students are more exposed, even though a legislative proposal is expected before summer 2025,” the researcher says.