We're returning to pen and paper to combat smartphone fatigue

Walking through the school gates on our beautiful riverside campus in Bangkok is an uplifting start to the morning - until I spot a line of students sitting on benches, staring silently at screens while waiting for the buildings to open.

The irony is, we encouraged this digital environment ourselves.

Although we have a no-phone policy during the school day, we operate a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) scheme. Also, much of how we now manage learning, homework, access to resources, notices, student rewards and so on is through online platforms that students have access to.

We have constructed a world where students need a device to access school life.

The balance to strike

Of course, there is a huge role for technology to play in supporting students to learn and progress at school.

Everyone can see how the judicious use of technology can support learning. In class, for example, it can act as a great equaliser by ensuring that every student accesses the same presentation, receives the same feedback or has the same tools at their disposal.

Digital tools can offer advantages for a teacher’s workload and objectivity, too.

Human judgement is naturally susceptible to unconscious bias. To combat this, we have introduced an AI-powered system to act as an objective check on our writing assessments.

By evaluating work without being influenced by a teacher’s prior knowledge of a child or the neatness of their handwriting, the system provides an unbiased data point for triangulating student progress.

While the technology usually aligns with our staff’s evaluations, the moments where it disagrees have proven incredibly useful in highlighting our own blind spots.

Shifting ground

But while technology can work wonders in the hands of teachers, its impact in the hands of students is where the ground is starting to shift.

Aside from the well-documented concerns around social media and the attention economy - worries that are often linked to smartphone use - meta-analysis of the research suggests that reading a physical book is more engaging than reading off a screen, while other studies indicate that writing notes helps us remember things better than typing notes on a laptop.

The very tools we introduced to support students’ learning may well be getting in the way of it. And this digital drift has not gone unnoticed by our community.

Increasingly, parents are voicing anxiety over the volume of screen time that their children experience, highlighting the relentless pull of the online world and its impact on wellbeing.

This isn’t just passive worry; parents are actively pushing back and explicitly requesting that we stop setting homework that requires a digital device, noting that work done electronically often undermines the attempt to reduce device usage at home.

Returning to pen and paper

In response, we are shifting our school culture back to the physical world, reintroducing time-tested pen-and-paper routines.

For one thing, we are overhauling our approach to homework, reducing screen dependence by asking teachers to set more homework that does not require device use or internet research.

This conversation has led staff to become more mindful, critical and deliberate about the “when and why” of students’ device usage.

We are also restructuring our assessments to include traditional in-person written tasks with viva voce-style oral examinations.

Furthermore, from next academic year, we are bringing back physical student planners, reversing a decision to scrap them years ago.

We are also establishing a strict “no devices out” norm across the entire campus, regardless of the time of day.

Filling the digital void

To fill that digital void and foster genuine social interaction, we are scattering books, playing cards and chessboards across the campus in the mornings.

By ensuring that technology is used to enhance learning and not simply to replace paper, we aren’t just helping families navigate a complex digital landscape; we are reclaiming our physical space and the inner lives of students.

Next year, as the morning sun hits our riverside campus, I hope to see something different at the school gates. Not a line of silent, glowing screens, but the clatter of chess pieces, the shuffling of cards and the sound of students talking to one another again.

Reversing the digital drift isn’t about retreating into the past; it’s about equipping students with the rarest modern skill - the ability to disconnect.

Robert Millar is principal at Shrewsbury International School Bangkok Riverside, Thailand