Denmark is undoubtedly a pioneer in digitising secondary education. Every pupil in the classroom has a computer, either their own or one provided by the school. Books, exercise books and stationery have been done away with.
Every young Dane spends 3.2 hours a day studying school subjects digitally on a computer. In this respect, Denmark’s system, with its widespread use of computers, embodied the vision of every “moderniser”, for whom revolutionising education is synonymous with digitising it.
As a New Democracy education minister once put it: “Liberalism means one computer for every pupil.” But these days, the “modernisers’” vision appears to be faltering in Denmark.
PISA results
The country performed very poorly in the PISA tests, particularly in reading, mathematics and science. The results caused considerable concern in the country and prompted efforts to explain them.
From the outset, the government took the familiar route, blaming mobile phones, which supposedly monopolise pupils’ attention and distract them from their studies. But many researchers challenged this explanation, arguing that the poor performance of Danish pupils was due to the entire process of digitisation, not just mobile phones.
The researchers focused on empirical data: how pupils actually used computers. Rather than using them as learning tools, they used them to visit entertainment sites and, in particular, pornography.
Throughout the lesson, the teacher had the impression that pupils were “glued” to their screens, deeply absorbed in studying the curriculum. If a teacher asked whether they needed any help, they would say no so they could carry on playing on their computers.
As researcher Dorte Ågård told DR: “It has been disastrous for students’ education that we have digitised so much. Denmark now has some of the most digitised schools, while at the same time experiencing a huge decline in educational outcomes. I believe that using computers less will help students learn.”
The government, however, appears to be starting to share the researchers’ views. It has promised that the bill it plans to introduce will address not only mobile phones in schools, but computers too.
As Matilde Powers, the Social Democratic Party’s education spokesperson, puts it: “We have been far too enthusiastic about technology. The intentions were good when we introduced more technology. But we went too far, and we can see today that it is destroying children’s education and their ability to concentrate.”
Denmark’s experience shows that digitisation alone does not guarantee positive results, however advanced the technology may be. The country’s education system delivered poor results despite education having been fully digitised.
Under these circumstances, resistance to digitisation is not romantic anachronism, but an entirely realistic stance.