The shift towards digital based learning has reached schools all over the world. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, schools rapidly adjusted to ensure students could still learn from home. Years later, schools still depend on technology as an important resource for students. However with the rise of misuse of technology like using Artificial Intelligence as a form of plagiarism, teachers have begun looking for ways to reduce in class screen time.
According to the article ‘LAUSD to restrict student screen time after years of encouraging classroom use’ from the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Unified School district was the first of California districts to begin limiting students’ screen time at school (Blume 2026). Their move was in response to the anti-screen movement in California schools that began with the Phone-Free School Act. Which required every school district to limit or ban the usage of phones at school.
“As a teacher in 2026, I have to worry about that extra level of cheating, which is more than just plagiarism,” Social Sciences teacher, Patrick Inouye, said.
Recent switches to on paper assignments have been common in classrooms. While certain departments have been affected more than others teachers have begun changing assignments to prevent plagiarism. In a survey conducted by Musket Media 61.9% out of 21 teachers surveyed stated they have started moving away from using technology in their classrooms.
“I think technology can be very empowering for an individual who wants to utilize it to go further, but I also think it could be a crutch for people who just want to get by,” Network Support Technician, Bradley Bettig, said.
Apart from issues with plagiarism and the use of AI, the Tech center has also noticed an increase in vandalism to the school issued laptops with about one or more shattered screens being reported per day causing issues for other students.
“When a student comes in with a legitimate issue that’s not their fault, like a software thing or not being able to connect to the WiFi I feel like it could be unfortunate if they couldn’t get a replacement laptop,” Bettig said.
Most on paper assignments eliminate the need for laptops and allow students to have a more hands-on learning experience. Some teachers relate retaining more information to on paper assignments while others say it depends on students overall knowledge and not the form of learning. However, not all classes can ditch technology especially when it’s a big part of the curriculum.
“For my history class I use technology for research purposes when I’m learning about a new topic. Another example is my math class, we use websites or apps to help do our math problems more efficiently,” Kaylee Rodriguez, 11, said.
