<html><body><div style="direction: ltr; font-family: Aptos, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Is the problem the students’ access to technology (rather than textbooks)? What about the standardised tests with which the students’ cognitive capacity was measured? <br><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);"><br></span></div><p style="direction: ltr; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);">Bessie Dendrinos, Professor Emerita, NKUA, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(0, 120, 215);"><u><a href="http://scholar.uoa.gr/vdendrin" title="http://scholar.uoa.gr/vdendrin" data-outlook-id="4a2d71fe-5ebc-4141-a481-3de825f2d622" style="color: rgb(0, 120, 215); margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">http:/ /scholar.uoa.gr/vdendrin</a></u></span></p><p style="direction: ltr; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);">Faculty of English, School of philosophy </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(0, 120, 215);"><u><a href="http://en.enl.uoa.gr/" title="http://en.enl.uoa.gr/" data-outlook-id="79f4d40b-b203-45b5-80ea-5d1782263067" style="color: rgb(0, 120, 215); margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">http://en.enl.uoa.gr</a></u></span></p><p style="direction: ltr; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);">RCeL Director </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(0, 120, 215);"><u><a href="http://www.rcel.enl.uoa.gr/" title="http://www.rcel.enl.uoa.gr/" data-outlook-id="9fcb1c9d-9000-4e7f-9bd8-8b700180a90f" style="color: rgb(0, 120, 215); margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">http://www.rcel.enl.uoa.gr</a></u></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);"> </span></p><p style="direction: ltr; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);">Director of the Research Institute for Multilingualism and Language Policy, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(0, 120, 215);"><u><a href="https://cem.uoa.gr/" title="https://cem.uoa.gr/" data-outlook-id="f6e46ad3-2a7d-45c4-8bd1-01e1d9b3dc7b" style="color: rgb(0, 120, 215); margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">https://</a>eipol.uoa.gr </u></span></p><p style="direction: ltr; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);">President of the KPG Examination Board, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(0, 120, 215);"><u><a href="https://rcel2.enl.uoa.gr/kpg/en_index.htm" title="https://rcel2.enl.uoa.gr/kpg/en_index.htm" data-outlook-id="5938767d-27f0-4792-80cd-19705e1eac80" style="color: rgb(0, 120, 215); margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">https://rcel2.enl.uoa.gr/kpg/en_index.htm</a></u></span></p><p style="direction: ltr; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);">President of the European Civil Society Platform for Multilingualism, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(0, 120, 215);"><u><a href="http://ecspm.org/" title="http://ecspm.org/" data-outlook-id="7e752810-e7d7-46c2-98e2-1008088e7c41" style="color: rgb(0, 120, 215); margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">http://ecspm.org</a></u></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);"> </span></p><p style="direction: ltr; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Aptos, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br></span></p><div style="text-align: left; padding: 3pt 0in 0in; border-width: 1pt medium medium; border-style: solid none none; border-color: rgb(181, 196, 223) currentcolor currentcolor;"><span style="font-family: Aptos; font-size: 12pt; color: black;"><b>From: </b>Edling <edling-bounces@lists.mail.umbc.edu> on behalf of Francis M. Hult via Edling <edling@lists.mail.umbc.edu><br><b>Date: </b>Saturday, 21 February 2026 at 21:30<br><b>To: </b>Educational Linguistics List <edling@lists.mail.umbc.edu><br><b>Cc: </b>Francis M. Hult <fmhult@umbc.edu><br><b>Subject: </b>[Edling] The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents<br></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);"><br></span></div><div id="ms-outlook-mobile-signature"><p class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin: 0cm; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </p></div><div id="mail-editor-reference-message-container"><div class="ms-outlook-mobile-reference-message skipProofing" style="direction: ltr;">Fortune<br><br>The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents<br><br>In 2024, the U.S. spent more than $30 billion putting laptops and tablets in school. But more than a quarter century and numerous evolving models of technology later, psychologists and learning experts see a different outcome...Rather than empowering the generation with access to more knowledge, the technology had the opposite effect...Earlier this year, in written testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath said that Gen Z is less cognitively capable than previous generations, despite its unprecedented access to technology. He said Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to score lower on standardized tests than the previous one.<br><br>Full story:<br><a href="https://fortune.com/2026/02/21/laptops-tablets-schools-gen-z-less-cognitively-capable-parents-first-time-cellphone-bans-standardized-test-scores/" data-outlook-id="f6dd85e7-2bbd-4dcc-9a14-f3aea6dc0d99">https://fortune.com/2026/02/21/laptops-tablets-schools-gen-z-less-cognitively-capable-parents-first-time-cellphone-bans-standardized-test-scores/</a></div></div></body></html>