Why Low Tech?
At Newman College, we're low tech, which means our students will be using those traditional tools of learning - pens, pencils and paper - rather than the digital tools that have taken over classrooms over the last decade.
This is a decision that runs counter to the ever increasing use of technology in the classroom. It's been 15 years since iPads were first introduced in Prep/Kindy, and we are now living in a time where the question of AI and its role in education and the classroom is being actively explored.
So why are we returning to the more traditional tools of learning at Newman College?
Why are we low tech?
We live in a digital age, surrounded by smart devices that grant us access to a world of knowledge and social activity previous generations could never have imagined. We've been told advancements in technology are opening doors in the world of education that prepare students to live and work in the digital world of the future.
So why did Sydney Grammar school make the decision to stop using laptops in their classrooms in 2016? And why have they never looked back?
Recent studies and books, such as Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation, are beginning to demonstrate that technology, with all its promises, may be causing as many new problems as it is solving old ones. Whether its declining mental health rates, increased feelings of isolation, or plummeting attention spans, there are any number of issues we are facing today that our tech-heavy digital world may be exacerbating, or even causing.
We believe our children deserve an education that is distinctly human, one which encourages their human potential, allows children to be children, and opens their eyes to eternal realities.
What does a low tech education look like in our digital age?
At Newman College, we're not anti-technology. However, we do believe there is a significant and important difference between learning about technology and learning with technology. We believe in using human tools of learning for a human education.
Our students, particularly in the primary years, will not be glued to iPads and laptops, learning in isolation as they spend hours plugged into a digital world. We believe children flourish and learn best when they are moving and active, singing and memorising chants and jingles, enjoying embodied learning, and learning to cooperate and interact with each other.
In these formative years we have the opportunity of developing the precious gift of an active imagination and a retentive memory. These are also the years in which the foundation for all future learning is built and habits of wisdom and virtue can first be formed.
We think learning to write with pen and paper, learning to read with physical books, and learning how to reason and problem solve through human relationships in the real world are essential to these ends.
We are intentionally low tech at Newman College, and we want to support the many parents who are trying to reduce their children's time in front of screens in an ever-increasingly digital world.
Find Out More
At the 2025 Alliance for Responsible Citizenship Conference in London, Sophie Winkleman delivered a remarkable speech on the "digital destruction of childhood" and the urgent need to not only reduce technology in our classrooms, but also in the lives of children generally.
“How will children who are so constantly artificially stimulated ever learn to think, imagine, create or just be still?”
Sophie's 19-minute speech can be found here and is well worth watching.
