New research looks at how screens are actually being used in Australian classrooms – the results may surprise you

There is a vigorous debate going on about screen use in Australian schools and how much and what kinds are good for learning. Education Minister Jason Clare has called for a “digital detox”, amid calls from some parents to see screens banned in primary years. New South Wales has announced screen time limits for schools, following a similar move in Victoria earlier this year. At the same time, some researchers argue kids need digital skills to live and work – and so need to learn how to use screens at school. But amid concerns about potential risks and benefits, we lack evidence about what is actually happening in classrooms. For a new report funded by the New South Wales Department of Education, we talked to parents, students and teachers about what is happening in schools. Their responses suggest the reality of screen use in schools is not always what the community might assume. Our study Between August and November 2025, our research team conducted anonymous surveys about how screens are being used in schools in the state. We surveyed 1,057 students, 914 teachers and 1,686 parents/carers from NSW public, Catholic and independent schools. Survey links were distributed via school principals across all NSW public and independent schools and participating Catholic dioceses. Participants self-selected to respond. What do parents want? Parents in our survey tended to agree that using digital devices was important for their child’s learning, though less for primary school parents (55%) compared to high school parents (71%). We also asked parents how much time students should spend on screens in schools and then compared it to how much time students said they actually spent on screens. Around 37% of parents surveyed did not think there should be time limits placed on learning with screens at school for their child. But as the chart below shows, for the rest, parents’ average recommended time limits for school use were either equal to or higher than the amount of time students reported actually using screens for learning at school. Why are screens being used? From teachers, we were keen to understand the different ways screens may be used across all year levels for all subjects. We found screens were most frequently used by students to conduct research, receive instruction (such as explanatory videos), write reports, practice learning (such as online maths quizzes), and organise information. Teachers also had students use technology to communicate (such as emails and discussion forums) and engage in digital creation tasks, such as programming or multimedia production. Students reported using a wide range of apps for learning at school. In primary school, the emphasis was on literacy and numeracy apps, as well as Google search, YouTube and the graphic design tool Canva. In high school, there was a shift towards creating documents and presentations, as well as using communication apps such as Microsoft Teams and Gmail. What happens in classrooms? We also observed 68 classes, from the first year of school (called kindergarten in NSW) to Year 12, in 20 public schools to understand their technology use. These schools were selected to capture a wide range of school demographics across the state. We observed lessons across a wide variety of subject areas that involved the use of technology by students to learn curriculum content. Researchers would typically position themselves towards the back of the classroom to observe the lesson, occasionally moving around the room if needed. On average, the students were seen to be focusing on their learning tasks for 90% of the time. This was highest for students in the first three years of school, where students were observed to be on-task 96% of the time. This dropped to 82% by Year 9 and 10 before returning to 96% time-on-task for Year 11 and 12 classes. Even though these lessons were selected for observation because technology was being used, students only used screens approximately half of the time. The rest of the lessons involved non-digital activities such as discussions, handwriting tasks and worksheets. Teachers applied a range of strategies to keep students on-task, including positioning themselves strategically in the classroom to observe screen use, imposing time constraints to reduce opportunities for distraction, providing tech support, and asking students to close their device when they needed to listen. Non-educational screen use in schools Our survey also asked students how much they were using screens at school for leisure, such as games and social media. We asked parents how much recreational use of screens at school was appropriate in their view. Here there was a big difference. Around 84% of parents thought there should be a limit on recreational use of screens at school, with average recommendations for those parents ranging between 19 and 33 minutes (depending on the age of their child). The average recreational use of screens in school by primary school students was below the average parent recommendations. But there was a huge jump in high school. Year 7 and 8 students were using screens recreationally for an average of 72 minutes, climbing to 85 minutes in Year 11 and 12. It was not clear from the survey responses whether this was in playgrounds, during break times, or in class. What does this mean? Our results suggest educational screen use in schools is often moderate and for specific purposes. However, there appears to be an extensive amount of non-educational use of screens in high schools. This suggests we need more research and initiatives to help students develop digital self-regulation. This will require supporting both teachers and parents, as well as students. Study limitations One limitation of the study was that student uses of screens were self-reported in range bands, which is less accurate than recording screen use on devices. Although we have asked teachers not to change their lessons for the classroom observations, the teachers and students were aware that they were being observed and could have modified their behaviours. Future studies could expand to schools right across Australia, and examine the impact of interventions to improve student digital self-regulation and use of technology for learning.