# Today's Poll Question: Do schools need less technology and more pencils and books? Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-smerconish-podcast-4474155/today-s-poll-question-do-schools-need-less-technology-and-more-pencils-and-books Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-smerconish-podcast-4474155/today-s-poll-question-do-schools-need-less-technology-and-more-pencils-and-books.md Podcast: [The Smerconish Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-smerconish-podcast-4474155) Published: 2026-07-17T12:13:11+00:00 Episode link: https://www.siriusxm.com Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/sxm.simplecastaudio.com/d49edecb-af71-4e40-b63b-f7bdc3faae1b/episodes/a2a0f0da-c4f6-4f69-8a0f-98d17399db5a/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=d49edecb-af71-4e40-b63b-f7bdc3faae1b&awEpisodeId=a2a0f0da-c4f6-4f69-8a0f-98d17399db5a&feed=Dv1m2CJC Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-smerconish-podcast-4474155/episodes/today-s-poll-question-do-schools-need-less-technology-and-more-pencils-and-books Duration seconds: 951 ## Resource Today's Poll Question at Smerconish.com: "Agree or disagree: Schools need less technology and more pencils and books." Michael examines the growing backlash against classroom technology, inspired by neuroscientist Dr. Jared Horvath's bestselling book "The Digital Delusion" (hear that interview on The Book Club with Michael Smerconish Podcast!). Has America's decades-long experiment with laptops and tablets in the classroom undermined reading comprehension and academic performance, or are critics confusing correlation with causation? Michael explores the evidence, the sharp decline in student achievement, international trends like Sweden's return to printed textbooks, and why even supporters of educational technology are questioning whether schools have gone too far. Cast your vote at Smerconish.com and join the conversation. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-smerconish-podcast-4474155/episodes/today-s-poll-question-do-schools-need-less-technology-and-more-pencils-and-books/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-smerconish-podcast-4474155/today-s-poll-question-do-schools-need-less-technology-and-more-pencils-and-books.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.