What I learnt about screen time after watching a class full of students learn on iPads

There’s a version of “kids these days and their screens” that most of us have said out loud at some point, usually followed by a sigh, and a memory of how different school used to look. So when I landed in Kuala Lumpur to see how technology is being used in schools there, I’ll admit I went in with a little of that same scepticism.

That scepticism didn’t last very long.

A school where the tech just disappears

I visited SBP Integrasi Gombak, a school of about 600 students, where iPads aren’t a novelty. They’re just part of how the day runs. Students were building prototypes and presentations for their school projects and competitions, entirely on their iPads. At CCA sessions, they were using the device to break down their jumps mid-air, tracking height, timing, even how their body was aligned on landing, to fine-tune their form, it kind of reminded me of an athlete reviewing game footage.

In a Japanese language class, students replied fluently in Japanese and presented their work on slides, all built on iPad. Next door, in math class, students were drawing their own vectors and confidently explaining the radius of the shapes they’d created, which if you ask me, would have been impossible for me to pull off at their age.

But the moment that really got me was a live student performance, done entirely on GarageBand. Keyboard, drums, bass, all on iPad, all perfectly in sync. It didn’t look like kids messing around with an app. It looked like a real band, and honestly, for a second I forgot that they were playing it on their iPads

But what struck me most wasn’t any single feature or app. It was, in fact, how invisible the tech became. The students weren’t thinking about the device in their hands, it looked second nature to them.

And that got me thinking, long after I’d left the school, if learning can feel this natural and hands-on, why does “screen time” still feel like such a loaded phrase for so many of us?

Putting the questions to the person behind the tech

The next day, I sat down with Dominic Liechti, Senior Director of Worldwide Product Marketing for Education at Apple, to talk through some of what I’d seen, and some of the concerns I know a lot of parents and educators still carry around device use in schools.

On raising kids who are digitally literate

Digital literacy is one thing. Digital wellbeing is another. I asked Dominic Liechti how Apple is thinking about helping students build both, especially at an age where habits are still forming.

For him, digital literacy isn’t just about knowing how to use the technology itself. “It’s also about curiosity, creativity and critical thinking, it’s a combination of both,” he explains.

Technology, he says, is meant to work alongside those human skills, not replace them.

That’s part of why Apple leans so heavily on teacher training through its Apple Teacher and Apple Learning Coach programmes, so those future skills stay part of the lesson plan and don’t get sidelined by the tech itself.

On AI in the classroom

AI is showing up in more classrooms and more devices than ever, and I think it’s fair to worry that leaning on it too early could blunt the exact critical thinking school is meant to build. I asked Dominic Liechti, about how Apple make sure AI supports learning instead of just doing the thinking for kids.

His answer came down to sequencing. “It starts with who is drafting something, is it AI or is it you? If you want to do it the right way, the student needs to draft first, and then maybe use AI to challenge that draft, almost like a fourth partner in the process.” He pointed out that students often don’t know what they don’t know, so checking AI’s answers against a teacher or other sources becomes part of the exercise itself. “That’s where critical thinking starts,” he says.

“Technology cannot replace critical thinking, only a human can do that. But it helps.”

On what makes classrooms here different

Singapore, Malaysia, and our neighbours don’t learn quite the same way a classroom in the US or Europe might. Different languages, different resources, different expectations from parents too. I asked Dominic what unique opportunities and challenges stand out to him specifically in this part of the world.

Interestingly, he doesn’t see it as a regional issue at all. “It’s a worldwide phenomenon, it’s not particular to Southeast Asia,” he says. “It comes down to teacher readiness, making sure teachers have the right materials and training to actually teach their students.”

Large class sizes, he adds, are a challenge everywhere, not just here. When I asked if he’d come across teachers who push back against using technology in the classroom, he said it’s rare. “I haven’t come across many. They see the benefits, they become more efficient and effective, and they see the impact on their students, especially in making things more accessible,” particularly for students with disabilities or those learning in a second language.

On what’s happening beyond the devices themselves

It’s easy to talk about the hardware. I wanted to know what’s happening beyond it, the actual programmes and support in place for teachers here in Singapore.

There’s Apple Teacher, the foundational programme for basic skills. Above that sits the Apple Learning Coach programme, which certifies teachers to train other teachers. “We have over seven thousand of them worldwide, and each one supports about twenty to twenty-five other teachers,” he says. There’s also the Apple Distinguished Educator programme, which focuses more on creativity and critical thinking at a higher level, along with specialists who support schools during their initial rollout of the technology. But the real engine behind it all, he says, is peer learning. “Teachers teaching colleagues is the most effective thing, and that’s where we really invest.”

The fear that kids are becoming too dependent

This is the one I think most parents genuinely want an answer to. With iPads and other devices being more seamlessly integrated into our lives, many would question: Are we raising a generation of students who can’t take notes, research, or think critically without a device doing some of the work for them?

Dominic broke it down into two kinds of thinking. “There are low-order thinking tasks, like basic addition or reading and writing, that are still important because they’re the foundation,” he says. Then there’s the higher-order stuff. “Critical thinking, complex problem solving, creating something nobody else has, presenting it, those are the skills AI can never replace, and that’s where the focus needs to be.” He also made the point that research shouldn’t end at the search, it needs to lead somewhere. “Research always needs to lead to something, presenting it, defending a thesis, and that’s where the analogue part comes back in.”

Keeping the human part of school intact

For all that devices can do, school has always been as much about people as it is about lessons. The friendships, the debates, the back and forth with a teacher who actually knows you. So it’s only natural that you’d wonder how face-to-face collaboration and teacher-student connection get protected as more of the school day moves onto a screen.

For Dominic, this ultimately isn’t Apple’s call to make. “Ultimately it’s the school’s responsibility to decide when it’s the right time to use technology and when it’s the right time to just have a discussion without it,” he says. He described how some classrooms already strike that balance in practice, students working individually and self-paced on an app, while the teacher pulls a small group aside for something more interactive. “Technology helps the rest keep working, while the teacher can focus on that group face to face.”

Takeaways

Spending the day in SBP Integrasi Gombak, and then hearing Dominic Liechti’s side of the thinking behind it, I didn’t walk away believing tech is the answer to everything in education. But having given more thought about my experience, I did walk away rethinking my own assumptions about what “too much screen time” actually means.

And when you really think of it, maybe the real lesson isn’t that kids need more tech in the classroom. As a matter of fact, maybe it’s that the right tech, used with a bit of intention, can make room for kids to be curious again. And that feels like a trade-off worth paying more attention to, not less.