(Radio Iowa) – Legislators are considering requiring a state study to determine the impact school-provided technology is having on Iowa students and their ability to focus on tasks. Students are not allowed to access their personal cell phones during class time under a state law passed last year, but Republican Senator Jeff Taylor of Sioux Center says students are still using tablets and laptops in the classroom that are owned by the school.

“This heavy reliance in the last 30 years on everything moving toward a digital online computer presence in the classroom, but also at home with laptops sent home with the students I think it is having some certainly some benefits in terms of efficiency and ease of access,” Taylor said, “but I think there are some downsides as well.”

The Senate has unanimously voted to have the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services convene a “working group” of experts and parents to produce recommendations by the end of the year. It’s an alternative to a House approved proposal that would limit daily screen time to an hour a day in elementary classrooms. Andy Conlin is a lobbyist for Cambium Learning Group, a company that offers a variety of programs for digital devices.

“We agree that it’s really important to be thoughtful about technology,” Conlin said. “We don’t think it’s a best practice to put kids in front screens for the sake of putting them in front of their screens, but we also recognize that technology when used intentionally and tied to evidence-based instruction can be a really, really powerful tool.”

Margaret Buckton is a lobbyist for the Urban Education Network and Rural School Advocates of Iowa. She says a daily screen time limitation may be too broad and she points to a software program that’s helping students in Denison be literate in two languages.

“With all of this change upon us at such an incredible pace right, we think really digging into the details and having some experts come back with the technology recommendations is a great way to deal with it,” Buckton said. An annual report issued at an international conference focused on education technology found during the last school year the average U.S. school district accessed nearly 16-hundred “ed tech” tools monthly.