OEB 2025 - Annual Debate

This House Believes That Catering to Shorter Attention Spans is Dumbing Down Education

As attention spans shrink and learners increasingly demand fast, visual, and interactive content, educators and trainers are rethinking how learning is delivered. Bite-sized videos, gamified lessons, instant feedback loops, and microlearning platforms are becoming the new norm. But is this evolution a smart adaptation to the realities of modern attention - or a dangerous concession to distraction culture?

Has education truly improved by aligning itself with the consumption habits shaped by social media and short-form content? Or are we trading rigour and reflection for convenience and speed? Are we making learning more accessible and engaging, or are we hollowing it out, replacing deep thinking with shallow retention?

And more importantly, are we over-prioritising short-term learning gains at the expense of long-term, holistic outcomes? In trying to meet learners where they are, are we ultimately lowering the bar?

Join the debate and explore whether this shift is progressive innovation - or a subtle erosion of what education is meant to be. 

Moderated by
Hon. Michael Onyango, Agenda Setter, The 4gotten Bottomillions

Speakers:
Adam Salkeld, Co-Founder and Director of Digital Learning Associates
Philipp Lorenz-Spreen, Computational Social Scientist from the Center for Adaptive Rationality at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Max Bankole Jarrett, Vice Chairperson of The Africa-Barbados Heritage Initiative
Aruj Khaliq, AI Policy Advisor & Intervention Scientist at University of Oxford