Debate: Response to “Should academics collaborate with digital companies to improve young people's mental health”

Abstract

Much of the debate about academic collaboration with digital companies (see Livingstone, Orben & Odgers, 2023) has surrounded commercial use of data and children's mental health. The debate has also spilled into the educational value of technologies and academic collaboration with companies to improve their learning design. Given the close relationship between learning and mental health, the evaluation of digital companies' impact should focus on both their emotional and educational effects. The collaborative models used by educational researchers provide a source of inspiration for transparent evaluations and evidence‐based recommendations for holistic interventions that target children's learning and mental health.

Applying the science of learning to EdTech evidence evaluations using the EdTech Evidence Evaluation Routine (EVER)

“…Mental health and learning outcomes are closely related and both are affected by students’ use of EdTech 4 . The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and similar agencies in other countries review and approve therapies offered on the market, including game-based digital therapeutic devices.…”