A Heterogeneity Study on the Effect of Digital Education Technology on the Sustainability of Cognitive Ability for Middle School Students

Digitalization gradually transforms digital education technology from being a teaching means to focusing on the student’s abilities. This study analyzes the data from the China Education Baseline Survey of the Renmin University of China using Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) and quantile regression methods. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression is used to test the net effect of digital education technology on students’ academic and cognitive abilities. The OLS result shows that digital education technology has a significantly positive impact on the cognitive ability of middle school students. However, schools focusing on using digital education technology as a means of school management will lower students’ cognitive abilities. Second, the CEM method result shows a significant difference in the cognitive ability scores between students in classrooms with and without digital education technology. This indicates that digital education technology can inspire students’ internal drive, motivate them to learn, and enhance their cognitive abilities. Last, the quantile regression result shows that the use of digital education technology has heterogeneity in the development of the cognitive ability of middle school students. When the cognitive ability quantile point increases, the influence becomes more obvious, changing from not significant to significant, then to very significant. This provides some inspiration for understanding the application of digital education technology. It can be concluded that this is an effective method to study the sustainable development of cognitive abilities through heterogeneity. The method ensures individuals’ holistic and comprehensive development, thus promoting groups’ development and contributing intellectual support to them to adapt to future social requirements and lead future social development. Digital education technology endows students with the cognitive abilities for lifelong learning to solve various problems in future social life, reserve high-quality talent resources for the future, and build a learning society with extensive significance. This paper analyzes the sustainable development of students’ cognitive abilities using emerging digital education technologies. It not only deepens the understanding of sustainable development of education and humans but also provides intellectual support for society’s sustainable development.