After writing The Summit of Hype, it occurred to me, “Maybe I’m wrong. What if edtech really has been a blessing?” And, to be honest, edtech HAS been a blessing to so many educators over the years.  That said, there are some problems worth considering.

A New Report

UNESCO released a 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report. As you might suspect, the report makes these claims. For fun, I grouped some of them into categories:

• Evidence-Based Teaching and Learning
• Good, impartial evidence on the impact of education technology is in short supply.

• There is little robust evidence on digital technology’s added value in education. 

• A survey of teachers and administrators in 17 US states showed that only 11% requested peer-reviewed evidence prior to adoption.
• A review of 23 mathematics applications used at the primary level showed that they focused on drill and practice rather than advanced skills.
• In Peru, when over 1 million laptops were distributed without being incorporated into pedagogy, learning did not improve. 
• In the United States, analysis of over 2 million students found that learning gaps widened when instruction was exclusively remote.
• Mere proximity to a mobile device was found to distract students and to have a negative impact on learning in 14 countries.
• Professional Development for Educators
• Teachers often feel unprepared and lack confidence teaching with technology. 
• Only half of countries have standards for developing teacher ICT skills. 
• Few teacher training programs cover cybersecurity.
• Around two-thirds of education software licenses were unused in the United States. (if teachers don’t know how to use edtech, it will sit unused).
•  Environmental Impact
  
• One estimate of the CO2 emissions that could be saved by extending the lifespan of all laptops in the European Union by a year found it would be equivalent to taking almost 1 million cars off the road.

Consider this information, and you get some sobering takeaways:

• EdTech has a negative effect on teaching and learning
• Teachers lack professional development to use edtech they have, much less emerging technology
• Saving the planet may involve NOT equipping every child in school with short-term laptops (like Chromebooks) and double use time
   

Let’s put the report findings aside for a moment.

The Question

When I worked as an instructional technology director, a principal whose campus was rated Exemplary by the State Assessment challenged the idea of using edtech. “Why should we invest in technology when we are doing so well already?”

At that moment, I was teaching information problem-solving strategies (e.g. Big 6/Super 3). To me, it was obvious that information problem-solving was a critical life skill, and technology fit into every aspect of it. Later on, I’ll share some action steps from that. That question, though, is one that has stuck with me. It leads to a startling conclusion:

To be successful in schools, students, teachers, and administrators need only implement the research on high-effect size instructional strategies. And, those strategies need not include technology.  

Unfortunately, and I know this from my own experience as a teacher and working with educators, many haven’t a clue about high-effect size instructional strategies. Worse, that continues to be true in many urban, suburban, rural, under-developed, low socio-economic areas. 

We simply haven’t disseminated how to best teach human beings.

Mix big money into it, edtech starts to look like an attractive alternative. A way to short circuit the expensive effort that goes into providing professional learning for teachers.

What SHOULD Our Focus Be?

Our focus should be in these areas:

• Professional learning for teachers. If teachers don’t know how to teach, scaffold learning, then what’s the point? Classroom management, evidence-based instructional strategies (Mike Bell’s book and Zaretta Hammond’s Culturally Responsive Teaching are two foundational texts), critical thinking, and digital citizenship (all the pillars)
• Technology for collaboration, productivity, and knowledge work. Enough drill-n-practice. Let’s model use of tech for collaboration and productivity, but introduce it at the right time (see recommendations).
• Limit waste byproducts of technology. So many devices, so much technology. We need more efficient devices. If a device isn’t supported for six years or more, then it avoid purchasing it for schools. Climate change is here; we can’t continue to ignore the effects. AI solutions should be evaluated in the same manner.