National Review, by Frederick M. Hess, August 2024 Highlights in the article: "The problem is that education technology tends to be more about the technology than about the education. But it needn’t be... To repeat, it’s not the technology that matters — it’s what we do with it... But harnessing it isn’t about joining the pell-mell race for new gadgetry or helplessly enabling the algorithm-fueled culture of distraction. Rather, it requires an unwavering commitment to learning. Whether tomorrow’s technology is beneficial for students will ultimately be far less about what Silicon Valley dreams up than whether schools can rise to the challenge."

New York Times, by Jessica Grose, April 2024 Highlights: Grose explores the benefits of Educational Technology. She "spoke with people who’ve seen real upsides from using tech in their classrooms. Their experiences back up some of the available research, which shows that ed tech can help teachers differentiate their material to meet the needs of students with a wide range of proficiencies. Further, teachers report that students with disabilities can really benefit from the assistive technologies that screens and apps can provide... She also heard from several teachers who said that assistive technology has been a game changer for students with special needs... The technology isn’t going away. We need to start creating better frameworks to think about how students and teachers are using technology in our schools."

New York Times, by Jessica Grose, March 2024 Highlights: "Increasing access to devices didn’t always lead to positive academic outcomes. In a couple of cases, it just increased the amount of time kids were spending on devices playing games. They wrote, 'We found that simply providing students with access to technology yields largely mixed results. At the K-12 level, much of the experimental evidence suggests that giving a child a computer may have limited impacts on learning outcomes but generally improves computer proficiency and other cognitive outcomes.'... They also explained that in the classroom, computer programs may help teachers meet the needs of students who are at different levels, since “when confronted with a wide range of student ability, teachers often end up teaching the core curriculum and tailoring instruction to the middle of the class.” A good program, they found, could help provide individual attention and skill building for kids at the bottom and the top, as well. There are computer programs for reading comprehension that have shown similar positive results in the research... 'I don’t want to be black and white about this. I think there are really positive things coming from technology.' But he said that they are 'meaningful supports on the margins, not fundamental changes in the modality of how people learn.'"

An ACLU research report, examines the EdTech Surveillance (educational technologies used for surveillance) industry in U.S. K-12 schools. Using in-depth investigation into industry products, an incident audit, student focus groups, and national polling, this report scrutinizes industry claims, assesses the efficacy of the products, and explores the impacts EdTech Surveillance has on students and schools. The report concludes by offering concrete actions school districts, elected officials, and community members can take to ensure decisions about using surveillance products are consistent and well-informed. This includes model legislation and decision-making tools, which will often result in the rejection of student surveillance technologies.

New York Times, by Jessica Grose, April 2024 Highlights: Grose spent a few weeks "speaking with parents, teachers, public school administrators and academics who study educational technology. And while she found there are certainly benefits to using tech as a classroom tool, she is convinced that when it comes to the proliferation of tech in K-12 education, we need “a hard reset”... We need a complete rethink of the ways that we’re evaluating and using tech in classrooms; the overall change that she wants to see is that tech use in schools — devices and apps — should be driven by educators, not tech companies... It’s unrealistic — and considering that we’re in a tech-saturated world, not ideal — to get rid of every last bit of educational technology. But we’re currently failing too many children by letting it run rampant... See article for her recommendations which includes: 1) At the State and Federal Levels: Privacy Protections and Better Evaluation, 2) At the District Level: Centralize the Tech-Vetting Process, 3) At the Classroom Level: Ruthlessly Evaluate Every Tool, 4) Students Deserve Authentic Connection"

New York Times, by Jessica Grose, April 2024 Highlights: "A middle school assistant principal said, 'I don’t know how often teachers are using YouTube in their curriculum.' That acknowledgment gets to the heart of the problem with screens in schools...no one seemed to know, and no one seemed to be keeping track... We’ve allowed Big Tech’s tentacles into absolutely every aspect of our children’s education, with very little oversight and no real proof that their devices or programs improve educational outcomes... Grose is convinced that the downsides of tech in schools far outweigh the benefits... The issue goes beyond access to age-inappropriate clips or general distraction during school hours. Several parents related stories of even kindergartners reading almost exclusively on iPads because their school districts had phased out hard-copy books and writing materials after shifting to digital-only curriculums. There’s evidence that this is harmful: A 2019 analysis of the literature concluded that 'readers may be more efficient and aware of their performance when reading from paper compared to screens.' One Elementary teacher said, 'It seems to be a constant battle between fighting for the students’ active attention (because their brains are now hard-wired for the instant gratification of TikTok and YouTube videos) and making sure they aren’t going to sites outside of the dozens they should be'.. Some teachers said they have programs that block certain sites and games, but those programs can be cumbersome. Some said they have software, like GoGuardian, that allows them to see the screens of all the students in their classes at once. But classroom time is zero sum: Teachers are either teaching or acting like prison wardens; they can’t do both at the same time... You can have designated classes to teach children how to keyboard, code or use software that don’t require them to have laptops in their hands throughout the school day... But the drawbacks of constant screen time in schools go beyond data privacy, job security and whether a specific app increases math performance by a standard deviation... The good news is that sometimes when the stakes become clear, educators respond: In May, Dr. Prater said, 'we’re going to remove access to YouTube from our district devices for students.' He added that teachers will still be able to get access to YouTube if they want to show instructional videos."

Faith Boninger is NEPC's Publications Manager and Co-Director of NEPC's Commercialism in Education Research Unit. She brings to her research a background in social psychology (Ph.D., Ohio State University), particularly an interest in persuasion, social influence, and communication processes.