Rethinking Technology in the Classroom: It’s Not Screen Time, It’s Design

(gentle music) Welcome to the Balance. I'm Dr. Catlin Tucker. And in this episode, I wanna talk about the growing conversation around technology in education, or maybe more specifically technology in classrooms, and where I think the conversation is getting it right, and where I think it might be missing something. So if you're paying attention right now, this topic feels like it is everywhere. Articles, op-eds, social media, and district leaders are starting to rethink one-to-one programs, states are considering or proposing limits on devices, device time. Even schools are revisiting their policies around screen time, and the tone of the conversation has really shifted. It's no longer, how do we get more technology into classrooms? It's almost the opposite. It's like how do we get technology out of classrooms? Have we gone too far when it comes to the role of technology in our students' day-to-day lives on campuses and in classrooms? And I think it's important to name what's behind that shift because the concerns are real. When I talk to teachers, I hear things like, I feel like I'm competing with screens for my students' attention. Students default to googling, or asking AI chatbots instead of doing the thinking. I'm not sure the tech is actually improving learning. It just feels like a distraction. And when I talk to families, I hear things like, my child's on a computer all day, and parents are kind of exasperated about that. And then they're saying, you know, when kids come home, they're back on devices again. Like, when do they ever get a break? A lot of parents don't really understand what kids are even doing on devices in classrooms. So it feels like a lot of screen time without a lot of depth. And when I talk with school leaders, they say things like, we've invested really heavily, financially in devices and online platforms and curriculum, but we're not seeing the gains we expected. Test scores aren't improving. And in a lot of cases, they're actually declining. So this isn't abstract. There's a real sense that something isn't working. The way people had hoped for. And because of that, some schools are responding by pulling back. And sometimes pulling back and pulling away from technology really quickly, really dramatically, limiting device use, kind of rethinking their one-to-one programs and whether they want to keep investing in them. And in some cases, considering going back to more, kind of analog models of doing this work, but I think there's a risk in reacting too quickly. Because the question we should be asking isn't, should we use technology? I think we should be asking, are we using technology in ways that actually support learning? And this is where I want to bring in some research. Starting with a policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics, their paper was titled, "Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents." And what I appreciate about this paper is that it moves us beyond the idea of screen time as this simple metric and doesn't fall into the trap of like, technology is all good or technology is all bad. The authors explicitly state that digital media, quote, "cannot be viewed solely through the lens of screen time limits alone." And to me, that's a really important point. Because it forces us to ask better questions, not just how long our students on screens, how long should they be on screens? What should we be limiting? But questions like, what are kids doing on those screens? And how are those experiences designed? And the paper draws a clear distinction between high quality child centered design and engagement driven design. And that distinction really matters because the research shows high quality well-designed digital media with clear learning goals when used in moderation can support learning in areas like reading and math. But excessive use or low quality experiences are associated with lower achievement, weaker attention, and weaker cognition. So that for me is a really critical distinction. 'Cause I think sometimes we think about engagement driven design, we think of the word engagement as being really positive. But what that means is it's designed to keep kids clicking, keeping them engaged. It's not necessarily putting what's best for the child at the center of the equation when it comes to what's happening with their use of that technology. So we see stronger outcomes when students are actively responding, not passively consuming. When tasks include feedback and give students opportunities to improve and revise their work. So the important piece of this to me when reading it was, the answer isn't necessarily, let's get rid of all technology. It's let's get way more intentional about how we're using technology. And make sure that technology use is aligned with what the research is telling us actually works. Because I spend a lot of time going in and out of classrooms in my work, watching lessons, observing what's happening. And what I see consistently is not aligned with the research. I see students spending extended periods of time on educational games that vary widely in quality, many of which are designed to keep students engaged more than they're designed to push deep thinking. I see students watching videos in isolation, often without much kind of structure or like activities that are designed to push their processing, their deep thinking about the video content. Instead, the video is paired with questions or wrapped in an online platform where the video will pause and ask students to answer questions as they watch, more to ensure that they're actually watching the video. Because they're very low depth of knowledge questions. Often the questions are simply asking students to recall or reproduce something that they just heard in the video, where I see opportunities for videos to be paired with things like thinking routines to stretch students' metacognitive muscles or building collaborative, cooperative structures around the video. So you have groups of students watching videos together but pausing periodically to engage in conversation using a protocol like reciprocal teaching or doing something creative, like working on a collaborative sketch note that reflects what they're learning as they watch the video. You know, I see kids taking notes on laptops, even though we have research that tells us hand written notes support deeper processing, better retention. I see technology be used in ways that are largely isolating students, right? Not yielding any opportunities or encouraging any opportunities for collaboration and interactivity. And when I work with teachers in professional learning, we talk about the value of designing online learning experiences through the lens of the four C's of 21st century learning. Are we driving critical thinking, encouraging communication, getting kids collaborating around shared tasks or being creative, producing creative artifacts of their learning using technology? 'Cause that is not what I'm seeing in most classrooms. So there's clearly a gap, a gap between what the research says makes technology effective and how it's actually being used in lots of classrooms. So why does this gap exist? I think it's really about systems. Over the last decade, especially because of pandemic, schools adopted technology very quickly at scale. Devices were distributed, platforms were purchased, digital curriculum was implemented, but what did not happen at the same scale was investment in professional learning. Teachers were not consistently supported in learning how to integrate technology with strong pedagogical practices. So what happens? Technology becomes an add-on or just a substitute for tasks that students and teachers used to do before the technology. It digitized these existing practices instead of transforming them. And that's where I think we missed a really valuable opportunity. So instead of asking, what can this technology make possible that wasn't possible before, the question almost became, how can I use this tool to do something I've already been doing but do it more efficiently, right? And that's a really different question. And when I started writing about blended learning in 2010, the goal wasn't to have students on devices all the time. The goal was to help teachers design learning differently, to really weave the technology into the instructional, fabric of the class. to give students more control over the pace of their learning, the path of their learning, to create more space and opportunity for inquiry and exploration because kids had access to all of these resources in lots of different formats. The goal was to prioritize students having more conversations, more equitable conversations, to collaborate around dynamic tasks with resources that could support that collaboration and free the teacher from the front of the room. So they had opportunities to spend more time working directly with learners, individuals in small groups, supporting their process, their progress, providing differentiated instruction and modeling and support. I really wanted technology to support all of those shifts, but without the training, without the support from leadership and a robust professional learning infrastructure on a campus, it's very easy to use technology for low value tasks and it really truly doesn't add much to the learning equation. So when that happens, it's not surprising that people start to question whether we should be using technology at all. So one of the things I'm encouraging the school leadership teams that I have the opportunity to work with is instead of making a knee jerk decision about investments in technology, putting limitations on technology, I would like leaders to spend time facilitating an audit of how technology is being used, not a compliance audit, a learning focused audit. And here are some questions I would encourage leaders to ask themselves as they walk through classrooms. What are students actually doing on devices? Are they thinking deeply or are they simply completing tasks? Is the technology being used to isolate learners or foster conversation and collaboration? Are students producing, generating their own ideas or are they simply consuming information and regurgitating information? And is there evidence that the technology is providing students with feedback, it's supporting revision and improvement and growth when students are using it? And even having teachers kind of work on their own or maybe in a PLC to do a self-assessment of their own, having them consider does what I'm thinking about using technology does the task require students to think, to talk, to create? Does the technology add value or is it simply a replacement for the traditional paper trail that used to be associated with particular task or workflow? Am I using this tool to save time? Or am I using this tool because I think it's going to improve the learning experience for my students? And I think at a systems level we need to be asking, are we getting a return on our investment in terms of student learning? Is this addition to technology yielding better outcomes for learners? And does our system, our current system, and the way we're using technology and the way we train teachers around technology use does it align with what the research says actually works? Because if the answer to those questions is kind of not really, then the solution isn't to abandon technology altogether. It's to rethink how we're supporting teachers. Right now, too many districts rely on tech companies to provide professional learning, right? They buy a tool, they buy a product, they buy a curriculum, and then they leave it up to the company that developed it to train teachers on how to use it. And often that training can be myopically focused on how the platform works, how to assign tasks, how to navigate features. But that is not enough. We need professional learning that focuses on instructional design, student-centered learning models that strategically weave the technology into the learning. Strategies for leveraging the technology to drive collaboration, to encourage communication, to foster student-led inquiry. And we need to focus on ways to use technology to shift more agency to our students, to position them to have more control over their learning experience, so they can remove barriers for themselves. And when I started writing about blended learning, the goal for me, like I said, was not to have students on devices more, like the technology for technology's sake, it was really to help teachers think about how do we design learning differently, so that students are active engaged participants in the process. I really wanted to create classroom environments where students had more control over their learning, so they would be more motivated to lean into the learning, that teachers would have more time to connect with and work with individuals in small groups, meeting the needs of these really diverse groups of students that we work with. And I wanted the technology to support thinking, deep thinking, not just task completion. So even though these conversations are kind of raging right now, I don't think technology is, well, it's not going away in terms of our lives. And I don't think it's going to go away in classrooms, but the way we use it has to evolve. Because right now, the concerned people are feeling isn't just about screens. It's about the quality of learning happening in classrooms. And that's something we can actually do a lot to address. So before we swing in the direction of removing all technology and demonizing technology, I'd love to take a step back. And let's look closely at how it's being used. And let's invest in helping teachers design learning where technology can actually improve the learning experience for teachers and learners. That is the work. All right guys, thank you for joining me for this episode of the balance. As always, if you have questions, if you have comments, if you have feedback, I would love to hear from you. I'm an easy person to find. So whether you are on Instagram, you're on X, you're on LinkedIn, or you can always find me directly from my website, KatlynTucker.com, where you can send me a question or a comment. And I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day.