Chris Knight explains how educational technology has evolved over the years.
At the dinner table growing up, my mother and father – both of whom were public school teachers – would often discuss the education reform idea of the day. In the 1990s, parents needed more choice and schools needed accountability. At the time, students needed a “common core” of skills to be competitive in the global economy. I internalized the feeling that public education was always reinventing itself, trying something new.
I became a public high school teacher in 2010. And the big policy change in my first decade in the classroom was the encouragement of new technologies. As smartphones have become universal, outdated school rules banning “cell phones” have ceased to be strictly enforced. And by the late 1920s, there was a near-consensus that every child needed to be “one-on-one” with a Chromebook or iPad to succeed.
Now here we are post-pandemic, and it’s clear that this educational technology experiment hasn’t gone so well. Our students are just as bright as they’ve ever been, but they face more distractions than ever before.
What should be done? First, public schools must become community leaders in the use of digital technology. This involves not only working within the school walls, but also working with parents to develop healthier habits at home. Well-funded private schools have a head start here. Our community public schools must take a similar approach.