The mistake is not in recognizing that technology can serve as a powerful tool in education. The mistake is in making it omnipresent regardless of context or developmental stage. For younger children in particular structured low tech learning often produces richer cognitive engagement because it forces attention to human interaction and the tactile elements of learning. A tablet cannot substitute for the way a teacher’s enthusiasm can bring a subject to life.
There is also the unintended cost in teacher energy and focus. Every new proprietary platform arrives with training modules new workflows and a subtle shift toward data compliance over actual teaching. This is not liberation. It is additional administrative load disguised as innovation.
And yes the arms race between system restrictions and student workarounds is predictable and perhaps inevitable. Teenagers are motivated and creative when the challenge is circumventing a rule particularly one they see as arbitrary. Schools can spend fortunes on locking down devices but that only diverts attention from the more important task which is guiding students toward purposeful use of the tools they already have.
The mistake is not in recognizing that technology can serve as a powerful tool in education. The mistake is in making it omnipresent regardless of context or developmental stage. For younger children in particular structured low tech learning often produces richer cognitive engagement because it forces attention to human interaction and the tactile elements of learning. A tablet cannot substitute for the way a teacher’s enthusiasm can bring a subject to life.
There is also the unintended cost in teacher energy and focus. Every new proprietary platform arrives with training modules new workflows and a subtle shift toward data compliance over actual teaching. This is not liberation. It is additional administrative load disguised as innovation.
And yes the arms race between system restrictions and student workarounds is predictable and perhaps inevitable. Teenagers are motivated and creative when the challenge is circumventing a rule particularly one they see as arbitrary. Schools can spend fortunes on locking down devices but that only diverts attention from the more important task which is guiding students toward purposeful use of the tools they already have.