The role of technology in post-pandemic classrooms

Key points:

Today’s children are built differently. It’s the recurring theme in conversations with educators at every level, from the classroom to the district office. And it’s not just an anecdote. Everywhere you look, the data backs it up:

• “Eighty-one percent of superintendents agree that student behavior problems are worse now than before the pandemic, and 35 percent say the situation has “significantly worsened.”EAB, 2023)
• “Eighty percent of educators are concerned about student engagement.”Gradient learning, 2023)
• “On average, students give their school a C+ for making them feel excited about learning… Perhaps relatedly, students give their school a C+ for teaching them in ways that fit their unique learning needs.”Gallup Poll, 2023)

Something is not working here. The principals see it. The teachers see it. The students see it. So what is going on?

The gamification of incivility

The concept of ai-powered-gamification-for-teachers/” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>gamification Education has been on the sidelines of educational innovations for many years. Countless apps and curriculum publishers have attempted to “make learning fun” with mixed results. But sadly, it wasn’t the edtech industry that won the race to attract children’s attention, but social media.

Sadly, we all know what happened next. The screen-time generation fell right into the dopamine traps that are TikTok, YouTube, instagram, and many more. Instead of opening our children's eyes to new experiences and ways to improve, social media has amplified and incentivized the worst of human nature. Call me a curmudgeon if you want, but The data speak for themselvesSocial media has been repeatedly linked to depression, addiction, anxiety, sleep problems, and many other physical and psychological problems.

When schools reopened after the pandemic, they welcomed back a legion of students with entirely new vocabularies and worldviews, shaped by 30-second video clips. The result was a cohort that lacked the tools to understand the difference between how people act online and how they act in the real world.

The tides are beginning to turn

At the time of writing, Congress had passed several bills aimed at strengthening COPPA and protecting minors from harmful material on social media platforms. If done correctly, this legislation would address the root cause of many of these problems by adding a layer of modernized liability for social media and tech companies.

Schools are also fighting back as best they can by instituting a variety of cell phone bans to reverse downward trends in student inattention and disconnection. State legislatures have gotten involved, with At least a dozen signing those bans into law starting in 2024. Teachers across the country have already began to celebrate the implementation of these policies, citing levels of engagement they haven't seen in years (if ever, for those newer to the profession).

But can we harness that momentum and salvage what we've already lost? Many believe it's still possible.

The end of uniform learning?

Let’s be honest about the fact that student engagement requires more than just edtech tools. Teachers are ultimately the key to resurrecting student engagement levels. But as long as digital learning is part of the educational landscape, the onus will be on publishers to find the ideal balance between meeting legitimate classroom needs and engaging students in ways the old guard no longer does.

The serendipitous rise of artificial intelligence and big language models couldn’t have come at a better time. As schools look to reduce screen time after too many years of hybrid and remote learning models, that time needs to be made even more productive. No, ai isn’t a cure-all technology, but it does open up intriguing possibilities in the so-far disappointing timeline of so-called “personalized learning.”

You can’t take a Generation Alpha student, sit them down in front of the same digital learning resource that kids used 10 years ago, and expect similar results. You know the formula: Students watch an instructional video or read an overview of a concept, complete a standard set of exercises that may or may not include a game or two, and demonstrate their “mastery” by completing a few multiple-choice questions. The only “personalization” involved is too often limited to the order in which the lessons are presented.

Personalized learning 2.0

This idea of ​​“personalized learning 2.0” isn’t about chasing shiny new things, but about evolving with the times. We need to stop seeing ai as “the future of education” and start thinking about how we can seize the moment to help create more magical moments in the classroom. Maybe the right educational technology can help open the door wide enough for teachers to step through.

The damage done by modern technology cannot be repaired, but it can be mitigated. At what point do we take a step back and realize that we can’t keep banging our heads against the wall with the same old teaching practices and tools? How many consecutive years of stagnant test scores will have to pass before school systems start to realize that they aren’t getting the return on investment they were promised in their six- or seven-figure contracts?

Today's children are different. Let's demand the same from the programs we present to them.