3 Principles for EdTech in the Post-COVID World
Today, the New York Times published the heart-breaking yet not entirely unpredictable news that math and reading scores nationwide have tumbled since the start of the pandemic. This news builds on other reports that the pandemic erased nearly two decades of progress in student performance and that many states are facing unprecedented teacher shortages. In the face of such crises, many are looking to technology, wondering if Educational Technology (or EdTech) can hold the keys to getting student achievement back on track. I’m deeply optimistic that EdTech has an important role to play in helping our education system get back on its feet. Yet EdTech’s contributions are not guaranteed, and success will depend on the ability of companies to envision and create products that drive real impact.
With this in mind, I wanted to write down my personal beliefs on how EdTech can maximize its impact. At the core of my beliefs is that the EdTech field is still in its infancy, and we can’t ask it to do too much just yet. In a world that hasn’t yet managed to automate driving (one of the simplest, most procedural tasks in our daily lives), we can’t expect to automate teaching and learning (which I consider one of the most complicated parts of our daily lives). While it’s easy to become enamored by new, high-tech tools that claim to singularly drive massive gains in student achievement, I believe the highest impact EdTech products will be far simpler and will be humble to the limitations of technology. In this vein, I’ve identified three principles that can provide a framework for how EdTech can contribute to getting student learning back on track. As a former math teacher, my examples below will be fairly math-centric, but stick with me, as I believe many of these principles also translate to other subjects as well.
Principle 1: Great EdTech tools empower educators. They avoid trying to teach students directly.
In the past, education was seen as a one-way transmission of knowledge, with teachers depositing knowledge into students’ minds and students passively receiving information like a sponge. However, this view of education has been replaced by more modern research showing that learning is an active, interpersonal process. Students play an active role in their own learning and construct knowledge as they confront novel situations and engage in purposeful reflection. Because each student is unique, each students’ understanding of a concept is unique and no two students think in the exact same ways.
To illustrate this point, I recommend watching Jo Boaler or Cathy Humphreys leading number talks. As you watch, notice the diversity of ways that students see each problem. This diversity speaks to the fact that each student has constructed a slightly different version of the same core knowledge. All of these students know how to count and know how to multiply. But each student approaches these concepts in slightly different ways. This diversity of thought is what makes education so rich and engaging. And as educators, one of Jo Boaler and Cathy Humphreys’s key tasks is to bring out this diversity of student thought, and use it to drive productive discussions, debate, and collective learning.
This ability to listen to students and engage with their ideas is what EdTech cannot yet do. If you own an Alexa, Siri, or Google Home, you’ll recognize that even the most advanced modern technology isn’t capable of engaging in meaningful dialogue. In absence of this ability many EdTech programs fall into the trap of forcing students along prescribed, didactic learning paths that teach a “Right” way to think about each problem. Instead, I argue that EdTech should embrace that it can’t yet teach a number talk, nor any lesson on its own. Instead, EdTech should focus on serving teachers and making it easier for teachers to lead high-quality lessons with their students.
It takes an immense amount of practice and experience for teachers to lead great lessons. When I was a new teacher, I remember struggling as I juggled the work of lesson planning, teaching, grading, lunch duty, talking with parents, and more. In the midst of this work, I struggled to plan, much less execute, high-quality lessons. Instead, it was often simpler for me to deliver dry, didactic lectures. When I was a new teacher, I needed help. And with all of the teacher turnover occurring nationwide, I’m confident there will be many teachers in a similar boat. I believe there is a tremendous market for EdTech products to support educators. If we can build tools that make it easier for teachers to find, plan, prepare, and lead high-quality lessons, there is potential to make real improvements in education nationwide.
Principle 2: Great EdTech tools give students rich methods to demonstrate their thinking.
In the section above, I discussed the importance of integrating students’ thoughts and ideas into the learning process. A teacher’s job in the classroom is not simply to deliver information to students. Information delivery is one of the lowest-level tasks of a teacher. When you watch Jo Boaler and Cathy Humphreys lead their number talks, notice that they spend almost no time “explaining content” to students. Instead, their focus is on listening to students and trying to understand how each student is thinking. They listen to students explain their thinking, ask questions to clarify, and then figure out how to visually represent each student’s ideas on the board. Later, these ideas can be used to scaffold understanding, prompt debate, or facilitate student-to-student discourse.
In fact, I would argue that inferring and understanding how a student’s thinking is one of the most critical acts of teaching. To build this understanding, teachers rely on a variety of inputs. These inputs can be verbal (teachers listening to students and asking them questions) or visual (teachers looking at the scratch work students have written on paper or watching how students use manipulatives on their desks). Collectively, these observations help teachers understand students’ ideas and thinking and are essential for creating student-centered lessons.
EdTech products should focus on giving teachers access to these inputs. It’s very common to see products that let students type their answers into a box but give students no opportunities to show scratch work, explain their ideas, or capture their thinking. Without capturing student ideas, these programs deprive teachers of the inputs they need to infer and understand student thinking.
Solving this problem is particularly thorny and spans both hardware and software. Keyboards and trackpads are crude input methods compared to what students can do with pencils, paper, and simple objects (I encourage you to try solving a long division problem on a Zoom whiteboard). There is huge space to innovate in how technology allows students to share their ideas, capture their scratch work, and showcase their thinking. Investing in developing better input methods for students is one key to unlocking the potential of EdTech.
Principle 3: Great EdTech tools make classrooms louder and more vibrant.
As a first-year teacher, I struggled with classroom management and remember enviously watching my colleagues whose classes sat silently, seeming to work hard. Technology was my crutch. When I put my students on a computer, I gave everyone a pair of headphones and sighed in relief as my classroom was, for once, quiet.
However, over time I’ve realized that silence is not the ideal classroom environment. Learning is an active process, and activity means noise! You want students to be excited and eager to share their thoughts in class. Here’s an example of a “loud” table group that is remarkably productive. Students are sharing their ideas, debating different ways of thinking, and helping each other learn. Technology should empower this type of classroom. It’s too easy for technology to anesthetize students into quiet submission. Instead, I’m excited to think about how technology can make classrooms more vibrant — perhaps even louder!
Conclusion
Our education system is at a unique moment. In the wake of the COVID disruptions, EdTech is uniquely positioned to drive impact in student learning and achievement. But technology is not a panacea, and we cannot automate away the challenges of teaching. Instead, I’m excited to pursue technology solutions that empower educators, provide students with rich input methods, and foster classrooms that are loud, boisterous, and productive.