In her advocacy around EdTech, Emily Cherkin invites parents, teachers, and administrators to join the Tech-Intentional™ Movement for Education, a framework built to protect teaching, learning, and children in the digital age. While technology education is part of a tech-intentional school model, Emily’s Four New Norms of EdTech (including AI) will reverse the three big mistakes we’ve made when it comes to screen use in schools: over-reliance on 1:1 and internet-connected tools in the name of “learning” or “efficacy” (in spite of evidence to the contrary and a business model which encourages children to spend more, not less, time on screens at school); undervaluing the hands-on, relationship-based role of teachers in the learning experience (learning happens in the context of both struggle and relationships); and failing to protect children from data and privacy breaches that are embedded within the business model of EdTech (a topic few fully understand).

When a school of fish in the ocean wants to change direction, it takes one first fish to start the shift, but requires second and third fish to bring the rest along. Courageous school leaders and parents have an opportunity to serve as “first fish” change-makers when it comes to rethinking the role of EdTech, but many more second and third fish efforts are needed as well. Challenging the trajectory of EdTech and AI is not without risk, but the risks of doing nothing to protect a thinking, feeling, and voting future citizenry is a direct threat to democracy itself. Therefore, new norms are needed for EdTech in schools.

No internet-connected 1:1 devices in schools.

Children do not need internet-connected devices for learning. If state-mandated testing is digital, then schools should return to paper-based testing. Bring back hard-wired computer labs.

No AI use before age 16.

Just because AI will continue to exist and evolve does not mean that children are ready developmentally, ethically, or emotionally to use it as a tool. Like any other sophisticated tool that poses safety risks (such as a car), children should learn about AI in the context of a structured class with an expert teacher, when their brains are in a developmental stage where they are better able to handle the use of such a sophisticated tool.  

TechEd, not EdTech.

Children need to learn about technology and all the ways it can be used, but do not need 1:1 internet-connected devices to do so. TechEd (Technology Education) can include learning how a computer operates, what the internet is, how AI and social media function, what is an algorithm, how to identify dis- and mis-information, how to code, and how to type, all which can be taught without screen-based technology. Tech Ed is not the same thing as EdTech.

More paper, more handwriting, and more relationships.

Children learn best from teachers they trust and from the hard work of writing and rewriting. Learning isn’t supposed to be easy. Schools should invest in hiring enough teachers to keep classes small, not in EdTech. Classrooms should be filled with people, paper, and pencils.

For more information on how to become a Tech-Intentional School, please visit: thescreentimeconsultant.com.

Modeled on Jonathan Haidt’s 4 Norms. 

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