Hello, Superintendent, Principal, or Administrator–

Thank you for the work you do to help this educational ship run smoothly. It can’t be easy. You have a lot of unique stakeholders to contend with, different tasks to execute, limited budgets to manage, and the huge responsibility of preparing children for future adulthood. 

That’s a lot.

Like children and teachers, not all administrators are the same, so I want to avoid painting your profession with too wide a brush. In fact, my goal in writing is to highlight that what makes the educational setting unique from a business is the fact that no two children are alike; no two classes are ever the same (even when the same content is being taught); and no two teachers, even of the same subject, will teach it in the same way. 

And that is a good thing worth protecting.

I am afraid, however, that over the past decade or two, outside influences have altered your view of good teaching and learning, in favor of shiny and new technologies that claim to ease teacher workload, improve learning, and streamline school management.

I have no doubt that registrars are grateful for the computing power that allows them to generate a thousand schedules for high school students or the office staff who track attendance and sick days. Technology can and will continue to improve the operational side of an education system. 

But the outside influencers I refer to are the ones who have been courting you at conferences, flying you to product meetings, and calling and emailing you about their school-based products. These “EdTech” companies whose lofty promises are rooted in “research” they funded; whose claims about protection prey on adult anxieties about school safety; and whose business models are simply a wolf in sheep’s clothing (or as I like to say, just Big Tech in a sweater vest) do not have your (or your students’) best interests at heart. 

I am hopeful that any contractual relationship you’ve chosen to enter into with EdTech companies was done in service of what you thought was best for teachers and students. I have no doubt that you were swayed by flashy marketing and industry-funded research that implied a tool or app would be a game changer in your particular school or district. Your intentions may be very good, and I imagine the salesperson made it easy for you to say yes.

But…and there is, of course, a “but…”

EdTech is not delivering on its promises. Children, already consuming multiple hours per day on screens (7.5 hours per day on average for 8-18 year olds, according to recent research from the Kaiser Family Foundation), are now spending additional time on screens at school too. There is no expert in the world who would argue that a child of any age is better off spending 8+ hours per day on a screen than not (unless that person is taking money from a company that pays them to say this, and there are, sadly, many).

Children are not performing better as a result of EdTech products; in fact, the opposite is true. Nationally, reading and math scores are plummeting, in sync with the introduction of school-issued technologies. Children from elementary school to college are using Chat GPT to do their homework and write their essays, and why wouldn’t they? Their brains are not yet fully developed and we’ve provided them with a tool on which to do it. Of course this is happening. 

And lest you think that surveillance software, blockers, filters, routers, controls, etc., will keep kids “safe” online, know this: Until the business model changes, the EdTech tools currently used will never be in alignment with child development. They are diametrically opposed. 

According to Internet Safety Labs, schools average 125 unique platforms per school. That doesn’t include any additional apps or websites that individual teachers might request their students to use or the apps used on student’s personal devices. You might have a wonderful district IT person, but they cannot possibly know the subtleties of each platforms’ privacy policy or data mining practices, let alone manage hundreds, if not thousands, of district-issued devices.

Screens also hinder learning by increasing distraction and displacing real-world skill building opportunities– the things children actually need to thrive as humans, even in a digital world. Tech-based platforms (and their cousins, surveillance technologies made to “monitor” student devices) do not increase interactions between students and teachers. They do not help overworked teachers by reducing class size (a measurable fact that does impact learning outcomes). They do not provide opportunities to experience the world sensorily– the way decades of research shows how young children learn best.

Worse still, EdTech’s business model, like that of social media and gaming companies, is extractive, manipulative, and harmful. The success of these EdTech companies is not contingent on your students' performance on standardized tests; their success hinges on engaging children in their product for as long as possible, because “time on device” is the metric by which they measure value and make money. 

That’s it. Your students are the product. 

Parents are noticing that this school-based “time on device” is causing problems for their children– at home in fights over online homework, and at school in kids watching YouTube videos and playing games in class because they are available and irresistible. Teachers notice it too, but are afraid to speak up (as many indicate to me in the emails I receive). A few brave administrators see the writing on the wall as news rolls in about data breaches and lawsuits.

It is important to acknowledge that you as school leaders are victims of EdTech’s false promises too. You’ve been sold a snake oil that doesn’t work, and in fact is harming your learners, especially your most vulnerable ones. 

This letter is to let you know that we’re on the same team. We’re all targets of the same adversary. And our children and students are the ones most affected. If we care about raising a future citizenry that can think critically, problem solve, and empathize with others, we cannot continue to double down on EdTech platforms as the antidote to our problems.

While the lack of proven benefits to teaching and learning are bad enough, at the end of the day it is the extractive, manipulative, and harmful business model that takes advantage of budget crises, preys on worried adults, and profits off of children’s data that school leaders should be most concerned about. And EdTech companies are going to continue to extract data from children for profit, especially as AI companies clamber for a seat at the table. 

Doing nothing now only increases future harms. 

Having the courage to do the right thing means also having to do the hard thing and face backlash from a lot of different, and sometimes very powerful, people.

So the question to return to is this: What are you going to do in your capacity as a leader to stop this? 

We know that teaching and learning happen in the context of trusted relationships. Children learn better from a human than a computer. Reading a real book and writing on paper require hard work and effort. Brains are primed to seek the easy path; technology provides one. Teachers know their students best and “knowing” a person isn’t always quantifiable. 

We are the experts of education. We should not let technologists dictate how and what our students should learn, nor should these companies be allowed to collect, sell, and profit off the data of the most vulnerable members of our population. 

The good news is that there is growing support alongside the growing concern. I write about being a “first fish,” referring to what happens when a school (ha!) of fish swimming in the ocean wants to change direction. It takes not just one fish peeling away to shift the school, but a second and third fish to follow.

You as a school leader can be that “first fish.” The worried parents and concerned teachers out there are your second and third fish, and they will have your back. 

What will you do?