Zero Genie

Pop quiz for parents of schoolchildren: What comes to mind when you hear “technology in the classroom?”

A) Why give even more screen time to a kid who barely speaks to us because she’s glued to TikTok?

B) My child came home excited because he earned lots of tokens to feed the fuzzy monsters on his math program. Is that a lesson or a game?

C) How did my third grader manage to find images from an underwear catalog with his iPad? (C’mon, it can’t be just my kid.)

There is no right or wrong answer. But the concerns parents have about the near-ubiquitous presence of school-issued technology are spilling off the pages (and screens) of news reports across the country.

Some parents worry that the youngest students’ brains are being overstimulated; others say technology isn’t helping children learn. Still others worry about cyberbullying and access to inappropriate content. There are privacy concerns about the apps schools install to monitor these threats because it’s often unclear what data is collected and where it goes. If none of this is on your list, the access that Silicon Valley now has to public education should give us all pause.

Nearly all public schools in the U.S. have at least basic internet access and more districts are investing in personal devices. Chromebooks are the market leader, shipping nearly 60% of school-based devices in 2018, according to the consulting firm Futuresource. A report from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit in San Francisco that serves as a watchdog on technology and media use by children, found that that 82% of K-12 public school teachers have either one-to-one access or shared computers for their students.

It can feel daunting and parents are right to question their schools if they aren’t satisfied with classroom technology use. But I’m pleased with how my children use computers at school and wanted to know: What does it look like when schools are doing a good job with technology?

It starts with some ground rules. Digital citizenship lessons are a common approach. They teach children how to smartly search for information online, limit screen time, keep personal information private, respect others and avoid or report cyberbullying. It works best when schools start from an early age and hold students accountable by taking away devices when they violate the rules. Just like we parents are told to do at home.

I was glad when my fifth-grade twins had to sign a contract stating that watching YouTube on their school laptops is a violation that could get them taken away. YouTube is notoriously hard to keep from children’s curious eyes, even with school-mandated filtering and the website’s “not meant for kids under 13” mantra. In a landmark case, the government recently fined YouTube $170 million for violating COPPA, the federal children’s privacy protection law, and the site now requires creators to designate whether their content is made for kids.

Kelly Mendoza, senior director of education programs for Common Sense Media, said the group continues to pressure YouTube and other platforms to, among other things, raise up educational content and stop the use of manipulative design. But as aware as we are of its flaws, we also love us a good video tutorial. Video streaming services like YouTube are the most commonly used type of classroom digital tool, even though software that lets students create or collaborate provides much greater educational value.

Experienced educators will tell you that if lessons are engaging enough, students won’t turn to distractions like YouTube. I’m not sure I buy that, but I’m listening. Michael Nagler, the superintendent of Mineola Public Schools on Long Island, N.Y., said if you are using technology appropriately, “you won’t have a problem with kids doing other things.” Nagler, whose district has been consistently recognized as digitally innovative, said lots of schools don’t spend time upfront designing curriculum before introducing technology. “It’s not a panacea,” he said, “but it can be a tool to engage kids in content that, most of the time, they don’t want to learn.”

Educators and experts point to other traits shared by schools that are successful with so-called “ed tech.” They put teaching first, offer ongoing educator training and choose software that fosters creating and collaborating. They talk to teachers before investing in technology and value clear communication between administration and teachers and between schools and parents.

“Schools need to communicate clearly to parents and keep them in the fold about what their technology goals are and how they are safeguarding children,” said Mendoza. “Is it tech for tech’s sake or does it have value that a non-tech learning activity couldn’t?”

Not all screen time is created equal, said Joseph South, chief learning officer for the International Society for Technology in Education, the professional group for technology educators. No kindergartner should be left alone on an iPad, and technology shouldn’t replace playtime for young learners. “But,” he said, “I’ve watched kindergarten students in a Los Angeles school district create a script about tigers, make a storyboard and then draw pictures for each scene.” An exercise like that keeps them super engaged, he said. “Sometimes we imagine a worst-case scenario in young children using technology,” he said, “I’d like us to imagine a best-case scenario.”

Carving out time for personal screens during the school day in small increments is fine, but should never take the place of teachers, said Susan Landry, a developmental psychologist and founder of the Children’s Learning Institute at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. For children in preschool or kindergarten, Landry recommended 15 or 20 minutes a day at most.

Technology isn’t good at teaching the language, conversational and social skills that should be the focus of early education because of how the brain develops, said Landry, whose group uses research to improve learning. “Particularly in a school serving a high proportion of low-income children, where there are challenges to parents sitting down with children and reading and talking,” she said, face time with teachers and peers is crucial.

She said technology can be good for learning things like shapes, math facts and letter recognition or sounds. In general, she said, computer learning becomes more effective and less harmful when you get “into about third grade.” At that point, it can be a great tool if children are engaged and working with others. “I don’t think you can beat that for quality learning experiences,” Landry said.

But how can schools choose high-quality programs, when evidence of what works is mostly anecdotal? Scientific research on programs and practices in education, collected on the government’s What Works Clearinghouse, contains few examples of technology-based programs, Landry said. Mostly, it’s up to districts and teachers to figure out. There are websites that can help. The International Society for Technology in Education maintains a members-only database called Edtech Advisor that is like a Yelp for teachers, while Common Sense Media reviews ed tech tools on its website, and teachers can leave reviews too. Common Sense also tracks each product’s data privacy policy, a big concern of parents and schools, who must follow federal and state privacy laws.

Nagler, the superintendent, has a tech committee made up of teachers. “The most successful apps are the ones teachers have embraced and used first,” he said. Nationwide, though, teachers don’t always feel confident about ed tech. Mendoza said only 4 out of 10 teachers polled in the group’s recent classroom census felt “very prepared” to use their ed tech tools and “a third of them aren’t using the products their districts are purchasing that they thought would be great for learning.” There is much work still to be done, she said, on professional development. “Typically, the state can have the initiatives,” she said, “but it’s up to districts to provide adequate and ongoing PD.”

Kasey Bell, a Dallas area digital learning coach and former middle school teacher, said she encounters reluctance from some teachers to integrate technology in lessons. “They already have so many things they have to do and be,” said Bell, who works with schools around the country and hosts a weekly podcast called “Shake Up Learning.” Even when schools have the budget and create training positions, “teachers still have to accept what you are selling,” she said. They feel so much pressure to prepare students for state tests, she said, and technology skills aren’t tested, so it’s not a priority unless administration makes it one. She likes to show teachers how technology can foster the critical thinking that will help students on tests.

For training at the school or district level, South recommends an ed tech coach, someone who can use technology effectively and teach it to students. These positions could be full-or part-time, he said, and sometimes this expertise comes with a title like technology specialist, but all types of educators can fill this role, even principals.

“We don’t think about how much teachers are risking when they say, ‘Tomorrow’s lesson will succeed or fail based on how I use this tech,’” South said. An ed tech coach can provide the kind of “over the shoulder” support that makes a big difference in teachers’ confidence level, he said. Parents concerned about devices could start by saying: I would love to understand how the school supports my child’s teacher in the best use of ed tech.

Because technology in the classroom is still relatively new, college-level teacher training programs haven’t caught up. “It’s a huge gap in the system,” South said. Most colleges offer at most a three-credit course, he said. Towson University, University of Michigan and Ball State in Indiana are three examples of colleges that integrate technology use into their teacher programs.

He said something else intriguing: two years ago, Texas became one of the first states to sign a law that every new teacher has to pass an assessment showing that they have mastered the ISTE educator standards. It’s probably too soon to have an effect at the classroom level, but this could be a model for other states.

What model should we parents in technology-soaked school districts look to? Nagler’s school district has woven computational thinking and customized learning into the entire K-12 curriculum for 3,000 students at five schools. Every child in the district, where students are mostly white, with Hispanics the largest minority group at 29.4%, has an iPad. The middle school has won awards for its student-directed learning, including a STEM competition that involved collaborating with the Long Island Rail Road to minimize the impact on the community during an expansion project. (I found it thrilling to watch this video of how students attacked the issue.)

Nagler said his district bases what it does with technology on giving students a choice for how they do the work in combination with what they have to do. “We’re realistic,” he said. “State and society mandate things and we’re going to do those things, but we’re going to build in vehicles for kids and teachers to have choice. We want the kids to have fun.”

Vicki Vila is a freelance editor and writer in Charlotte, N.C. She wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.