EdTech Transparency

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All this anti-ed tech dialogue, and seemingly smart people who seemingly love their child and might even be described as tiger parents, are paying $40-70k to send their kids to Alpha schools now. What gives?

Even rich people can make really bad decisions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Until schools are able to group kids by ability, the tech is going to stay. It’s the only way to keep the higher achieving kids occupied while the teachers focus on low performers.

This. What will it take for schools to start tracking in early elementary?

Agree in part. The other issue is behavior. Until teachers and principals are allowed to discipline and if needed even exclude children for repeated poor behavior, the we are going to use screens for that too. Remember when you could be told to sit alone in the hallway or “go to the principal’s office” for misbehaving?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Until schools are able to group kids by ability, the tech is going to stay. It’s the only way to keep the higher achieving kids occupied while the teachers focus on low performers.

This. What will it take for schools to start tracking in early elementary?

Agree in part. The other issue is behavior. Until teachers and principals are allowed to discipline and if needed even exclude children for repeated poor behavior, the we are going to use screens for that too. Remember when you could be told to sit alone in the hallway or “go to the principal’s office” for misbehaving?

Right, now it’s go to the resource person or social worker and pick out your favorite snack. Take a walk instead of doing the math lesson. Of course kids keep on with their behaviors!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Until schools are able to group kids by ability, the tech is going to stay. It’s the only way to keep the higher achieving kids occupied while the teachers focus on low performers.

This. What will it take for schools to start tracking in early elementary?

Agree in part. The other issue is behavior. Until teachers and principals are allowed to discipline and if needed even exclude children for repeated poor behavior, the we are going to use screens for that too. Remember when you could be told to sit alone in the hallway or “go to the principal’s office” for misbehaving?

Right, now it’s go to the resource person or social worker and pick out your favorite snack. Take a walk instead of doing the math lesson. Of course kids keep on with their behaviors!

As a parent I would be thrilled if schools had some effective disciplinary procedures in place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Until schools are able to group kids by ability, the tech is going to stay. It’s the only way to keep the higher achieving kids occupied while the teachers focus on low performers.

This. What will it take for schools to start tracking in early elementary?

Agree in part. The other issue is behavior. Until teachers and principals are allowed to discipline and if needed even exclude children for repeated poor behavior, the we are going to use screens for that too. Remember when you could be told to sit alone in the hallway or “go to the principal’s office” for misbehaving?

Right, now it’s go to the resource person or social worker and pick out your favorite snack. Take a walk instead of doing the math lesson. Of course kids keep on with their behaviors!

As a parent I would be thrilled if schools had some effective disciplinary procedures in place.

As a teacher, I agree with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Until schools are able to group kids by ability, the tech is going to stay. It’s the only way to keep the higher achieving kids occupied while the teachers focus on low performers.

This. What will it take for schools to start tracking in early elementary?

Agree in part. The other issue is behavior. Until teachers and principals are allowed to discipline and if needed even exclude children for repeated poor behavior, the we are going to use screens for that too. Remember when you could be told to sit alone in the hallway or “go to the principal’s office” for misbehaving?

Right, now it’s go to the resource person or social worker and pick out your favorite snack. Take a walk instead of doing the math lesson. Of course kids keep on with their behaviors!

This is not a rationale for using screens in class. The kids are clearly misbehaving regardless of screen use. That is an separate issue. It makes zero sense to put the whole class on screens and to use these dumb EdTech programs. It neither improves behavior or adequately teaches content.

[Anonymous]

Have you thought about keeping your child’s device at home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All this anti-ed tech dialogue, and seemingly smart people who seemingly love their child and might even be described as tiger parents, are paying $40-70k to send their kids to Alpha schools now. What gives?

It's RW garbage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All this anti-ed tech dialogue, and seemingly smart people who seemingly love their child and might even be described as tiger parents, are paying $40-70k to send their kids to Alpha schools now. What gives?

It's RW garbage.

What? It’s objective data. There are too many articles to post that show declining proficiency in students and the correlation with EdTech. The science is clear that these programs are not effective teaching tools. I cannot believe, regardless of political affiliation, anyone can think EdTech (and how it is being used in most classrooms) is providing any significant benefit or progress for students.

https://fortune.com/2026/03/01/american-schools-broken-silicon-valley-edtech-gen-z-test-scores/

Below is an opinion piece but it links research and scientific data. It highlights how EdTech is also is bad for teachers, creates more work for them, and forces them away from actually teaching and interacting with students.

https://thescreentimeconsultant.com/resources/essays/theproblemwithedtech

[Anonymous]

I have 3 kids - 2 in high school and 1 in elementary school. I brought up excessive use of tech at schools for years. Technology is here to stay. My older kids were in elementary during covid, could barely type and survived covid virtual school.

My youngest reads a lot and likes to write.

I feel the people who are most vocal at our school are parents of kids who like video games and play online. All three of my kids do not play video games. They all play sports daily and play board games but not video games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have 3 kids - 2 in high school and 1 in elementary school. I brought up excessive use of tech at schools for years. Technology is here to stay. My older kids were in elementary during covid, could barely type and survived covid virtual school.

My youngest reads a lot and likes to write.

I feel the people who are most vocal at our school are parents of kids who like video games and play online. All three of my kids do not play video games. They all play sports daily and play board games but not video games.

It’s an issue for all kids, not just ones playing games at home. Even the “smartest” kids at the best schools are a dumber than they used to be. There have been articles about this recently. Harvard has had to add remedial math classes. College professors have also noted lack of writing ability among students. The SAT has also had to change format to be easier

https://nypost.com/2025/11/13/opinion/college-kids-math-skills-worse-than-ever-blame-pass-the-buck-schools/

https://mindingthecampus.org/2025/03/31/we-need-to-do-something-about-student-writing/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How has the education sector become so entitled that they bash parents constantly for using screens but dig in when asked to stop requiring students to use them all day long at school. Honestly stinks quite badly of massive corruption and I hope you all rot in hell

Corruption and laziness.

I hope you all rot in hell! She typed furiously on the very device she claims is rotting her children’s brain. Monkey see, monkey do!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Until schools are able to group kids by ability, the tech is going to stay. It’s the only way to keep the higher achieving kids occupied while the teachers focus on low performers.

This. What will it take for schools to start tracking in early elementary?

Agree in part. The other issue is behavior. Until teachers and principals are allowed to discipline and if needed even exclude children for repeated poor behavior, the we are going to use screens for that too. Remember when you could be told to sit alone in the hallway or “go to the principal’s office” for misbehaving?

Right, now it’s go to the resource person or social worker and pick out your favorite snack. Take a walk instead of doing the math lesson. Of course kids keep on with their behaviors!

This is not a rationale for using screens in class. The kids are clearly misbehaving regardless of screen use. That is a separate issue. It makes zero sense to put the whole class on screens and to use these dumb EdTech programs. It neither improves behavior or adequately teaches content.

As a teacher I don’t think this is the reason. I think the reason is that pre-Ed Tech, there were good teachers and bad teachers. Teachers who taught the curriculum effectively and engagingly and teachers who phoned it in. Even at the same school, even in the same grade, students were receiving different educations.

And the school districts thought, no no no, we can’t have that. So they started seeking these packaged, ready made curriculums to make sure that nobody is getting a “better” education than anyone else. To make it “equitable.” Teachers are now told exactly what they must teach. Down to the reading excepts they must use, the writing prompts they must use, the word problems they must use. And yeah, it comes ready-made on slides by the county that they TELL you to use.

And that is how we got here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since there are accommodations for lots of things, why can’t my kid get one since he has issues with staying on task when on a laptop?? And I know he is not alone.

It doesn’t really matter. Teachers are not prepared to teach without devices and technology, they just aren’t. One kid having an IEP to not use a device isn’t going to change how the teacher instructs the class and interaction with students or the work they do. That kid will just be given some generic afterthought worksheet. Not only do devices need to be out of classes, there needs to be a systematic change to how teachers are teaching. It is so bad.

+1000

The resistance to change from teachers is so telling. They are addicted to edtech

It’s no the 90s anymore. “Edtech” is now and will always be apart education it’s been like this for the last 10-15 years.

I don’t buy this, entire countries are going back to textbooks because the evidence that edtech doesn’t help education is overwhelming.

Is thar true boo?

It's pretty obvious as outcomes have gotten worse since 2010 when schools started implementing them. Edtech has a clear record of failing kids.

Correlation isn't causation, dipsht.

NP here. It's fine if you don't, but many researchers think the relationship between Edtech/smartphones and declining educational outcomes is causal, not just correlation. What is your hypothesis?

I’m not the poster you are responding to. While I agree most tech use in schools should go, I think that it isn’t just tech use in schools causing the declining educational outcomes. It is use at home AND schools. I think you can make a little bit of headway when you get rid of tech in schools, but use outside of school needs to be banned as well. The stakes are too high and the attention span of children will keep eroding if we allow tech use outside of school. THE devices were designed to interrupt thought. The reason why you get a flashing pop up in the right corner of the screen is because our reptilian brain sees it better there and will immediately respond. We are primed right now to respond to tech. If you just ban it in schools, you are not going to defeat the problem.

I agree with you that it's both home and school. Jonathan Haidt (who is worried not just about school outcomes but anxiety, depression and loneliness too - topics for a different thread) has written about both factors.

It seems like the tide is turning on political will for both school and home devices. We are seeing the under 16 social media ban in Australia. Some countries' schools are reducing computer use like Sweden (https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/sweden-brings-books-handwriting-back-to-school/7277000.html) and Finland (https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/books-screens-out-some-finnish-pupils-go-back-paper-after-tech-push-2024-09-10/). We are seeing cell phone bans in schools in Norway (https://nbc24.com/news/nation-world/norways-school-cell-phone-ban-boosts-student-grades-health-model-us-schools-parents-children-development-reading-abilities-mental-health-human-contact-policy).

Agree it’s both. But kids are at school 7 hrs per day 180 days per year. Those hours are specifically set aside for education and there are decisions being made on how those hours are spent by experts. There is zero excuse for using EdTech at school when we know the outcomes are poor. The school board, principal, teachers, and all the people deciding how kids should be taught can’t control what happens at home- but they can control what happens at school. No one can ban screen use at home, but schools absolutely can at school.

Exactly you think no one can ban use at home, so you want to push the social agenda on to schools. If it is important to you, push for a broader agenda, or do you just believe that a female domineered field is responsible for fixing all of society?

I don’t understand your argument. Schools exist to educate. Schools are BUYING these terrible programs and technology that it literally harming education. Public schools exist to give all kids a good education regardless of their parents and home life. Why would schools trying to be replicate crappy home life?

Kids are picking up on horrible behaviors from screen use. No, schools shouldn’t buy Lexia or programs, but likewise schools and schools alone for teaching kids how to be in society without screens. Screen use should be banned for kids. No more 6/7, no more tik tok challenges, no using screens in the car, or in a restaurant or to keep the kids quiet while grocery shopping. Schools ARE tasked with teaching children for whom this is the norm. If you care about more than just yoru kid, you would advocate for a screen ban in public places for ALL kids, not just in schools. Otherwise the burden of teaching social skills and group times will solely be on the schools and all other public spaces will be kids and people constantly on screens. Restaurants with the TV on aren’t that different from lunch with the TV on. If parents aren’t modeling this, why should schools be tasked as being the only places that are screen free. It puts a huge burden on teachers when basic group skills aren’t being taught in society at large and THAT is what makes teachers burn out. Tech needs to be more broadly fixed and instead of just being educators who are responsible for teaching kids this. Ban screens for kids.

PS I realize this isn’t YOU as a poster, but you also should realize that many many kids have parents who do not care about screen time. This topic self selects those of you who are anti tech.

DP
Everyone has to do their part. And that doesn't mean schools get to wait until every parent independently bans screens in their home or until parents successfully advocate for society-wide screen bans which are impractical for so many reasons. You want to be the last ones to ban screens. Gtfooh

Well, look at these young people who are actually doing something about it, not just ranting against teachers.

From the NYtimes:

The case, in which closing arguments were made on Thursday, is the first of many lawsuits brought by thousands of young people, school districts and state attorneys general against companies like Meta, Google, Snap and TikTok. The plaintiffs in these cases do not accuse the companies merely of serving up bad content to young people; they argue that the very design of social media is intentionally engineered to create compulsions and habits of overuse, regardless of the content provided.

For two decades now, social media companies have been virtually untouchable, profitably floating above accusations that they normalize propaganda, addict children and degrade our character. Legally and politically, platforms like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have been protected by an idea that they and others have promoted: that they are not just innovative technologies but also speech platforms, so that imposing any limits on them would amount to both censorship and a drag on technological progress.

That protection is finally starting to weaken, thanks to a growing realization that social media is also a matter of public health. Seen this way, social media appears as something less newfangled and more familiar: a defective, hazardous product. The current trial of Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube in Los Angeles Superior Court, in which a 20-year-old woman has accused the platforms of designing their products in ways that harmed her mental and physical health, is the clearest sign of this shift.


This is a societal issue, not just and educational one. Stop making teachers your battle ground and take it to the big boys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since there are accommodations for lots of things, why can’t my kid get one since he has issues with staying on task when on a laptop?? And I know he is not alone.

It doesn’t really matter. Teachers are not prepared to teach without devices and technology, they just aren’t. One kid having an IEP to not use a device isn’t going to change how the teacher instructs the class and interaction with students or the work they do. That kid will just be given some generic afterthought worksheet. Not only do devices need to be out of classes, there needs to be a systematic change to how teachers are teaching. It is so bad.

+1000

The resistance to change from teachers is so telling. They are addicted to edtech

It’s no the 90s anymore. “Edtech” is now and will always be apart education it’s been like this for the last 10-15 years.

I don’t buy this, entire countries are going back to textbooks because the evidence that edtech doesn’t help education is overwhelming.

Is thar true boo?

It's pretty obvious as outcomes have gotten worse since 2010 when schools started implementing them. Edtech has a clear record of failing kids.

Correlation isn't causation, dipsht.

NP here. It's fine if you don't, but many researchers think the relationship between Edtech/smartphones and declining educational outcomes is causal, not just correlation. What is your hypothesis?

I’m not the poster you are responding to. While I agree most tech use in schools should go, I think that it isn’t just tech use in schools causing the declining educational outcomes. It is use at home AND schools. I think you can make a little bit of headway when you get rid of tech in schools, but use outside of school needs to be banned as well. The stakes are too high and the attention span of children will keep eroding if we allow tech use outside of school. THE devices were designed to interrupt thought. The reason why you get a flashing pop up in the right corner of the screen is because our reptilian brain sees it better there and will immediately respond. We are primed right now to respond to tech. If you just ban it in schools, you are not going to defeat the problem.

I agree with you that it's both home and school. Jonathan Haidt (who is worried not just about school outcomes but anxiety, depression and loneliness too - topics for a different thread) has written about both factors.

It seems like the tide is turning on political will for both school and home devices. We are seeing the under 16 social media ban in Australia. Some countries' schools are reducing computer use like Sweden (https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/sweden-brings-books-handwriting-back-to-school/7277000.html) and Finland (https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/books-screens-out-some-finnish-pupils-go-back-paper-after-tech-push-2024-09-10/). We are seeing cell phone bans in schools in Norway (https://nbc24.com/news/nation-world/norways-school-cell-phone-ban-boosts-student-grades-health-model-us-schools-parents-children-development-reading-abilities-mental-health-human-contact-policy).

Agree it’s both. But kids are at school 7 hrs per day 180 days per year. Those hours are specifically set aside for education and there are decisions being made on how those hours are spent by experts. There is zero excuse for using EdTech at school when we know the outcomes are poor. The school board, principal, teachers, and all the people deciding how kids should be taught can’t control what happens at home- but they can control what happens at school. No one can ban screen use at home, but schools absolutely can at school.

Exactly you think no one can ban use at home, so you want to push the social agenda on to schools. If it is important to you, push for a broader agenda, or do you just believe that a female domineered field is responsible for fixing all of society?

I don’t understand your argument. Schools exist to educate. Schools are BUYING these terrible programs and technology that it literally harming education. Public schools exist to give all kids a good education regardless of their parents and home life. Why would schools trying to be replicate crappy home life?

Kids are picking up on horrible behaviors from screen use. No, schools shouldn’t buy Lexia or programs, but likewise schools and schools alone for teaching kids how to be in society without screens. Screen use should be banned for kids. No more 6/7, no more tik tok challenges, no using screens in the car, or in a restaurant or to keep the kids quiet while grocery shopping. Schools ARE tasked with teaching children for whom this is the norm. If you care about more than just yoru kid, you would advocate for a screen ban in public places for ALL kids, not just in schools. Otherwise the burden of teaching social skills and group times will solely be on the schools and all other public spaces will be kids and people constantly on screens. Restaurants with the TV on aren’t that different from lunch with the TV on. If parents aren’t modeling this, why should schools be tasked as being the only places that are screen free. It puts a huge burden on teachers when basic group skills aren’t being taught in society at large and THAT is what makes teachers burn out. Tech needs to be more broadly fixed and instead of just being educators who are responsible for teaching kids this. Ban screens for kids.

PS I realize this isn’t YOU as a poster, but you also should realize that many many kids have parents who do not care about screen time. This topic self selects those of you who are anti tech.

DP
Everyone has to do their part. And that doesn't mean schools get to wait until every parent independently bans screens in their home or until parents successfully advocate for society-wide screen bans which are impractical for so many reasons. You want to be the last ones to ban screens. Gtfooh

Well, look at these young people who are actually doing something about it, not just ranting against teachers.

From the NYtimes:

The case, in which closing arguments were made on Thursday, is the first of many lawsuits brought by thousands of young people, school districts and state attorneys general against companies like Meta, Google, Snap and TikTok. The plaintiffs in these cases do not accuse the companies merely of serving up bad content to young people; they argue that the very design of social media is intentionally engineered to create compulsions and habits of overuse, regardless of the content provided.

For two decades now, social media companies have been virtually untouchable, profitably floating above accusations that they normalize propaganda, addict children and degrade our character. Legally and politically, platforms like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have been protected by an idea that they and others have promoted: that they are not just innovative technologies but also speech platforms, so that imposing any limits on them would amount to both censorship and a drag on technological progress.

That protection is finally starting to weaken, thanks to a growing realization that social media is also a matter of public health. Seen this way, social media appears as something less newfangled and more familiar: a defective, hazardous product. The current trial of Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube in Los Angeles Superior Court, in which a 20-year-old woman has accused the platforms of designing their products in ways that harmed her mental and physical health, is the clearest sign of this shift.


This is a societal issue, not just and educational one. Stop making teachers your battle ground and take it to the big boys.

This thread is about EdTech. You are changing the subject to social media. I can't imagine why