EdTech trends shaping classrooms this fall
A decade-old debate about education technology is back in courtrooms and classrooms, with new scrutiny on whether the tools address real problems or simply repackage old methods with digital enhancements.
Google’s school strategy faces legal challenges
A lawsuit unsealed last month claims Google pushed its products into public schools using aggressive sales tactics, even when cheaper or simpler alternatives were available. Internal documents referenced in the filing describe a strategy to make Google’s tools the default for assignments, grading, and communication.
A company spokesperson described the claims as “misleading,” stating that the goal is to “support educators with free, secure tools.”
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The case centers on emails between employees discussing how to “increase dependency” on its ecosystem. One 2023 message, quoted in the complaint, suggests offering free training to teachers only if they agree to use Google Classroom for at least 80% of assignments. Another proposes bundling services so tightly that switching to a competitor would require “a near-total overhaul of district IT.”
A teacher’s month without screens
Dylan Kane, a high school math teacher in Colorado, spent January teaching without Chromebooks, AI tools, or even a projector. His experiment, shared in a detailed account, shows what happens when technology is removed from a classroom that had grown dependent on it.
Kane’s students, used to digital worksheets and instant feedback from apps, initially struggled with handwritten assignments. “The first week was chaos,” he wrote. “Kids kept asking, ‘Where’s the link?’ or ‘Can I just type this?’” By the third week, he observed fewer distractions, more collaboration among peers, and a level of focus he hadn’t seen in years.
The shift also changed how Kane taught. Without pre-made slides or auto-grading software, he spent more time moving around the room, answering questions directly. “I had to actually know my material,” he wrote. “No Googling answers mid-lesson, no hiding behind a screen.”
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Test scores remained similar, but student engagement improved. At the end of the month, Kane polled his classes: 68% preferred the tech-free approach for math, while 82% wanted to keep digital tools for research and creative projects. “Technology isn’t inherently bad,” he concluded. “We’ve just let it replace methods that worked fine before.”
Tools that replicate old methods
Larry Ferlazzo, an educator and commentator on classroom technology, has spent years compiling useful resources. His latest observation is that many new tools—AI-powered or otherwise—merely replicate functions that already existed without screens. “A lot of these apps are just flashy versions of things teachers have done for decades with paper and creativity,” he said in a recent post.
Ferlazzo highlights examples like “Quote Card,” a tool for creating shareable images of quotations. “You could do the same in 30 seconds with a word processor,” he notes. Another tool, “Data Poems,” turns datasets into verse, a concept similar to lessons where students wrote poems about data patterns.
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His criticism isn’t absolute. He acknowledges that some tools, especially those for English language learners, offer real improvements. Still, he estimates that “a fair number (though not, by any stretch, most)” of what’s marketed as innovative is just repackaged basics.
A Spanish educator recently shared a method for distributing AI-generated lesson plans without requiring teachers to download files. The tool, called Web-ZIP Viewer, converts ZIP archives into shareable links, letting users preview content directly in a browser.
Larry Ferlazzo, an
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