Classroom Management in the Tech Era

From interactive virtual simulations to artificial intelligence–powered learning assistants, new edtech tools and platforms seem to emerge every day, offering innovative ways to engage students and enhance their learning experiences. 

Many districts can get too caught up in chasing what’s new. In the 2023–24 school year, school districts used an average of 2,739 edtech tools, according to a recent report by Instructure. Bringing these tools into classrooms and successfully integrating them into lessons is no easy feat, and “you can’t just add technology, stir it into education, and expect it’s all going to turn out,” says middle school teacher librarian Shannon Engelbrecht.

When teachers begin planning for students to use any of these tools, “what really should come first is classroom management,” says instructional coach Alyssa Faubion. “It doesn’t matter what the tool is—it’s how we use technology and how smoothly we’re able to do that” because of the expectations shared with students beforehand. Clear expectations, effective routines, patience, and a bit of grace for yourself and your students are the foundation of successful technology integration; without them, even the best-intentioned lesson can quickly spiral out of control, leaving you second-guessing whether using technology with students is even worth it.

Here’s how educators, from instructional coaches to classroom teachers, lay the groundwork for successful technology integration before even planning a single tech-infused lesson.  

A STRONG START TO CLASS

Set clear expectations and routines: Expectations are the bedrock of successful tech integration, explains multigrade teacher Megan Ryder. In her seventh-grade STEAM class, students follow a daily routine: “I have a poster that I hold up every single day, even though it’s November. I hold it up as I greet them and I say, ‘Good morning, welcome in. Please store your iPad. Take your folder, have a seat, start your warm-up.’” It may seem excessive to remind students daily, but the aim is for processes to become “so routine that they’re stored in students’ long-term memory,” Debra Jacoby, a computer science and educational technologist, told me. 

No matter what grade level you teach, it’s important to highlight what acceptable device use looks like in your classroom, adds Julie Daniel Davis, an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Teachers who don’t do that “consistently have more troubles long-term.” Conversations should address key areas of student responsibility:

• Device care: How to hold, handle, and maintain district-assigned devices.
• Storage: Where devices should be stored in the classroom, and how.
• Accountability: How to safeguard important information like login credentials and passwords.
• Purpose: Recognizing that devices are educational tools—not toys. 
• Consequences: The repercussions of improper care or misuse. 

Ensure that information is easy to access: Having a centralized space like Google Classroom where students can go to get anything for a tech-integrated lesson—from a link or a QR code to a tutorial on a skill they’re building—can prevent the sort of downtime when student attention starts to wander. Math coordinator Steven Goldman keeps his Google site updated with a calendar, goals for the week, and a separate page for each day that includes “the goals for that class, the agenda of what we would do, the homework assignment, and any useful links, including the slides for that day.”

Keep things simple, chunked, and flexible: Jacoby always delivers instructions three times to help ensure that they’re understood, but sometimes repetition isn’t enough. If hands are still raised, she acknowledges that she may not have been clear and encourages students to ask for clarification. “It’s also good to have the students turn and talk and to say, ‘If you don’t understand, please ask the person sitting next to you before you ask again, because we’ve been clear and we’ve repeated the directions three times,’” she says.

Additionally, instead of doing a multistep tech demonstration, Jacoby suggests “pausing intentionally and chunking directions so that students can catch up on the task.” Ryder offers her students the opportunity to follow along as she walks them through a lesson, or she tells them, “If you know how to do this, I’m going to trust that you are going to move on and continue to do the steps.”

TRANSITIONING WITH EASE

Communicate your signals and cues: Establishing a consistent set of verbal and nonverbal cues immediately signals what needs to happen and why. Each teacher might have their own system, or you can work together with your grade-level team to develop a system that works for everyone. The first thing Faubion communicates is that when she is talking, students should focus on her and their devices need to be in “shark mode,” meaning closed most of the way but still ajar so they aren’t logged out. Ryder uses the phrase “mirrors on”—borrowed from another teacher—which signals that everything she says is to be repeated back to her and any action she takes is to be mimicked until she says “mirrors off.”

Keep track of time: Time flies when students are having fun in class, whether they’re using a device or not. Timers can help structure lessons, signaling to students when one portion of the lesson is over and the next begins. “They’re not just Googling something or YouTubing something,” Faubion says. “They know they have to stay on task. I’ll say, ‘You have five minutes to do this task,’ and that’s also where I’m able to give them clear instructions.” Some tech applications, like FigJam, have a timer built in, and iPads and most other devices have a timer app.

Always have a plan B: A sudden internet outage or a number of devices glitching won’t throw you off as long as you have a backup plan, says Andrew Marcinek, a district-wide director of technology. Consider keeping an “analog version of your scheduled activity, in order to keep the pace of the class and keep the lesson on task,” he suggests. “Without a plan to seamlessly transition from a digitally infused lesson to an analog lesson, your class will surely descend into chaos.”

Thinking several steps ahead and creating a plan for what students will do if they finish the lesson early creates a seamless transition from one activity to the next, Ryder says: “I definitely have tasks that they need to accomplish, but then I have a full board dedicated to what they could do when they’re done, which includes some approved apps and websites.”

MAINTAINING STUDENT FOCUS

Prioritize creation over consumption: If you look at where teachers see the most off-task behavior during a tech-infused lesson, it’s when students are prompted to use technology purely for consumption, Davis says. Computers are great tools for conducting research, for example, but if that’s the only way students are using technology in class, you’re likely to see higher rates of off-task behavior. “The more that the students are engaged with the technology, the more you’re going to see on-task behavior,” she says. “If I’m seeing a lot of off-task behavior, what am I doing as a teacher to mitigate that? How am I using technology in ways that make students want to keep doing the task at hand instead of using it for other purposes?”

Get up, circulate, and celebrate: Actively engaging with students while they’re using technology helps set them up for success, Faubion explains. “If you’re one of those teachers that puts them on a computer and goes back to your desk, there will be kids that get off task.” As you’re walking around the room, that proximity allows you to see students’ screens, and the positive pressure of your presence makes it less likely that they’ll stray from the activity. 

While Ryder does want students to know she can see their screens via management tools like Apple Classroom, she uses this capability to give positive feedback. With her iPad in hand, she’ll circulate and identify students who are doing great work: “‘Meghan, I love what you’re doing with Keynote. Can we share that with the class?’ Being able to look at their screen but then celebrate them and ask, ‘Hey, can I put your work up on the big screen?’ I’m using it in a positive way.”

Guard the floodgates: When Davis was a technology coach, she once observed a lesson where second graders were doing research online. At that age, she thought, they didn’t need to just be “loose on the web,” she says. Instead, she’d create a closed environment where they had vetted tabs they could access: “‘These are the eight places that I want you to go.’ So creating that soft landing place and setting those boundaries so that you know that they’re going to be less likely to run into issues that you’re then going to have to be reactive about.” Teachers in later grades can loosen the reins progressively as students get older. 

Address off-task behavior: Don’t feel bad about letting someone know they’re off-task, Davis notes—even older students. The key is finding the right balance between “Am I just being dogmatic about something?” and “Are they truly disengaged and therefore I need to do something to get them back?” Walking up to their desk and turning their laptop to face away from them or flipping their tablet over long enough to get their attention is a good first step, she says. In many cases, it’s enough to deter future incidents.

Faubion occasionally likes to ask the student why they are disengaged or what about the activity caused them to lose focus. It’s important to get down to the nitty gritty, especially if this behavior becomes a pattern, she says. Jacoby occasionally will take the device of a student who is repeatedly off-task. “I always give it back to them,” she says, “but it’s OK to say, ‘I see you’re not making good choices right now, so we’re just going to put this over here.’” 

Brian Yearling, a district instructional technology coordinator, will sometimes have the student call home to explain why they have continually struggled with being off-task. “I’m going to say, ‘Hello mom and dad, I’ve got Johnny here, and here’s something that he needs to let you know,’ then I’ll follow up with mom and dad after.” In some extreme cases, “I’ve had some students where we just had to say, ’You can’t use technology for three weeks,’ because they needed a cleanse while they were at school,” Davis says. “That may happen at times if we’re trying to do what’s best for the student.”