Using Edtech in Service of Human Connections

When Marcus Luther began teaching 13 years ago, his school didn’t have 1:1 classrooms—just a cart with a handful of laptops that teachers could check out for lessons or activities. With such scarcity, teachers were forced to think intentionally about how they used technology, Luther said. 

Today, things have changed. 

“In almost every school, there is some sort of device that students are almost expected to use in any given lesson,” said Luther, a high school English teacher in Oregon. 

This reality was apparent before the pandemic, of course. But educators told Edutopia that when students and teachers returned to school, many found it difficult to untether themselves from tools that had become essential during lockdown. “The tools sort of replaced what we were doing before,” said elementary school Spanish teacher Dorie Conlon Perugini. 

Data bears this out: A 2024 report by Instructure finds that the use of edtech tools in school districts has ballooned. In 2018, school districts used an average of 841 tools each during the school year. This year, that’s tripled to 2,739. With so many tools and devices being used in and out of classrooms, researchers say that now, more than ever, teachers, schools, and districts must “consider the scale, efficiency, and effectiveness of their tech.” 

Paul Emerich France, an author, instructional coach, and former elementary school teacher, has spent the past five years delivering this message to teachers and schools. France, who coined the term “edtech minimalism” in an article for EdSurge, said that his philosophy—one that is increasingly being adopted—isn’t anti-technology. “It’s not that we think tech’s bad, it’s that we want to be intentional with how we use it, and consider the impact it is having on kids.” 

Principles of Edtech Minimalism 

France wrote his story about edtech minimalism in 2020 based on his earlier work in a tech-focused network of micro schools that practiced, “effectively, edtech maximalism,” he said. The schools used platforms to serve students a “playlist” of custom digital activities and had cameras monitoring students, who sat staring at screens instead of each other. 

“I was drowning in data and drowning in tech,” France said. The school network shuttered, and France credits the failure for exposing flaws in the “more is better” approach to tech in schools. 

He developed a series of questions that he calls a “filter” educators can use to determine if the tools they use are actually effective. 

• Does the tech minimize complexity? Tech should make teachers’ lives less complicated, not more, France said. But with teachers using various apps and learning the ins and outs of each one, often the exact opposite happens. “Teachers often complain about the number of apps they have to use and learn,” France said, and about the massive amounts of data apps provide them—data which can often overwhelm them, rather than inform their instruction.
• Does the tech maximize the individual power—and potential—of students? Generating valuable data to improve student performance is a marketing point for many tech tools, France said. But it’s important to be mindful of whether that’s true. France recalled inputting 7,000 student performance data points into online tools in the first half of one year (he counted), but all that time didn’t improve his practice, or his students’ performance. “The process of looking closely at student work, and understanding them, and responding to them based on what I saw in their work helped me become a better teacher.”
• Does the tech allow you to do something previously unimaginable? The best use cases for tools are when they elevate student learning and connection in ways that can’t be achieved otherwise, France said. For example, Perugini uses Google Earth on school-issued iPads to transport her elementary school students to places like Puerto Rico and deepen their understanding of the language and culture of the Spanish-speaking nations they’re studying. “I like to use the iPad to bring them to places that we can’t physically visit,” she said. 
• Does the tech preserve—or enhance—human connection in the classroom? Redefining learning experiences cannot come at the expense of human connection and collaboration between students, France said. “The research is really clear on the benefits of that collaboration, so if we’re just answering questions on platforms and going through gamified activities, we’re actually removing that connection from the classroom.” He points to a tool like Seesaw, which he said can help usefully expand connection and expression by helping students share their thoughts through drawings or audio, in addition to writing. “That is something that wouldn’t have been possible” before.

Tech Must Deepen Human Connection 

Educators reevaluating their relationship to technology say they’re most concerned about France’s last question, and what they see as the biggest downside of relying on too much tech: limiting the human connection that students need and that schools are desperately trying to foster. 

“We’ve all taken a hit on collaboration, student interaction, student well-being, and mental health,” said Luther. And yet, in many classrooms, students spend a big portion of class time staring at a screen and working independently. Although Luther said this often results in quiet, seemingly engaged classrooms, there is something lost in the equation, too. 

“We must ask ourselves: Is what I’m doing making students feel more connected to their learning and more invested in our classroom community?” Luther said. “Or is it creating additional barriers or granting them permission to opt out and not be a part of that community?” 

This doesn’t mean tech should be abandoned, of course. Often, he said, there is a “both/and” option available to teachers. 

For example, Luther frequently makes collaborative slide decks, which guide students to read hard copy texts, annotate them by hand, and then work with peers to share findings and create a slide synthesizing their takeaways. The groups’ slides are combined into a deck for a whole class discussion. “That to me is an example of how technology can level up and enhance collaboration that was already happening,” Luther said.

Quick checks for understanding—often streamlined with digital tools like an online survey or poll—can be tweaked, too, Luther said: “Just because an activity happens digitally doesn’t mean that you can’t immediately have students debrief with each other and have a conversation.” 

When to Get Back to Basics

While there are ways to integrate discussion and collaboration into technology use, there are times when tools like pencil and paper are simply more effective. 

In her elementary school classrooms, and particularly with her youngest students, Perugini often forgoes iPads because there are important skills—like gripping a pencil, cutting with scissors, or even learning how to ask their neighbor to borrow a crayon—that kids can only gain the old school way.

Often, this results in a noisier classroom, she said. But loud doesn’t always equate to unfocused. “The classroom without iPads is a bit more chaotic, or at least may look more chaotic. But that’s what students need—especially at these lower levels.” 

Brett Vogelsinger, a high school English teacher in Pennsylvania, said that during his 20 years of teaching he’s been consistent about ensuring that large chunks of class time include students “working purely with their hands, writing on paper, annotating photocopied text, highlighting—all of those, I guess you could say, vintage activities.” 

Vogelsinger said he thinks intentionally about whether the tech he’s using will streamline things in a way that aids student learning, or in a way that only benefits him. “It’s easier to hand something out virtually than it is to stand by the photocopier,” he said. “But I know what the research says about the effectiveness of writing and annotating by hand versus a screen.” 

Asking students to do a significant amount of writing in notebooks also gives him a chance to form connections with them while walking around the room, Vogelsinger said. He often stops to look them in the eyes and offer a suggestion or clarifying question. “Those little moments of personal interaction are precious in today’s world.” 

Districts Are Asking Questions—and Pulling Back

Teachers aren’t the only ones reevaluating their relationship to tech—entire school districts are, too. 

Kate Lund, an assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction at Glastonbury Public Schools in Connecticut, said that during the pandemic, school systems were expected to “leverage any and all technology” to help keep kids learning. But “now we’re at a point where maybe we leaned too far into the tech space,” she admits. 

Lund’s district came to this realization after noticing some of the mental health and social-emotional issues students struggled with upon returning to the classroom—and noticing that screens didn’t seem to aid in stemming them. 

A committee of educators and district staff discussed what purposeful technology use could look like and discovered there weren’t “clearly articulated guidelines” around tech use. “If you were to ask any teacher in our district: ‘Why are you using the iPad? And when is it necessary?’ Those responses ranged depending on the instructor.” 

A survey sent out last year to elementary school teachers inquired about students’ relationships to district-issued iPads, and the results were striking: 85 percent of teachers said that not sending iPads home would have a positive impact or no impact at all on teaching and learning. 

The district no longer allows students to take iPads home unless directed by a teacher; it also published guidelines around the use of iPads specifying that the youngest learners should use them “sparingly” and upper elementary students should only use apps that help “expand and enhance” lessons while still allowing them to “engage in traditional learning.”

Lund said that this year the district will reevaluate the use of technology in middle and high school classrooms, and streamline the number of apps and platforms all teachers are expected to use. 

“We’re going to keep asking questions, we’re going to keep making adjustments, and keep measuring the effects,” Lund said. “We want to make sure that whatever changes we make are responsive to the needs of our students and ultimately support teaching and learning.”