And the pendulum swings back…

 

From St. Paul to Minnetonka, new parent-led groups advocating for limited technology use have formed to urge changes. Their demands come after noticing worrying behaviors in their children, reports of technology distractions in the classroom and state test scores struggling to recover after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The pushback comes after years of “one-to-one” technology programs that placed a device in the hands of nearly every student in a district. The launch of one-to-one programs was an innovative step in public education when they first rolled out in Minnesota schools from 2011 to 2013. Devices like iPads and Chromebooks were issued to each student throughout every grade level and were intended to prepare students for the workforce, higher education, coding and other creative outlets provided by technology. 

Now, communities are confronting both the pitfalls of technology in classrooms and the fact so much curriculum relies on coming from a screen or software. “Screen time overload: parents say kids pay the price”. Grace, Ava, Minnesota Star Tribune, August 4, 2026

     For over forty years, I advocated for technology to be used purposefully in K-12 classrooms. My experience started in about 1980 when the West Branch, Iowa school board decided to use my library book budget to purchase a single Apple II computer with a green screen monitor, a single 5 ¼ inch floppy drive, and a dot matrix printer. The board felt every school building should have at least one computer.

     So instead of processing new books for my junior high library during teacher prep days, I taught myself how to use AppleWriter. (I am hoping my memory is serving me correctly.) I fell in love with it. While I was a good writer, I was a poor speller. Editing meant typing an entire work over again. Worksheets and tests on ditto masters had to be edited by scraping away the carbon copy. (The smell, however, did get me through more than a day or so.) 

     I realized that if this technology could benefit me, it would also benefit many, if not all, the seventh graders I was teaching the part of my day that I was not being a librarian. I also helped the principal use VisiCalc and other teachers use the computer. The kids were delighted to come to the library after school to play Eamon and Oregon Trail and Lemonade Stand.

     But at the time, the regular classroom had no tech to speak of. 16mm projectors were wheeled in as needed. The only telephones were in offices and one communicated via intercom. The staff lounge had an electric typewriter (and ashtrays). Oh, those were the days.

     By the time I retired as technology director of a school district with about 12,000 kids in 2016, the 1:1 Chromebook ratio was firmly in place, along with staff development helping teachers use the devices purposely. We had home communication networks for parents to help monitor their kids’ progress. We checked out hotspots for homes without internet. We offered ebooks and other digital educational resources for all grade levels.

     Did we go too far? 

     Virtual education due to COVID, the ubiquity of smartphones, and a drop in measured student academic performance have all impacted the public perception of technology use by kids. AI is putting the fear of God into many adults. Each day I am grateful these things all happened AFTER I retired.

     As a grandparent, I too am concerned about the percentage of time my grandsons spend online and feel somewhat guilty about enabling them when they were quite young by letting them play Captain Underpants on my home computer and by purchasing them iPads when they first came out around 2010.

     I suppose it is good that pendulums swing rather than stay stuck forever in a single position. Were I still a tech director, I would not be advocating for more tech use but for better tech use. I still believe that the people who can use technology to enhance their own skills will be more likely to succeed in the future. I still believe that technology should be used to personalize education to suit each individual user. And I still believe technology can make learning more engaging, more enjoyable, and more effective.