Key points:
Today’s kids are built differently. It’s the number one recurring theme in conversations with educators at every level, from the classroom to the district office. It’s not just anecdotal, either. Everywhere you look, the data backs it up:
- “Eighty-one percent of superintendents agree that student behavioral concerns are worse now than before the pandemic, with 35 percent saying the situation has gotten ‘significantly worse.’” (EAB, 2023)
- “Eighty percent of educators are worried about student engagement.” (Gradient Learning, 2023)
- “On average, students give their school a C+ rating in making them feel excited about learning…Perhaps relatedly, students give their school a C+ in teaching them in ways that adapt to their unique learning needs.” (Gallup, 2023)
Something is broken here. Superintendents see it. Teachers see it. Students see it. So, what’s going on?
The gamification of incivility
The concept of gamification has existed on the fringes of educational innovations for many years. Countless apps and curriculum publishers have tried to “make learning fun” with mixed results. But it unfortunately wasn’t the edtech industry that won the race for children’s attention–it was social media.
Sadly, we’re all familiar with what happened next. The screentime generation fell squarely into the dopamine traps that are TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and so many more. Rather than opening up our children’s eyes to new experiences and ways to better themselves, social media has amplified and incentivized the very worst of human nature. Call me a curmudgeon if you must, but the data speaks for itself. Social media has repeatedly been linked to depression, addiction, anxiety, sleep issues, and many other physical and psychological problems.
When schools opened back up after the pandemic, they welcomed back a legion of students with entirely new vocabularies and worldviews shaped by 30-second video clips. The result was a cohort that lacked the tools to understand the difference between how people act online and how people act in the real world.
The tides are beginning to turn
At the time this article was written, Congress has taken up multiple bills aimed at strengthening COPPA and protecting minors from harmful material on social media platforms. If done correctly, this legislation would target the root cause of many of these issues by adding a layer of modernized accountability for social media and tech companies.
Schools are also fighting back to the best of their ability by instituting a variety of cell phone bans to reverse downward trends in student inattentiveness and disengagement. State legislatures have become involved, with at least a dozen signing those bans into law as of 2024. Teachers throughout the country have already begun celebrating the enforcement of these policies, citing levels of engagement they haven’t seen in years (if ever, for those newer to the profession).
But can we ride that momentum and salvage what we’ve already lost? Many believe it’s still possible.
The end of one-size-fits-all learning?
Let’s be up front about the fact that student engagement requires more than edtech tools. Teachers are ultimately the key to resurrecting student engagement levels. But as long as digital learning is a part of the instructional landscape, the onus will fall on publishers to find the sweet spot between filling legitimate classroom needs and appealing to students in ways that the old guard just doesn’t do anymore.
The fortuitous rise of artificial intelligence and large language models couldn’t have come at a better time. As schools look to decrease screen time in the wake of too many years of hybrid and remote learning models, that time needs to be even more productive. No, AI is not a cure-all technology, but it does open up intriguing possibilities in the thus-far disappointing timeline of so-called “personalized learning.”
You can’t take a Generation Alpha student, sit them down in front of the same digital learning resource kids were using 10 years ago, and expect similar results. You know the formula–students watch an instructional video or read an overview of a concept, complete a cookie-cutter practice set that may or may not include a game or two, and demonstrate their “mastery” by completing a few multiple choice questions. The only “personalization” involved is too often limited to the order in which the lessons are presented.
Modern students don’t want to read generic texts about things that happened 10 or 20 years ago. They don’t want to learn math with clipart of apples and oranges. They demand the same level of choice and agency they’ve grown accustomed to as digital natives. They want to work with topics that mean something to them, like Roblox, Caitlin Clark, or the Paris Olympics. They want real-time feedback and guidance in the moment, even when teachers aren’t immediately available to help.
This idea of “personalized learning 2.0” isn’t about chasing the shiny new thing–it’s about evolving with the times. We need to stop looking at AI as “the future of education” and start thinking about how we can seize the moment to help create more magical moments in the classroom. Perhaps the right edtech can help open the door just wide enough for teachers to walk through.
The harms done by modern technology can never be undone, but they can be mitigated. At what point do we take a step back and realize that we can’t keep beating our heads against the wall with the same old instructional practices and tools? How many consecutive years of test score stagnation will it take before school systems start realizing they aren’t getting the return on investment they were promised from their six-to-seven-figure contracts?
Kids these days are built differently. Let’s demand the same of the programs we put in front of them.
