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Ed tech is profitable. It is also mostly useless
Independent research identifies few learning gains.
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Ed-tech companies tout huge learning gains but independent research has made clear technology rarely boosts learning in schools and often impairs it.
PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO
The Economist
McPherson Middle School in Kansas had been burned before by education technology, but in 2022, school leaders were ready to try again. They selected a digital programme called IXL from a statewide recommendation list. It promised instruction tailored to each student’s level, igniting quick gains. The school used it to assign most in-class independent maths work. “We thought it was going to be really magical,” says Ms Inge Esping, the principal.
It wasn’t. It “didn’t really move the needle”, Ms Esping says. Students found the programme repetitive, rigid and boring – and distraction proved irresistible once they were on their school-issued laptops. The school tried blocking YouTube and Spotify, then student-to-student e-mail. But children found workarounds and teachers resented their new surveillance duties.
