Screen Time and AI: An Evidence Playbook for School Leaders

Everyone, and welcome, welcome, welcome. We're excited to have you this afternoon. I'm Tracy Weeks and my colleague Jody is joining us. Before we get started, there's just a few little housekeeping things for us to cover. I did want to go over some of the technical aspects of today's presentation. Closed captioning is available in the Zoom webinar ribbon.

You'll also find the group chat and the Q and A located there. We welcome your questions and encourage you to put those in the Q and A rather than the chat because it helps us find them a little bit more quickly. If you want to see any links to read more about our topic today, there is a downloadable PDF of our slides and see information about Jody and I, which I know you can't wait to do. You can visit the resources area and that can be found in your Zoom ribbon as well. These resources are not available on demand, so be sure to check those out and download and bookmark them during the event today.

And as we get started, if you wouldn't mind, just pop in the chat where you're joining from, and I'll even kind of kick it off here. I am in Holly Springs, North Carolina. Can just add where you're coming and it gives us a sense of where everybody oh I love to see it move so fast. That's so exciting. Oh I think I saw an apex in there.

That's near me. Alright. Well, we'll go ahead and get started for today. Again, thank you all for joining. Our topic today is going to be talking about screen time and AI and all of those conversations that have been going on for the last several months.

And as Jody and I have been out and and talking with district leaders and school leaders and teachers. We've really started to put together some thoughts on how, you know, you can go about having these conversations with your community. So we we call this an evidence playbook and you'll you'll understand a little bit more why here shortly. So I'll introduce myself first. I'm Tracy Weeks.

I am the senior director of education policy and strategy at Instructure. So excited to be here. And by the way, I have I've been a teacher. I've been a school tech facilitator, a district leader, a state leader. So k 12 education is in my soul, and I'd like my co fellow educator to introduce herself.

Yeah, thanks so much, Tracy. I think it is in both of our souls, which is great. My name is Jody Saylor. I'm the senior director of academic strategy and innovation at Instructure. And like Tracy, I've worn many hats over my career, most of it in K-twelve where I started as an educator.

In elementary education, I also taught special education. I was a district coach and administrator, and I also have been an adjunct professor for pre service educators for K-eight. Awesome. Thanks, Jody. All right.

So Jody and I are both a part of what's called the learning strategy team at Instructure. So we're not product, We're not sales. We're not any of those things. What we really do is focus on the trends in education and really look to see what those challenges are We're just trying to look out maybe the next two to five years. There is this sort of framework we use called the Impactful Eight.

These are the things that we really see people talking about and struggling to kind of figure out how to overcome these challenges. So these are the eight here. We've got the education and industry partnerships, science of learning, GenAI, one of the topics we'll have today, assessment, operational efficiency and effectiveness, lifelong learning, evidence based design, which is another one of ours, and recognition of learning. So today we'll really be in that third column around Gen AI and evidence based design. And Rosemarie, I just saw you said, will you share the slides? If you go to your ribbon and go under resources, you will see a PDF of the slides there.

So, alright, I'm gonna take us all on a little journey, and I want to go back before the pandemic. I have been working with education policymakers for, well over a decade and probably closer to two decades, each, at this point. And I will tell you that prior to the pandemic, the number one concern I heard from parents and policymakers was how heavy kids' backpacks were becoming and how they were all going to grow up with back problems and crooked spines. So ironically as I was looking for an image for this, I actually found this, from a chiropractic website. So they actually were advertising those heavy backpacks as a reason to come seek their services, which amused me.

As you know, we have progressed over time from computer labs, we had carts on wheels, all of those things, and more and more we've seen personal devices come in. You will see that we'll talk about how they're kind of coming back out again, but really what happened was we had this slow kind of, incline to, using technology in the classroom, using it for learning, and then the pandemic hit. And you know what happened? We had money that was available for devices and for connectivity, and we all went on to virtual learning. But what, a lot of schools found that they needed more than anything else was content. And so they went out and they were grabbing all kinds of content and apps and interactive things and tools to put into their courses until we ended up with what I call a hoarding situation when it comes to digital content and tools.

And we're still there a little bit. We've got a lot. And so then we also started to see some literature come out, around concerns, about digital devices and mental health in students and frankly in adults as well. And that has continued to create a lot of concern and we've had a lot of things kind of coming together between social media, AI, Gen AI, which has really started to raise some questions of folks. And now really looking at how that's playing out in the classroom.

So what we've seen when it comes to policies is we have seen most of The US, and for those of you who are international, this is happening in several other countries, outside The US as well, where largely there have been limits or sort of bans on personal phones, personal devices, in schools. And, you know, sometimes that looks like you can bring them to school, but you've got to put them in a special little locker or pouch or something like that. So that it's still there if there are safety concerns, but it's not a distraction from the learning. We seem to have come to agreement that it's good to not have the distraction. Now what we're seeing pop up in legislation are concerns about whether screen time during class, even on school issued devices, is something that is good for students.

So you can see we have a few states Virginia and Tennessee, Alabama, Utah, Jody's home state, has passed some some legislation that, Utah is a good place, Allen. It's just got a challenging policy here. But it really has put together some legislation. And so far this legislation is focused at our youngest learners. So typically K five, K three, Alabama really focused on preschool, at that point.

Good to know, Kailin. So really focusing on those youngest learners and starting to limit based on the number of minutes, that a child spends on screen time. But one of the things that we're finding is that may not be the right measure and we're going to talk about that. So what we're starting to see schools struggle with, and you've you're seeing this play out in New York City, LA as well, is we've got this sort of paradox where we know that we've gotta prepare students for work in the future. We know that the workforce includes AI and there are some legit concerns about that and we'll talk about that.

But we need to prepare students to be able to use it effectively. And at the same time, we're trying to keep kids safe. And, you know, some people believe that that's by limiting screen time in the classroom. We're going to dig into that a little bit more. So I'm going to hand it over to Jody.

Perfect. Thanks so much, Tracy. And there is a question in the Q and A about one of the states that has some pending legislation. If you want to take a moment while I talk for a moment and respond on that one. So absolutely, as Tracy was mentioning, you know, during the pandemic, we saw a really rapid technology expansion more than we'd ever seen before, of course.

And just like we see in education, this pendulum is going to keep swinging. I don't remember ever having a conversation in education where we don't talk about the pendulum that swings back and forth. But as we look across education right now, we're really seeing a very clear pattern where technology implementation lacks the clarity and intentionality that the systems now tend to overcorrect. So on the left hand side, we experienced, of course, that rapid technology expansion moving to some one to one devices. There were device dependent workflows, but also seeing where there was wide variation in practice.

There was also more complexity, some screen fatigue for our students and our educators alike, and then also inconsistent guidance really for families. And naturally that led us to the phase that we're kind of heading into toward right now on the right, where we're getting a lot of pushback, there's blanket screen time bands, there's fear based responses, and really one size fits all rules that risk losing the instructional value altogether. I love some of the comments that we saw coming in in the chat that it should be about quality, not quantity. And that's, that's what we're here to talk about today. So, where we actually need to be is right there in the middle, which is exactly that.

We want to have thoughtful use and grounded in the purpose pedagogy, balance, transparency, and developmental fit for our students at the age level that they're at. So, because the answer is an unchecked screen time, and it's also not blanket bans, we're asking for better judgment. On the next slide there, Tracy, it gets back to that same question. When we talk about screen time, our first instinct as humans is really to start counting the minutes. And it is the first instinct of many of our ed tech tools to start saying, you spend this many minutes, you'll see these types of outcomes, but the minutes are really actually the wrong thing to measure.

The total time alone doesn't actually tell us whether the experience was passive, whether it was active, if it was educational, or even if it was harmful for our students. So really getting beyond thinking about the minutes to really what the question should be is what is so important for us today. And so as we look at the evidence, what does the evidence actually say? So, I want to talk to you about a few things that really focus on screen time data, and more importantly, what it does and does not tell us about our students' lives. So, here on this screen, you can see that the reality is that screens are now part of childhood infrastructure. According to the CDC data, over half of our students and children, teens, excuse me, specifically, spend four or more hours per weekday on screens, and that is outside of their schoolwork.

So imagine the number of hours and our teams are sitting on screens, and this is the environment truly that our students are navigating every day. On the next screen, we have some data also that comes from the Common Sense Census, Common Sense Media Census. There we go. And it is reminding us that not only is screen time high, but screens are reaching children so much earlier than they were ever before. So according to the census, nearly one in four children have a personal cell phone by the age of eight and forty percent have a tablet by the age of two.

And as we think about that and what our children are experiencing outside of the classroom and thinking about the whole child, we need to be thinking about what is appropriate for the different developmental ages. So pre K student and a high school senior really should never have the same screen expectations or experiences. So as we continue on here, that is why the field is moving really beyond the minutes to, as was mentioned in the chat, the quality, the context, and also finding some balance. So we can see here that the American Academy of Pediatrics emphasizes that we need to look at content quality and the quality of the interactions that students are having or children are having. We need to also be looking at child development.

What is age appropriate? Do they understand how to self regulate change and use of the devices? And then also adult support and what positive experiences might be getting crowded out if we are just turning to screens for every experience. So just as we know that children need a balanced childhood with lots of different experiences with different mediums, we also know that good education provides the same. So there's really, like I mentioned, a temptation to make this simple. Screens are bad, so let's remove them. But that does not mean technology has no place in school.

And we know that not all screens and not all experiences that we have on screens are bad. It means that technology truly in our classrooms need to earn their place. So a screen can pull students away from learning, but it can also help them do deep research. It can help them create and practice skills in meaningful ways. For many of our students, this is how they access the accommodations they need to be really just able to access their education and be successful.

And it also can help them to explore ideas that they never would have been able to encounter otherwise. So ultimately, this brings us to the better question. The question is no longer just about those minutes and are students using screens, but more about are they earning their place? So Tracy, I'm going to turn it back over to you next. Let's focus a little bit on how we change this narrative from just thinking about the minutes on the device and really focusing on ed tech quality in our classrooms. So, Valerie, you're asking a very timely question.

What about primary school? Should it be used in younger years with students who are developing foundational skills? Well, I'll tell you. The answer is it depends, right? It depends on what the outcomes you're seeking and what tools you're using and what you're actually trying to get a student to be able to do. If you're trying to develop fine motor skills, yeah, you want them using pencils and crayons and things like that. If you're wanting to dig deep on reading comprehension, maybe there are some other things you could use. So it really depends on the the task and the outcome and what you're seeking.

And so really what we are hoping to kind of, move forward and we really see this happening, increasingly with our schools is, you know, we're trying to really shift this narrative away from screen time to actually focus on the quality of the ed tech that's being used. And so, you know, the question is, what's what's even the current state? What are we even looking at? So there are two reports Instructure has published this year. Back in April, we published an evidence report where we looked at the top whether or not they were actually approved by the district. Are they being used? And so we do that by putting, a little plugin in the browser, all with the school's permission. This was not done secretly or anything like that.

And we looked just at the end of the calendar year, so September 25 through December 25, and looked at the top 150 tools. Additionally, and we'll talk about more what those results look like. We also published a report, in June called the EdTech top 40, and this is an annual report we put out where we really focus on those top 40 tools, specifically the ones that are approved to use within the learning management system. And that, research window went from September '25 to April '26. So it was a full year study looking at those tools.

Alright. So when we look at at different things and and and and try to look at how many tools are being used. When we look at that little plug in and look at the number, the average number of tools, you know, being used, across a district, it's a staggering number. That's a huge. Now that's average per district.

When you drill down to, you know, grade level, it's a much smaller number. But one of the things that we found through our EdTech top look for how many tools are being used on average by an institution, by a school, when they're, you know, limited to going through the LMS, that number goes down to 12. And Kyle, that is teacher and student. So it's all users. Alright.

Regardless. So now we based this research, we grounded it in what's called EdTech quality indicators. And you'll see these same quality indicators used by many research institutions. And so these five quality indicators are research, data compliance, interoperability, accessibility, and usability. So we're really trying to dig out, those five, EdTech quality indicators.

So in our evidence report this year where we reviewed that were able to kind of disaggregate a bit between purpose built EdTech tools and what we would call consumer technology. So meaning it's created for the general population, not necessarily created to use in a classroom environment. Doesn't mean it's not used in a classroom environment, but it was not necessarily created specifically for that purpose. And we evaluated it against those five EdTech, quality indicators. And here's what we found.

We found that when we compared purpose built EdTech against consumer technology, First of all, the the amount or percentage of those tools that were actually able to show that they were evidence based and and what we were talking about is some kind of alignment with the ESSA tiers of evidence that ed tech tools were able to show evidence versus only 2% of, consumer technology. Now that's a big gap and that's where we want to focus. That doesn't mean that the purpose built edtech tools don't have a long way to go. We really want to see everyone, you know, being able to show evidence of positive student outcomes. But there is a staggering difference between using a purpose built edtech tool and consumer based technology.

And you see this repeated in all five categories when it comes to data compliance or interoperability. Accessibility is a little bit of a better gap and take up on that as well as usability. So the big takeaway here is there's still room to grow, but there is a real big difference when you focus on using a tool that is purpose built for EdTech versus consumer technology. And when we looked at that ed tech top 40, we found that of those top 40 tools, So, you know, what we're saying here is the vast majority of the tools that were popping up in that top 40 did fall into that category of purpose built for education versus consumer based technology. evidence tied to ESSA and certification.

Tracy, before we go on to this one, can I ask a few questions that have come up in the Absolutely? Q and Perfect. So the first one, how exactly are you defining purpose built ed tech? Yeah. So these are tools that were developed specifically to be used within a classroom environment. They were built specifically for teachers and for students to be able to use as opposed to say an app you might find on your iPhone that might look like a cool, like, reading or spelling app. And, you know, it might do some cool things, but it wasn't necessarily built for the classroom.

And it doesn't come with those same assurances of a, keeping your data private or, you know, showing any evidence that it actually does what it says it wants to do. That's where we're drawing those lines of of, you know, is it a tool that's actually designed to be used in the classroom versus something that, you know, any consumer might come across and be able to use. Perfect. One that kind of leads next is what about whether the EdTech produces improved outcomes in comparison to non digital best practice alternatives? Is that also a quality indicator? So that has not been a quality indicator. This is specifically looking at, well, let me let me back up a bit.

Within the ESSA tiers of evidence, we have to back up and look. And so there are four tiers of evidence. And in fact, I think we'll pop into that in in a moment. But, and and these are designed outside of of Instructure, outside of of the EdTech companies actually. ESSA levels one through four.

What they really do is show the commitment to research, from from the company. Right? For for that and it's tool specifically. So it's it's not even just for the company. It's for a specific tool. So, you know, here at Instructure, we have Canvas.

We have Mastery. We have Learn. We would need to get those, each of those tools reviewed. And we would actually have to go to someone outside of Instructure. It has to be done by a third party, can't be done by yourself.

So level four really shows that first baby step on, commitment to a research framework. So you provide a logic model and show how you would go about studying that your tool could provide evidence for positive student outcomes. And again, it's not comparing it to non tech outcomes. It's just did the student improve their learning when using this particular tool? Level three is where you do some correlational studies. Level two is where you get into those quasi experimental and level one, you know, of that holy grail is that full blown experimental study.

And and those take years to get to. So you'll see tools over the years kind of, potentially move through the tiers of evidence around that. So there's that. I did want to share that as we kind of intermesh in this AI because that is sort of one of the other things that is concerning folks out there, is that there really are groups that are looking out as to, you know, regardless of what the industry is doing, there are ways that, that companies and schools and districts, can go about trying to keep kids safe when it comes to leveraging AI. So this EdSafe AI Safe framework where we talk about safety, accountability, fairness, and efficacy, that's really a call to action, for EdTech companies or really any technology company that is, developing AI is that we want to make sure that it's hitting all of these.

And really, if you're going to be using an, a tool with AI in it, you want to ask yourself these questions about it or better yet, make make the, partner tell you how they meet all of these pieces and then hold them accountable. And then on top of that, the US Department of Labor actually published an AI literacy framework on, you know, what does AI literacy even mean? What does it look like? What are the content areas? What are the effective delivery principles when it comes to AI literacy? So again, these are our pieces that have have been, vetted, both within the education environment, within the ed tech environment, and there really are efforts going about to try to put protections. I'll even tell you that this EdSafe AI framework, the leader of EdSafe AI, Erin Mote, actually just spoke yesterday at the UN to talk about the need for AI safety for students. So this is something they're very, very committed to wanting to keep kids safe. And then just in the past few weeks, Department of Education actually published a Dear Colleague letter, that went out to, all of the the state leaders and and then to district leaders.

And it really talked about, you know, shifting away from looking at minutes and really looking at grounding any classroom technology use in evidence, the instructional value it actually provides, and measurable learning gains. So, you know, it's, we don't want to use technology just to entertain. We don't want to use it for the sake of using it. We want to use it when it's purposeful and that we can see that it is going to produce positive student learning outcomes. So it really does focus on, you know, how to remove distractions, how to make sure that there's an impact, how there is equity being targeted, there's proof.

And you know what? If there's, if you have, you know, amongst your hoard of information in your classroom, if there are things that aren't moving the needle, let's get rid of them. It's time to weed. It's time to declutter. You want to make sure that there's transparency of usage in the district. Are we keeping things around that aren't really being used anymore? And then ultimately there's a five question test that they propose that you ask is, and Valerie, this makes me think about the question you were asking earlier is what's the learning problem we're actually trying to solve with this? When should this technology actually be used? Which students should be using it? And so that gets to, the grade level and perhaps even within the classroom, you know, is it being used for certain purposes? How long should they actually use it? And what proof is there actually shows improved learning? So really shifting that from novelty to outcomes.

And that's going to take some training and auditing and weeding out of those tools that just aren't doing the job. And so some of those big takeaways there is keep in mind, EdTech tools, purpose built EdTech is providing more likely to provide evidence than consumer tech. You want to ground yourself in those five quality indicators when you're looking at using tech. That when teachers are going about building a course within an LMS and and sending students to specific tools or sites that that's being done intentionally as opposed to letting them loose fondly on the internet and that quality edtech does follow research based principles. So I'm going to hand it back over to Jody.

Thanks, Tracy. I had to move all the Q and A and everything out of my way so I could get back to that mute button. You you noticed that this was about a playbook for school and district leaders. Right? So we wanted to share some more context also around how you can design for learning, not just for screens. And we will also be doing a section in just a bit about, you know, how we can have more meaningful conversations with parents and other stakeholders.

So, let's first shift to this instructional design half of our present or portion of our presentation, I should say, really focusing on how we design learning rather than just focusing on the screens themselves. The core idea here is to think about the task itself. What do we want students to be able to do? And there are a lot of comments that I'm noticing in the chat that are talking about how do students learn best? What do we think about? And that's really the core of this piece is to think about not just the tool, but thinking about what determines how students actually learn. So on the next screen, we do have some research based recommendations that come from the APA report on children and adolescents learning with educational technology. And it provides 10 research based recommendations that you can think through such, ranging from things like identifying clear learning goals, so you can determine what is the right tool to use, to evaluating what technology is replacing.

Again, thinking about is it the right thing to be replacing and protecting student data? So I noticed there were several questions that were coming into thinking about how do we make sure that we keep our student data safe? And so some of those recommendations are here within the top 10, given the time, I'm not going to dig into each of those individually, but we want to really think through on the next slide, Tracy, the tool doesn't determine the learning. We have incredible educators that are sitting in our classrooms across this nation and across the globe truly. Tracy mentioned that we get to have conversations with educators and instructional leaders across the globe, which is one of our favorite parts of our job is that we get to have those conversations and really understand how folks are really processing, how education is changing so rapidly, how AI is shifting our way of thinking and determining, like Tracy was just mentioning, is it the right time to be using it for the right purposes? And that's exactly what we're talking about here with the tool. The tool actually doesn't determine the learning. The educator knows their students, knows what they need to learn, and is really thinking about what type of experience they need to provide to their students.

And so really the difference is the design of the task. And I want to be very clear here when I'm saying task, there's much more that comes into it, of course. So, you know, if I think back to many years ago when I was an educator and I got my technology endorsement, we thought about things from the SAMR model. Some of you may know what that is. So we're thinking about really low level technology use is I'm just substituting something to just use the device.

So think of this as the digital worksheet. I could have students sitting in a classroom doing a worksheet, or I could have them do the exact same thing on a computer. Those are very low level replacements truly that are kind of that shallow completion. We also have times, of course, that it becomes a distraction and we really need to think about, do I want to use this tool as I'm designing this learning experience, which is really what I'm talking about by task. As I'm designing that learning experience, do I really want to use a tool that might take their distraction, take their attention away and distract them? Likely not.

But what is the tool that's going to get them to that deep thinking, help them to analyze and create and revise, do all those things that are so important to get to those deeper, higher level thinking skills and ensuring that students really understand. And that takes us to the next slide here, Tracy, where we want to start with good pedagogy. We want to think about how do we design? Is it digital, non digital? What is it that we start with? The first and foremost, we need to start with the clear learning goal. What are we trying to get students to achieve? What do we want them to learn? What skill or activity do we want them to complete to show that they have actually learned and been able to meet the goal of whether it's the activity, the unit, the lesson. And so really thinking about what should they know, understand, and be able to do that's first and foremost.

Then we can do that backward design to think about how are they then prioritizing the way that they analyze their problem solving. We can start creating these in ways that make the learning visible for us as well. As an educator, I know I always want to see exactly how my students are learning as much as possible. Right? So thinking about the right tool at the right time for the right purpose helps me to understand what am I able to observe? What can I see? And can I see that students are learning? Is that an active learning opportunity? Is it something where I do need them to show their independent learning? So really thinking about really the full scope of what we want students to do too. And then, of course, we want to make sure that we're providing that feedback and opportunities for revision when appropriate.

So, we can respond to the learning. We can provide the interventions at the level that we need. And then also for students to be able to respond and provide feedback and refine as well. And then really, we're looking for authentic engagement. I don't think any of us are looking at activities or things that we wanna take into our classrooms, where we want to see students just sitting independently and silently and hoping that they're learning.

We know the connection matters. We know that authentic engagement matters to really understand what they know and don't know, and also for them to be able to take ownership of their learning. So really, we've got to think of, like I mentioned, the pedagogy first, the art of teaching. What is the clear goal that we want to achieve? Then how do we design backwards to make sure that we're achieving those goals with and for our students? And how do we make sure that the meeting medium that we choose serves the learning, not the other way around? And so with that in mind, we have a few other slides here that talk a little bit about some different checklist types of things that we can do. So quality education technology follows effective research backed instructional strategy.

So you just heard Tracy talk a little bit about how do we know that it's a quality purpose built tool in educational technology? And then this is also thinking through how do we make sure that then we're using effective strategies? Just having the tool is not going to magically make the test scores rise. It is not going to magically make our students learn more. There is so much more to it than just putting them in a program or on a device, right? So, we've got to think of those research backed instructional strategies, such as the Rosenshire principles of instruction. And you can see here that some of these include reviewing previous learning, presenting the materials in small steps, guiding the practice and feedback. I think of things like do, we do, you do type of models, all of the different things that we know as best practices of teaching and learning don't go away when we think about ed tech.

It's really thinking about those quality ed tech purpose built that we're bringing into the classroom. And then again, ensuring that we're thinking about what is the right tool at the right time for that right purpose. So on the next, we think about those digital activities and not being the same as learning. I just mentioned just having the tool does not magically make learning happen. So just providing a digital activity, some of these are very low level skills.

We have students who are clicking through tasks. They're, you know, using tools just to give a score. I saw someone asking about tools that are really gamifying the classroom, really, just to see how do kids accumulate points without purpose behind that. It's really just students that are competing. Right? So really thinking about how do we then switch that to be purposeful? Students watching a video, but not having anything engaging to do with it.

So really thinking about those digital activities and then thinking though, how do I design learning around those if I do want to use them? And I do see a good purpose for using them in my classroom. So doing things like, okay, maybe they're clicking through a task, but pausing to work with their classmates, to have that collaboration, to do the explanation and apply what they're learning, revise what they're learning. You know, having the teacher use that evidence to respond, discussing, having questioning, you know, so all of those things there, you can see on the right hand side, I almost said left, right hand side that really help ensure that we're doing good learning design with whatever medium we're selecting. So in addition, I want to remind the usage data can tell us what students did, that they did something, but without really being able to understand how the students are using and what purpose they were using these tools, it doesn't help us to understand if they knew something. And I would say this is the same for paper and pencil.

If I send my kids home with a worksheet to do for homework, I don't know for sure if they did that on their own, if they had help, unless I'm having the parents help me to understand the level of participation that they had in helping their student to complete it. So we've got to really start thinking also about how do we ensure that we understand that the students really knew what they showed, whatever medium it is that they're using. On the next screen, it goes back into this this medium. Yep. Where Valerie Archer thinks.

So because choosing any technology and before we do it, we must really first choose the learning experience that we want our students to have. So going back to what is the outcome that we're trying to achieve, then take that to the next level. What do we want students to understand? What kind of thinking does the task require? And what medium is going to best support that thinking? And also, what might this choice replace? So really being thoughtful about when we choose that particular tool or that particular medium, what is it going to possibly replace? And is it a meaningful replacement that gets them to that higher level of learning? So we begin with the learning and then think through that experience and what is best for the student. And then the last one here, it goes back to, we've got to make sure that screens are really earning their place. So how do we do that? We've got to be looking at, does it improve learning enough to justify what it is replacing? So I'm not gonna go through every one of these because it does kind of tie back to several of the things that I've just been talking about, but really we're thinking about, does it add value and what does value actually mean? What type of attention is it going to take? Does it deepen the attention and the learning of our student, or does it distract? That human impact is so incredibly important.

Tracy and I would never advocate that the human is not always in the loop. So no matter what medium you are using, the human is always such a critical piece. And so does it strengthen or weaken the interactions, the opportunities to collaborate and communicate and all the things that we want students to be doing as they're learning? And then, of course, again, that displacement. So these five tests really will help educators pause before they default to the screen or just reject it outright. We're really advocating for finding the proper medium that is going to get to the learning outcomes that are needed.

And honestly, the truth is, is that there's it's probably somewhere in a blend of both. Right? Right. So let's talk about responding to parent concerns, and then I definitely want to leave some time to get to some of the great questions in the Q and A. So I think it's important to understand too that, you know, parents aren't imagining the tension, right? They are seeing their children distracted and shorter attention spans and sleep being disrupted, all of those things. And really what's at the heart of what they're asking is, are we being thoughtful when we're using technology in the classroom? So, you know, Jody and I would never advocate, that you just use technology for the sake of technology.

We are also not advocating for not ever using technology because there are some great places where it can improve learning. But understand that what's underlying a lot of these parent concerns is really a question about trust, right? Like my child is on screens too much. Really kind of what they're asking is, is this tool, you know, when you're using technology, is it actually necessary? What's the instructional reason behind it? Not just the policy. Why does everything have to be online? Is this age appropriate? Is it replacing something better? So, how do I know that this is safe? Is this helping them to learn? Really, if you can try to hear the trust question to understand it, it will help you understand how you can really have a quality conversation with folks in your community that are raising some concerns. And they're definitely we've got some of those members here in the chat and I think that's great.

I think that we should be asking questions. But you know, you want to start with acknowledgement of the concern, going straight into a defensive mode. You know, you do want to, you know, acknowledge their concern. You know, you're right to ask that, you know, not all screen use is equally valuable. Sometimes the activities are better.

And the interesting thing is that when I talk to schools, we'll get to that when I answer one of the questions here in a moment. But don't just go into a defensive mode on this is just how the schools work. They need to get used to technology. It's a district requirement. Screen time's different at school.

You know, we have to get get over defending because parents will feel dismissed. You need to acknowledge so that you can actually have a conversation. And this really just echoes the things that Jody has been saying. Sometimes you need to validate those concerns and think about, you know, are we doing things on technology when a discussion, a face to face discussion is better? Or if it's not like, you know, sometimes it is better, you know, depending on who you're trying to have a discussion with, you know, a passive video or digital worksheet I'll say is no better than a paper and pencil worksheet. We strove to get on.

So just doing it digitally doesn't magically make it better. Also doing it paper and pencil doesn't magically make it better. Does it actually create a distraction, or multitasking? Does this require a teacher to give more feedback or less feedback? We don't want young children on long independent screen tasks. I mean, there be short purposeful, you know, pieces, going through here. So, you know, I think these are things that, that we really have to open ourselves up to the conversation and, and note that it is a time to pay attention and ask ourselves, why are we using what we're using? And I think the same should be asked for some of the non technology things just because we don't do it digitally doesn't make it better.

There are great teaching, approaches digitally and non digitally, and there are terrible ones digitally and face to face. So, you know, good teaching is good teaching. That's really where we need to be going. But there are some that we need some clarification when someone says all screen time is bad. I think that's okay to, to, to push back.

You know, when, when you're actually using technology to create or collaborate or analyze, that's not the same as passive scrolling. If there's a concern that technology is going to replace teachers, if it's good quality ed tech, actually makes the teacher feedback and student thinking more visible, not replacing them. More devices just means better learning. No devices are just tools. It's what you do with them that matters and screens are always less human.

Well, actually if it's designed well, technology can increase participation connection for the right activities. Things that you need to really be thinking about and asking yourself as a school leader or a district leader is what's the outcome that we're trying to improve? Where's the evidence rationale that supports this? Is there a cost in attention or time? And is it worth it in this case? What student data is collected and what safeguards are in place? How will this fit into our existing ecosystem and workflows? And does this have a documented VPAT? All right, Jody, you want to tell them what a VPAT is? Because we may folks here that don't know what a VPAT is. Yeah. VPAT stands for voluntary product accessibility template. And so this is a document that allows you to know, do these partners or these tools meet the expectations that have been set by the DOJ, but also the WCAG standards or web content accessibility standards.

And so there's a a big process that companies go through to have their products validated and vetted by a third party to actually prove that, yes, they meet those accessibility expectations, and then they can create a VPAT that is readily accessible to anyone who needs to have access to it. Great. So I do want to give some time for questions here, and we've got some great ones in the Q and A. So Jody, stay on. We'll tackle these together.

So how can EdTech upskill parents? These devices create a lack of many, a lack of many families to help their student and work, with it to create equity issues and makes the digital divide larger. So that's a great point is that when we start talking about, getting rid of classroom devices and such sometimes that means that may be the only device a family has access to and it's something that needs to be taken very thoughtfully and seriously because it is a form of equity for many of our schools. Let's see, there's one here about what about primary schools? What's the policy of the school? That would depend on the school itself and the district itself. That that would be up to them. Oh, does Instructure or InnovateEDU receive any funding from EdTech companies? Well, we are one, so that would be a big yes.

I also don't think that that means that we don't have a valuable viewpoint to it. Know, I think it's important to gather your information from lots of different sources. And I think by eliminating those that are actually in the field and are deeply vested in finding good resource research that people that can help guide our choices, It doesn't have to be dismissed just because it's being done by the ones that are in the field. What about student data privacy? Can parents or students opt out of data sharing? That's very concerning. So that's where really pushing our schools, to make sure that they are using technology that's purpose built for ed tech as opposed to consumer because, far more likely and in fact required to meet those data privacy concerns to even make that sell in, in a, in a district or a school.

There are so many things that, that vendors have to go through to show those data privacy. This really gets to, am I using something free and fun that I found on the internet versus something that our district actually has an agreement, a contract with, because that's where those data privacy safeguards are going to come in. If evidence doesn't require comparison to non tech outcomes, then what's the value proposition for the use of the EdTech product? Well, you know, I think that part of this is that we've not necessarily been in an era of, you know, does it do better with or without tech? The question has been, is this, an option for teachers to use that will produce positive student outcomes? And the other challenge that we have there too is being able to replicate that from school to school and classroom to classroom. And that is actually one of the biggest challenges of any kind of educational resource, digital or not, is that being able to show that a classroom in a suburban area versus an urban area, versus, you know, a high school, elementary school, there are a lot of variables in there. And so I think being able to show that whatever instructional method you're using and there are many and digital tools are one of those many.

You want to make sure that the ones you're choosing to use, whether they're digital or not, are positively moving the student forward. That's the most essential question there. Many edtech products use reward systems that trigger dopamine. How do you evaluate products on whether they are net positive for development both, for learning outcomes and the child? So I'll say to date, it's really been focused on learning outcomes. I don't think that this is an unfair question.

I do think that you will see more and more EdTech companies, you know, really thinking about their use of those kinds of reward systems. I know that I hear that conversation going on all the time. Typically purpose built ed tech is not there. I think one of the things to think about too is purpose built ed tech does not base its, its, business model on usage, on the time on the screen. It's it's based on simply how many people do you need in your district, you know, to have access to it.

That's it for most ed tech products. It's not tied into keeping kids online. We know that that's a concern with social media and some other tools. Some of those consumer based technology tools are built that way. And I think that is something that that, you know, is important.

If AI safety is not available yet, then those students may should students maybe not be using AI until it's safe. I wouldn't say that AI safety isn't available. I think that what we found, and in fact, was in our evidence report, one of the things we found was that schools were far more likely to use AI that was built already into a tool that they trust as opposed to going out to one of these random large language models. Right? So, they're, you know, not necessarily, you know, maybe it's being used with Gemini and they're already a Google school. And there are some other protections that are now in place that Google's now put in place with it in the schools.

But I think that what you do with AI is is important and building in those literacy skills is one important way to keep them safe. You know, my kids were little and they were learning how to cross the street safely, you know, I I didn't lock them in doors and tell them they could never the street. I took them out. I accompanied them. I taught them the rules until I felt that they could demonstrate that they understood what the rules were.

They showed me they could cross the street safely and then they could do it on their own. You know, and then there are bigger intersections and there's the neighborhood streets versus public streets and there are stoplights and stuff, a whole ecosystem built in there. So I don't think we have to just not do it. But I think that there are things that we as adults can do to still teach that AI literacy, leverage it in very small ways, you know, as students are age appropriate, until they get to the point, where it actually makes sense for them to do research and analysis and such on it. You wouldn't expect that in a kindergarten classroom, but there might be some ways that we can start to teach them about AI literacy and, you know, especially understanding, you know, whether or not images that they might see, are they created by AI or not? Those are important things.

How much do schools spend on these tools? That is not a part of our analysis, Carly. I think there are other groups that do that research. That's just not us. If the whole curriculum is digitized, then do teachers even have a choice in choosing non digital options? Learning is all through an LMS. Right? So isn't that what the screen time debate about? There are no non digital alternatives.

So actually, I would say typically LMSs in K 12 are very much a blended environment and that teachers I mean, the students very much aren't sitting there on the computer all day or even all class period. They might go in there to access some of their resources, maybe the some of the reading that they do might be online versus physical textbooks. One of the big challenges that we have, and I know that there's another question, about, you know, that that non digital that digital comes with a cost and non digital best practice is free. Well, it's not entirely free because then you have to have textbooks and worksheets and, and, and all kinds of ancillary materials, that, you know, come built into some of the ed tech tools. So I'm not defending one or the other, but you still got to get the content some way.

And, and, and one of the challenges that we found, you know, when we were using textbooks is a they're expensive, B they're heavy, C they go out of date very quickly. D schools can't replace them in a timely fashion. Digital content you can. Is it better to read on print than, than on a screen? Probably yes, but there's give and take on both of those. So I think those are things that we have to have to consider.

I don't think there's a perfect answer with either of those. Is it legal for teachers to use these tools when it comes to student data, especially kids with, reps? These tools seem- That was supposed to be IEPs. Oh, IEPs, thank you, with schools. These tools seem illegal. Actually, IEPs often are the things that will guarantee that a student can use technology, IEPs and 504s.

And in fact, in places where we're seeing screen time being banned, kids with IEPs and 504s are still allowed to use them. That's actually a way to stigmatize them because they're the only ones using technology at that point. But again, it goes back to are the tools you're using free tools that you're finding and there's no guarantee versus does your district have a contract and can actually be, be sure that data privacy is, is, in effect there. Can you add some examples of technology tools that are more of a distraction that you have in your research, you'd have to actually go. If you just go to our instructor site and look for EdTech top 40 or evidence report, you can see what I I don't have those off of the top of my head.

So And Tracy, we shared them in the chat, and they're also being added to the resources. Okay. So Great. And we're actually at time. We've hit 2PM y'all.

I want to thank you for being here and I appreciate the challenging questions. Keep asking them. Those are great. You can always, know Ed Week will send out more information and follow-up on this. We look forward to seeing you another time.

And there's absolutely. I've got a little bit more to share here, Tracy. I've got Freddie. So I just want to echo what Tracy said. Please keep the questions coming.

The discourse that we have is what helps us to get to the right balance that we're all trying to achieve. So, just as a reminder, a certificate of completion is available to anyone that viewed the event for at least fifty three minutes or longer, and that certificate is available for download here in the webinar or from the lobby when you go to watch on demand. And finally, an on demand archive of today's presentation will be available online within the next twenty four hours, accessible through edweek. org webinars or using the same login that you used today. So a link will also be mailed to you. Again, thank you so much for your time, attention, and for the opportunity to meet with you. Thanks everyone.