Are We Protecting Our Children from Technology, or Failing to Prepare Them for It?

As calls to remove technology from classrooms grow louder, perhaps we need to ask a different question.

By Andy Kwiecien

Imagine someone telling you to stop shopping at your local grocery store because one of its aisles sells unhealthy food. Would you stop shopping there altogether? Or would you learn to make better choices about what goes into your cart?

I find myself thinking about this comparison as the debate over technology in our classrooms continues to grow. Parents are understandably concerned about screen time, social media, online bullying, and digital distractions. Some are calling for schools to power down and return to pen, paper, and textbooks.

But I wonder whether we are confusing the dangers of technology with its potential to enrich learning. Are we doing our children a disservice by removing technology rather than teaching them how to use it responsibly and effectively?

It's Not About the Technology. It's About the Learning.

Before becoming a school principal, I served as a Technology Coordinator in my school district, supporting educators with pedagogical strategies to meaningfully integrate technology into teaching and learning.

During that time, I worked with some truly remarkable teachers. What made them exceptional was not simply their willingness to invest time in understanding the technology tools available to them. It was their deep understanding of when those tools could transform learning and, equally importantly, when to put them away. They understood that technology was never the lesson. It was a tool to support the learning.

Consider a mathematics classroom. Students certainly need to understand how to construct graphs manually. But once they have mastered the fundamentals, should they continue spending valuable learning time plotting dozens of points on graph paper? Or could digital graphing tools allow them to investigate relationships, manipulate variables, identify outliers, and analyze trends more deeply?

What about the student researching a scientific concept? Should we limit their research to the materials available on library shelves, or teach them how to navigate the extraordinary amount of information now at their fingertips, evaluate credibility, recognize misinformation, and think critically about what they discover?

And what about the developing writer? Digital tools allow students to revise, reorganize, collaborate, and refine their thinking without repeatedly rewriting entire pages.

None of these examples suggest abandoning foundational skills. The goal is not to replace traditional learning. It is to recognize when technology can take learning further.

What Does the Research Tell Us?

We cannot ignore the concerns surrounding technology. According to the OECD's PISA 2022 findings, approximately 30% of students reported being distracted by digital devices during most or every mathematics lesson. That is concerning.

But the same research found that students who used digital devices for learning at school for up to one hour per day scored, on average, 14 points higher in mathematics than students who reported no such use, after accounting for socioeconomic background. This finding shows an association, not proof that technology caused higher achievement. Nevertheless, it raises an important question. Perhaps the issue is not whether students should use technology, but how intentionally we use it.

Research also supports the value of traditional methods. A 2024 meta-analysis of 24 studies found that college students who took and reviewed handwritten notes generally demonstrated stronger academic achievement than those who typed their notes. The message should not be surprising. There is a place for technology and a place for pen and paper. Effective teachers understand the difference.

Are We Addressing the Real Problem?

During my years as a principal, parents would sometimes approach me with concerns about their children becoming involved in bullying or inappropriate behaviour on social media. One of my first questions was often whether they knew the minimum-age requirements of the platforms their children were using. Many major social media platforms generally require users to be at least 13 years old, yet younger children continue to access them.

This raises a broader question about responsibility. If children are navigating digital environments they may not be developmentally prepared for, should the solution be to remove educational technology from classrooms? Or should we be looking more closely at the responsibilities of parents, schools, technology companies, and policymakers?

What if we collectively invested more effort in digital citizenship, stronger safeguards, parental education, and holding technology companies accountable? Would technology in schools still be seen as the culprit behind so many of today's educational concerns?

Schools should absolutely establish boundaries around technology use. But removing opportunities for students to learn responsible digital habits does little to prepare them for the environments they will inevitably encounter outside the classroom.

What Future Are We Preparing Our Children For?

We often speak about preparing students for the future. But are we preparing them for the world as it is, or the world as we wish it still were?

Technology and artificial intelligence are becoming increasingly embedded in how we work, communicate, research, and solve problems. Our children will need far more than the ability to operate digital devices. They will need critical thinking, creativity, sound judgment, and the ability to recognize when technology is useful and when it becomes a distraction.

They will also need opportunities to read physical books, write by hand, solve problems independently, engage in face-to-face conversations, and simply disconnect.

As educators, we should not be advocating for more screen time. We should be advocating for better learning experiences. And sometimes that means opening a laptop. Other times, it means closing it. The most effective teachers have always understood this distinction.

Perhaps instead of debating whether technology belongs in classrooms, we should focus our collective energy on helping teachers use it effectively, helping parents navigate its challenges, and helping children develop the judgment to use it wisely.

Because in the end, the question is not whether we should power down our classrooms. It is whether we are willing to teach our children when to power up, when to power down, and why the difference matters.

Andy Kwiecien is a retired school principal and former school district Technology Coordinator with extensive experience supporting educators in the effective integration of technology into teaching and learning.