We ruined tech in schools. Here’s how to fix it.

Everyone's talking about banning devices from classrooms. I get it. I really do.

We've spent two decades turning the most powerful creation tool humanity has ever invented into glorified pencil sharpeners. Digital worksheets instead of paper ones. Five-paragraph essays in Google Docs instead of notebooks. Multiple-choice tests on screens instead of Scantrons.

We took Seymour Papert's vision of technology as a tool for discovery and creative expression...and we did the exact opposite. We locked down devices, blocked websites, and used computers to make kids do old things in slightly newer ways.

The result? Technology became a digital pacifier. Something to keep students quiet and on-task. Something administrators could point to and say "we're innovative" while changing absolutely nothing about how learning actually happens.

And, I'm over here raising my hand saying, "I've been part of this problem" as a teacher, school leader, and even as a parent.

So when parents and teachers want to throw it all out, I understand the frustration.

But banning technology isn't the answer. It's just another way of avoiding the real work.

Here's what we should be asking instead: What if we actually used technology the way Papert imagined? What if we treated AI and digital tools as partners in learning? Not replacements for thinking, but amplifiers of deep learning?

We don't even have to look that far to see what is already working. There are plenty of tech tools (with or without AI) that were created for a LEARNING purpose, and are working RIGHT NOW.

This isn't hypothetical. Schools and tech platforms are already doing it.

Mentava is helping teach kids as young as 2-3 years old to read. It's phonics, it is on a device, and it is working.

Read with Ello takes kids who have the basics in reading and acts as a read-along companion who listens, teaches, and transforms them into an enthusiastic reader. It's using the science of reading. It's on a device, oh, and it works.

Math Academy uses technology and research-backed pedagogy for learning Math. It accelerates the learning process at 4X the speed of a traditional math class. It's on a device, it works!

Amplify delivers next-generation curriculum and assessment on an intuitive, integrated platform that includes thousands of free lessons. Teachers says that, guess what, it works!

Alpha School is building entirely new models of what education can look like when you stop trying to automate the factory model. 2 hours of learning with AI apps in the morning, and the kids are crushing it -- freeing up all kinds of time in the afternoon to use technology in meaningful and relevant ways.

What if we built a generation of AI-fluent learners who understand how to use these tools to explore what genuinely interests them? Who see technology not as something that happens to them, but as something they can command to help them learn, create, and build? You know, as Papert imagined!

When you give learners agency over technology instead of just access to it, everything changes.

We can't keep doing old things in new ways and expect different results. We tried that. It failed.

It's time to do new things in new ways...or get out of the way and let the people who are actually innovating show us what's possible.

The choice isn't between technology or no technology.

It's between technology that diminishes human potential and technology that expands it.

We've been choosing wrong for twenty years.

Let's choose better.