At the CoSN 2026 CTO Forum, over 50 district leaders, including superintendents and chief technology officers (CTOs), joined forces with K-12 industry partners to confront a sobering hypothetical: If education technology were removed from classrooms tomorrow, what specific learning opportunity or student “win” would vanish along with it?
The conversation moved beyond general debates about “screen time” alone toward a deeper discussion about purposeful, transformative education technology tools. Participants surfaced a powerful reality: when guided by educators for the purpose of learning, education technology can support access, agency, and real-world readiness.
What follows is a distillation of that conversation — the vital “wins” we refuse to let vanish.
Theme 1: The Access “Floor”
Technology has the power to act as a “tide that raises all boats.” Education technology enables students with disabilities, families with language barriers, and students without home access to fully participate in modern learning environments. Removing it creates an access floor and reinstates a hierarchy of privilege.
The Vanishing Win? Equitable access. Without school-issued devices, some students lose their primary (or only) gateway to differentiated instruction. Oftentimes, these are the very students that need extra support, meaning lack of access can compound existing inequities.
Theme 2: Personalization vs. “The Middle”
Education technology helps teachers differentiate instruction, assess student understanding in real time, and create time for personalized small-group and individualized instruction. Without it, teachers’ ability to meet 30 different students at 30 different academic levels becomes a near impossible task.
The Vanishing Win? Instant remediation and time for personalized instruction. The “win” of a student getting immediate feedback on a math problem or a writing prompt vanishes, and with less time, differentiated instruction becomes significantly harder. As a result, teachers are forced to “teach to the middle,” leaving both struggling and advanced learners behind.
Theme 3: Agency and the “Literacy” of the Future
Education technology can help prepare students for a digital world, where skills such as collaboration, research, data use, and responsible engagement with emerging technologies, including AI, are increasingly important.
The Vanishing Win? Student agency and future-readiness. Without access to appropriate tools, students may have fewer opportunities to create, collaborate, and build the skills needed for learning and work beyond school.
Theme 4: The “Invisible” Operational Burden
Education technology can help schools operate more efficiently and transparently. Digital systems can streamline communication, reduce administrative burdens, and create greater visibility into student progress and support services. Without these tools, time and attention are pulled away from teaching and learning.
The Vanishing Win? Instructional time and parent visibility. Every minute spent managing a “manually tracking IEP/504 data is a minute taken away from a student. Moreover, without a digital management system, the daily progress of a student becomes an invisible black box for parents until report cards arrive.
The Challenge: Defining Your Own “Vanishing Wins”
The insights from the CoSN 2026 CTO Forum make one thing clear: education technology is not a “nice-to-have” add-on but rather a vital resource for all learners. If we remove education technology from classrooms, we risk losing the very tools that provide our students with expanded learning opportunities, our teachers with time, and our graduates with skills for the future.
We cannot afford to return to the analog ceiling where learning is limited by the four walls of a classroom or the physical pages of a textbook. Rather, we must look forward and create a future where education technology is centered on learning, students are protected online, and transparent, local decision-making guides implementation
How You Can Lead This Conversation:
- Practice Purposeful Reflection: Look at the digital tools in your district. Ask: “Which specific student success stories are fueled by this tool?” By identifying these mission-critical wins, we ensure our investments always serve our instructional goals.
- Support Digital Literacy as Universal Literacy: Let’s move past the idea that being “tech-savvy” is a specialized trait. In 2026, navigating the digital world is a fundamental skill. We can support our staff in seeing themselves not as “tech people,” but as modern educators equipped for a modern world.
- Champion Opportunity as a Foundation: Remind stakeholders that access is the baseline for opportunity. It’s about ensuring that every student, regardless of zip code or ability, has the “window to the world” they need to be curious, creative, and ready for what’s next.
Join the Movement Let’s work together to ensure these opportunities don’t just happen by chance, but by design. Visit CoSN’s resource hub on purposeful education technology to learn more.
The wins are too big to vanish. Let’s keep building.
Summary by Jill Brown, PhD
Director of Professional Learning, CoSN
Date: June 2, 2026
Thank you CoSN2026 CTO Forum Sponsors for supporting this work and joining in the conversation:
CoSN is vendor neutral and does not endorse products or services. Any mention of a specific solution is for contextual purposes.
