Years ago, when I was still teaching in the classroom, other teachers and I would often spend passing periods imagining what education might look like in the future. We pictured something a little like The Jetsons. Every student would have their own computer, with digital textbooks replacing the heavy books filling their backpacks. We would not have to reserve a computer lab or take our classes to the media center just so students could type a paper or conduct research. Students would have access to technology in every classroom and could take that technology home.
Eventually, that future arrived.
I spent my first 21 years in the classroom and have now spent seven years working in educational technology. Somewhere along the way, though, it seems that much of the excitement about technology disappeared. We achieved many of the things we dreamed about, but sometimes having technology became more important than innovating with it.
A worksheet does not become innovative because we put it in a learning management system. The equivalent of an end of chapter review delivered through a computer is still an end of chapter review.
That does not mean technology has failed us. Some of its most transformative uses are things we barely notice anymore.
Saving Time
Early in my teaching career, we recorded attendance on paper slips and hung them on clips outside our classroom doors. Someone walked the halls collecting those slips every class period, and then someone else logged the information in the school office. Today, a teacher can record an absence as class begins, and that information is immediately available to the school and the student’s family. Technology eliminated unnecessary steps and made the information more useful.
That is the kind of innovation I want.
As technology leaders, we should ask whether a technology actually improves a process or instruction or gives teachers and students opportunities they did not have before. In her 2026 article examining how education must evolve in response to technological and societal change, Leila Dobakhti argues that technology should be guided by clear educational purposes rather than novelty and should ultimately serve human-centered goals (Dobakhti, 2026).
Doing that requires us to stay connected to classrooms. I have been fortunate in my current position to spend a great deal of time working directly with teachers. I believe that matters. If you are disconnected from classrooms, you are going to make disconnected decisions.
I have seen resources look impressive during a presentation but work very differently when teachers try to use them in their classrooms every day. Teachers need to have a meaningful voice before decisions are made about the resources and textbooks they will be expected to use each day, and listening cannot stop after the purchase is made. Technology leaders and superintendents should regularly get into classrooms, ask what is working, and find out what is creating frustration or unnecessary work.
We also have to provide infrastructure teachers can trust. Asking teachers to innovate is difficult when they spend days preparing a lesson only to discover that the network, device, or application does not work when students arrive. Sometimes reinvigorating innovation means finding the next great tool. Other times, it means making the tools we already have work better.
Just as important, innovation cannot come at the expense of student privacy. As we give teachers more opportunities to explore new technologies, we also have a responsibility to provide clear guardrails for how student information is used and protected. Dobakhti (2026) points out that AI systems often rely on collecting and analyzing large amounts of student information, raising concerns about informed consent, data ownership, monitoring, and whether students maintain control over their personal information.
AI makes this especially important. Uploading student work containing identifiable information to an unapproved AI system because it makes grading easier is not responsible innovation. Efficiency matters, but protecting student information has to come first.
At the same time, I do not think protecting privacy means shutting down innovation. Technology leaders need to establish appropriate guardrails and then give educators room to explore within them. AI can help educators analyze information and make better decisions, but educators still need to be in the loop. A recent study of seventh grade students found that students were more accepting of decisions made by teachers than AI and perceived teacher decisions as fairer. The researchers concluded that educational technology should emphasize human and AI collaboration, teacher leadership, and transparent interpretation (Zhang et al., 2026).
Technology will continue to change, and we should be excited about what comes next. But innovation should not be measured by how many new tools we adopt. It should be measured by whether those tools improve teaching, learning, and the work educators do while protecting the students we serve.
For technology leaders and superintendents, that means getting out of our offices and into classrooms. Talk with teachers before making major technology decisions. Ask what they need. Watch how technology works with students. Make sure the infrastructure works. Protect the information entrusted to us. Then keep asking what is working after the purchase has been made.
The people closest to teaching and learning should have a meaningful voice in the technology intended to improve it. If we want to reinvigorate innovation in our schools, this is the best place to start.
Published: October 20, 2026
AUTHOR:Jim Lawson, M.Ed.
Curriculum Technology Specialist, Moore Public Schools
CoSN Student Data Privacy Committee Member
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