a short article on education

Short articles

Nov 03,2022

"Apart from developing literacy, it has also had a positive impact on students who have had a pleasant experience while going through the pandemic." In this reader submission, Anisah Khoridatul, Grade 6 Teacher SD Ar-Ridha Al Salaam, Depok, shares the details of a student diary project in place at the school.

Sep 28,2022

In this reader submission, teacher at SMA Lokon St. Nikolaus Tomohon in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, Martha Goni, shares the details of a Retreat Program the school has implemented, and the positive impact it is having on Year 12 students.

Aug 31,2022

A recent longitudinal study in the Philippines has followed a cohort of 4,500 public elementary school students for 5 years. The study found that children who attended preschool consistently outperformed those who did not in literacy, mathematics and social-emotional skills.

Jul 20,2022

New research has shown that while the use of immersive virtual reality (IVR) increases student enjoyment and presence in a task, when used on its own it does not improve procedural or declarative knowledge when compared to the more traditional learning activity of watching a video.

Jul 18,2022

Education systems across the world have taken different approaches to addressing the challenges of the pandemic. Jaylene S Miravel – a teacher at Lal-lo North Central School in the Philippines – shares how she is supporting students who are falling behind in reading during this prolonged period of remote learning.

May 18,2022

Satyam Mishra was one of two educators from India to make it into the prestigious Global Teacher Prize Top 50 for 2021. In today’s article, he shares practical examples for making mathematics more engaging and relevant for students.

May 04,2022

A new framework for learning through play has been developed to support teachers in the classroom and help guide policy and practice in the early years of schooling. The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and the LEGO Foundation have worked together to develop the framework.

Apr 20,2022

Students have a diverse range of personal and contextual factors that influence their access to and achievement in their education. A new global study calls for a re-evaluation of education systems to promote personalised education.

Apr 05,2022

After investing a lot of time and emotion into applying for a new job or promotion, finding out the position is not yours can have a negative impact on your confidence. In this reader submission, Dr Poppy Gibson and Dr Robert Morgan from the UK share their three steps for moving forward after being an unsuccessful candidate for a new position.

Mar 16,2022

How can you and your colleagues help students better prepare for the challenges and opportunities they’ll face in the future? A major new report looks at the global ‘megatrends’ shaping education. We’ve picked out 10 discussion points and suggestions for possible learning activities to inspire you and your colleagues, and get the conversation started.

Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

Our Best Education Articles of 2021

Our most popular education articles of 2021 explore how to navigate some of this year’s challenges—including grief, boredom, and isolation—while uplifting our capacity for connection, belonging, and healing. Several articles also highlight how character, conscience, and kindness can guide us toward greater meaning in our lives.

If you are looking for specific activities to support your students’ and colleagues’ social and emotional well-being in 2022, visit our  Greater Good in Education website, featuring  free  research-based practices, lessons, and strategies for cultivating kinder, happier, and more equitable classrooms and schools. And for a deeper dive into the science behind social-emotional learning, mindfulness, and ethical development, consider our suite of self-paced online courses for educational professionals, including our capstone course, Teaching and Learning for the Greater Good .

Here are the 12 best education articles of 2021, based on a composite ranking of pageviews and editors’ picks.

How to Help Students Feel a Sense of Belonging During the Pandemic , by Mary C. Murphy, Kathryn Boucher, and Christine Logel: Belonging and connection in the classroom contribute to success and well-being, particularly for marginalized students.

Four Ways Teachers Can Help Students Develop a Conscience , by Vicki Zakrzewski: How do kids develop a sense of right and wrong—and what can educators do to help them act on their conscience?

How to Help Students of Color Find Their Power , by Brandy Arnold: Project Wayfinder is helping Black and Latino students explore their identities and goals.

What a Children’s Book Taught Me (and My Students) About Grief , by Lauren McGovern: Teaching sixth graders about grief helped teacher Lauren McGovern after the loss of her son.

36 Questions That Can Help Kids Make Friends , by Jill Suttie: A question-and-answer exercise may help middle schoolers build friendships, including with kids of different ethnicities.

How to Make This Hard Transition Back to School With Your Students , by Amy L. Eva: Here are three ways educators can support their students (and each other) this fall.

A Different Way to Respond When Kids Do Something Wrong , by Joanne Chen: Restorative practices—taking responsibility, making amends, and seeking forgiveness—are an alternative to strict punishments and blame.

What Do Kids Mean When They Say They’re Bored at School? , by Rebecca Branstetter: Boredom can be a temporary emotion or a sign of a deeper issue, says a school psychologist.

How to Help Students Be the Best Version of Themselves , by Karen E. Bohlin and Deborah Farmer Kris: When students are facing challenges, educators can help them reflect on—and act on—what matters to them.

Four Character Strengths That Can Help Kids Learn , by Carol Lloyd: Research suggests that fostering character strengths can help children be better students.

How Educators Can Help Make a Kinder World , by Vicki Zakrzewski: By integrating character education, SEL, and mindfulness, schools can cultivate the inherent goodness in students.

Three Strategies for Helping Students Discuss Controversial Issues , by Lauren Fullmer and Laura Bond: Here are research-based ways to facilitate civil discourse in the classroom.

Bonus: Science of Happiness Podcast Episodes

Episode 94: How to Craft Your Life : When the world around you changes, so can your goals. Our guest, Patty Brown, tries a practice to tap into a new sense of purpose.

Episode 96: Don’t Be Afraid of Your Anger : What happens when we suppress our anger? And what if we tried to work with it instead? Our guest, Soraya Chemaly, tries a practice to harness her inner fierceness to care for herself.

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What Do Kids Mean When They Say They’re Bored at School?

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Our Best Education Articles of 2020

Our Best Education Articles of 2019

What a Children’s Book Taught Me (and My Students) About Grief

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Best Education Articles of 2023: Our 23 Most Important Stories About Students, Schools & Learning Recovery 

From students’ stalled learning recovery to the shifting politics of education reform and cybersecurity at schools, here were the year’s top themes..

Now three years since COVID’s first classroom closures and a year before districts start to feel the true impact of the fiscal cliff, 2023 marked a pivotal moment for students and schools across America. Fresh scores revealed the stalled state of learning recovery. Educators warned about an escalating chronic absenteeism crisis that has seen students disengage and thrown off track. New political alliances formed around school choice legislation and education savings accounts. Districts became one of the preferred targets of cyberhackers, who posted sensitive student information online. A national alarm was sounded about the state of teen mental health. 

From the classroom to the ballot box to the dark web, we’ve been tracking the key storylines of 2023. Here’s our most memorable and impactful journalism of the year: 

‘Education’s Long COVID’: New Data Shows Recovery Stalled for Most Students

By  Linda Jacobson

Data released this past July from NWEA showed that learning recovery had essentially stalled for most students, in the wake of the pandemic. The results from 6.7 million students showed that, on average, they need four additional months in school to catch up to pre-pandemic levels. Older and Black and Hispanic students need much more, and the gap between pre- and post-pandemic achievement for kids in fourth through eighth grade grew larger this year instead of smaller. Read Linda Jacobson’s report .

Exclusive Spending Data: Schools Still Pouring Money Into Reading Materials That Teach Kids to Guess

By  Asher Lehrer-Small  

Districts across the country continue to pour money into expensive reading materials criticized for leaving many children without the basic ability to sound out words, an investigation by The 74’s Asher Lehrer-Small revealed. Since the blockbuster Sold a Story podcast launched in October of 2022, opening the eyes of many to problematic reading instruction nationwide, at least 225 districts have spent over $1.5 million on new books, training and curriculums linked to the flawed “three-cueing” method, according to a review of their purchase orders. Read our full report .  

Seizing on Parents’ Frustration, GOP Governors Push for Education Savings Accounts

Originally published in January: Republican governors across the country have put education savings accounts at the center of their 2023 legislative agendas. Many draw inspiration from states like Arizona, where almost 46,000 students use ESAs for private school, tutoring and homeschooling. “Parents want an all-of-the-above approach when it comes to how their kids are educated,” said ExcelinEd’s Tom Greene. But Jessica Levin of the Education Law Center said there’s still “a broad spectrum of groups that come out against them.” Read the full story . 

Campus Road Trip Diary: 8 Things We Learned This Year About America’s Most Innovative High Schools

For months, The 74’s  journalists crisscrossed the country visiting innovative high schools, both established and emerging, that are headed by educators seeking answers to one common question: What if we could start over and try something totally new? The 13 schools profiled in our High School Road Trip series represent just a small sample, but they offer a promising vision of what young people, freed from 200 years of tradition and offered freedom, guidance, opportunity and agency, can look forward to. Greg Toppo and Emmeline Zhao have eight key takeaways .

As Test Scores Crater, Debate Over Whether There’s a ‘Science’ To Math Recovery

By  Jo Napolitano

Are you team Fact Fluency or team Conceptual Understanding? That’s how one professor boiled down the debate over what’s being called the “science of math.” That movement favors fact fluency, which says students need explicit, orderly instruction and must learn math’s vocabulary to understand it. Others argue that children are more likely to engage with math when they can explore its concepts and the reasoning behind them, and call the alternative approach failed and outdated. Jo Napolitano reports .

Sales Skyrocket for Phone Pouch Company as In-School Bans Spread

Yondr, a company that produces pouches for locking up students’ phones, has seen more than a tenfold increase in sales since 2021 — a clear sign that the movement to keep phones out of classrooms is spreading across the U.S. A Senate bill that calls for $5 million to support such bans could send even more business Yondr’s way. One proponent called the system a game changer for improving students’ focus in school, but others say a complete ban goes too far. Linda Jacobson reports .

Due Process, Undue Delays: Families Trapped in NYC’s Decades-Long Special Ed Bottleneck

By  Beth Hawkins

Twenty years ago, disabled children in the nation’s largest school system had their day in court and won. But today, even with fat files of documentation and legal orders in their favor, thousands of New York special education families can’t get the district to pay for services. Now, a backlog of children who went unevaluated and unserved during the pandemic threatens to further overwhelm the system. Beth Hawkins reported in June on a court-appointed overseer’s daunting list of recommendations and the struggles of one family caught in the dysfunction .

ChatGPT Is Landing Kids in the Principal’s Office, Survey Finds

By  Mark Keierleber  

Ever since ChatGPT burst onto the scene last year, educators have worried that it could help kids plagiarize. While 50% of teachers say they know of a student being disciplined for using — or accused of using — generative artificial intelligence, students say they are more likely to access it for personal problems than homework. That’s a top finding from a Center for Democracy and Technology report released in September that also documents a surge in school-based digital privacy concerns among students and parents. Read Mark Keierleber’s report .  

The Mystery of Ryan Walters: How a Beloved History Teacher Became Oklahoma’s Culture-Warrior-in-Chief

Ryan Walters was one of the most well-liked teachers at McAlester High, known for skillfully explaining complex social and political movements in AP history class. But former students and colleagues barely recognize the man who last year was elected Oklahoma’s schools superintendent. Walters’s relentless crusade against “woke ideology” and attacks on educators have pushed the former small-town teacher into the national spotlight, alarming even some fellow Republicans. One lawmaker told reporter Linda Jacobson, “This guy cares more about getting on Fox News than he does about doing his job.” Read the full report .  

Why a New Brand of Cyberattack on Las Vegas Schools Should Worry Everyone

By  Mark Keierleber

It was a Thursday morning when Las Vegas mom Brandi Hecht woke up to an unnerving email telling her that sensitive information about her daughters had been leaked and here were the PDFs to prove it. Hecht was being used as leverage in a new kind of cyberattack where the hackers went directly to parents and local media to issue threats and where they didn’t use sophisticated skills to infiltrate and extract data, but instead exploited weak student passwords and flimsy file-sharing practices in Google Workspace. With “virtually every school in the U.S.” relying on similar cloud-based suites, one K-12 cybersecurity expert said the breach methods used against Clark County Public Schools should set off alarm bells for educators nationwide. Read more . 

Six Hidden (and Not-So-Hidden) Factors Driving America’s Student Absenteeism Crisis

By  Greg Toppo

As schools face record-setting chronic absenteeism nearly years after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, educators are looking for ways to bring students back into the fold of school. Here are six hidden and not-so-hidden possible reasons why so many young people are missing so much school — from worsening mental health to a higher minimum wage. 

Exclusive: Despite K-2 Reading Gains, Results Flat for 3rd Grade ‘COVID Kids’

By  Linda Jacobson  

As of late February, the percentage of third graders on track in reading hadn’t budged since the same time in 2022, according to data provided by curriculum provider Amplify. The results, from 300,000 students in 43 states, was a reminder of the literacy setbacks experienced by those in kindergarten when schools shut down in 2020. But the data showed racial gaps had narrowed and K-2 students showed growth over the previous year, as skills among younger students slowly inched back to pre-pandemic levels. Linda Jacobson reports .

With More Teachers & Fewer Students, Districts Are Set up for Financial Trouble

By  Chad Aldeman

To understand the teacher labor market, you have to hold two competing narratives in your head. On one hand, teacher turnover hit new highs, morale is low and schools are facing shortages. At the same time, public schools employ more teachers than before COVID, while serving 1.9 million fewer students. Student-teacher ratios are near all-time lows. Contributor Chad Aldeman and Eamonn Fitzmaurice, The 74’s art and technology director, plotted these changes on an exclusive, interactive map — and explain how they’re putting districts in financial peril. Read the full story . 

‘U.S. Education Is a Challenged Space’: In Exclusive 74 Interview, Bill Gates Talks Learning Recovery, AI and His Big Bet on Math

By  Kevin Mahnken

Bill Gates may wield more influence over U.S. schools than any other figure outside the federal government. In the past 20 years, his massive philanthropic efforts have fostered a movement for small schools, fueled the spread of the Common Core standards and supported experimentation in teacher evaluations. Now, with student achievement still mired in the post-COVID doldrums, his foundation is making a billion-dollar commitment to revive math learning. “U.S. education is a challenged space,” the Microsoft founder told The 74’s Kevin Mahnken. Read our full interview . 

Go Deeper: See our complete archive of 74 Interviews

Stockton, California: What Happens When a Dysfunctional District Gets $241 Million

The Stockton school district in California’s Central Valley received $241 million in relief funds to help students recover from the pandemic. But, beset by dysfunction in its central office and deep mistrust among board members, it spent millions on two abandoned projects and six-figure salaries for its central office staff. Last winter, an independent auditor released the results of a long-awaited fraud investigation into the district’s finances. Linda Jacobson reports .

Explore Our Full Series: Following the COVID Money

New Study: Schools Prioritizing Social-Emotional Learning See Strong Academic Benefits

A recent study of Chicago Public Schools shows high schools that prioritized social-emotional development had double the positive long-term impact on students compared with those that focused solely on improving test scores. “How safe students feel —  physically, socially, psychologically — how deeply connected they are to others, how much they trust their teachers and their peers matters,” University of Chicago senior research associate Shanette Porter told Jo Napolitano. Read our full story .  

They Stood Up to NYC Schools For Their Disabled Child. Then Child Protective Services Arrived

By  Asher Lehrer-Small

After their autistic and nonverbal 7-year-old son came home from school with unexplained injuries, Luis and Michelle Diaz pressed for answers. But, to their surprise, the school pointed the finger back at the family, alleging neglect of their child. The response reveals a startling pattern: Across the nation’s largest district, parents who speak up on behalf of their special education children say they are accused of abuse — a tactic advocates say schools use to intimidate parents. Asher Lehrer-Small reports in this special 74 Investigation .

Teen Mental Health Crisis Pushes More School Districts to Sue Social Media Giants

By  Marianna McMurdock

Teenagers’ mental health has so taxed and alarmed school districts that many are suing the social media giants they say helped cause the crisis. At least 11 districts, one county and one county system that oversees 23 districts have filed suits this year, representing roughly 469,000 students. Sources say more will follow. “Schools, states and Americans across the country are rightly pushing back against Big Tech putting profits over kids’ safety online,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal told The 74’s Marianna McMurdock. Read our full report . 

Amid the Pandemic, a Classical Education Boom: What if the Next Big School Trend Is 2,500 Years Old?

Classical education, perhaps the oldest model of formal instruction in the Western world, is rapidly gaining adherents in the modern day. Sharing a focus on the liberal arts that can be traced back to the ancient world, classical schools have spread across the charter, private and homeschooling sectors in recent decades. Particularly since the pandemic, reports Kevin Mahnken, they’ve been embraced by families seeking an alternative to traditional schools — and by politicians, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who see them as a check on progressive influences in the classroom. Read the full story .  

Exclusive: Virginia’s Fairfax Schools Expose Thousands of Sensitive Student Records

The Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, one of the nation’s largest, disclosed tens of thousands of sensitive, confidential student records, apparently by accident, to a parent advocate who has been an outspoken critic of its data privacy record. The files identify current and former special education students by name and include letter grades, disability status and mental health data. “If they don’t have a system to respond in a protective, … efficient manner, that’s on them,” said privacy expert Amelia Vance. Read our full report .

‘A Bankrupt Concept of Math’: Some Educators Argue Calculus Should Be Dethroned

Some in education say it’s time to reconsider calculus as an unofficial requirement for entrance to the nation’s top colleges. Many high schools — particularly those serving large numbers of Black, Hispanic or low-income students — don’t even offer the course. And even when they do, it’s of dubious value, critics say. “High school calculus is a complete waste of time and a form of torture,” Alan Garfinkel, professor of integrative biology and physiology and medicine at UCLA, told The 74’s Jo Napolitano .

Florida Just Became the Nation’s Biggest School Choice Laboratory

With the stroke of a pen, Gov. Ron DeSantis made Florida the nation’s biggest K-12 marketplace. The March law makes every student in the state eligible to receive a private school voucher or education savings account. In the best-case scenario, said economist Krzysztof Karbownik, schools and families will be able to “leverage the power of competition” to provide better options for kids. But he worries the new policy could create “a whole market for relatively low-quality private schools.” Kevin Mahnken reports .

Report: In 24 States, Using False Address to Get Into a Better School is a Crime

In nearly half the states in the country, parents risk criminal prosecution — and jail time — if they use a false address to get their children into a better school, according to a report from the nonprofits Available to All. The authors say enforcement largely targets minority families, and they want more states to follow Connecticut’s lead in decriminalizing so-called address sharing. But those tracking down offenders say residency fraud puts a strain on school budgets. Linda Jacobson reports .

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The Year in Education: 23 Top Stories About Schools, Kids & Learning Recovery

By Steve Snyder

This story first appeared at The 74 , a nonprofit news site covering education. Sign up for free newsletters from The 74 to get more like this in your inbox.

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The 10 Education Issues Everybody Should Be Talking About

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What issues have the potential to define—or re define—education in the year ahead? Is there a next “big thing” that could shift the K-12 experience or conversation?

These were the questions Education Week set out to answer in this second annual “10 Big Ideas in Education” report.

You can read about last year’s ideas here . In 2019, though, things are different.

This year, we asked Education Week reporters to read the tea leaves and analyze what was happening in classrooms, school districts, and legislatures across the country. What insights could reporters offer practitioners for the year ahead?

Some of the ideas here are speculative. Some are warning shots, others more optimistic. But all 10 of them here have one thing in common: They share a sense of urgency.

Accompanied by compelling illustrations and outside perspectives from leading researchers, advocates, and practitioners, this year’s Big Ideas might make you uncomfortable, or seem improbable. The goal was to provoke and empower you as you consider them.

Let us know what you think, and what big ideas matter to your classroom, school, or district. Tweet your comments with #K12BigIdeas .

No. 1: Kids are right. School is boring.

Out-of-school learning is often more meaningful than anything that happens in a classroom, writes Kevin Bushweller, the Executive Editor of EdWeek Market Brief. His essay tackling the relevance gap is accompanied by a Q&A with advice on nurturing, rather than stifling students’ natural curiosity. Read more.

No. 2: Teachers have trust issues. And it’s no wonder why.

Many teachers may have lost faith in the system, says Andrew Ujifusa, but they haven’t lost hope. The Assistant Editor unpacks this year’s outbreak of teacher activism. And read an account from a disaffected educator on how he built a coalition of his own. Read more.

No. 3: Special education is broken.

Forty years since students with disabilities were legally guaranteed a public school education, many still don’t receive the education they deserve, writes Associate Editor Christina A. Samuels. Delve into her argument and hear from a disability civil rights pioneer on how to create an equitable path for students. Read more.

No. 4: Schools are embracing bilingualism, but only for some students.

Staff Writer Corey Mitchell explains the inclusion problem at the heart of bilingual education. His essay includes a perspective from a researcher on dismantling elite bilingualism. Read more.

No. 5: A world without annual testing may be closer than you think.

There’s agreement that we have a dysfunctional standardized-testing system in the United States, Associate Editor Stephen Sawchuk writes. But killing it would come with some serious tradeoffs. Sawchuk’s musing on the alternatives to annual tests is accompanied by an argument for more rigorous classroom assignments by a teacher-practice expert. Read more.

No. 6: There are lessons to be learned from the educational experiences of black students in military families.

Drawing on his personal experience growing up in an Air Force family, Staff Writer Daarel Burnette II highlights emerging research on military-connected students. Learn more about his findings and hear from two researchers on what a new ESSA mandate means for these students. Read more.

No. 7: School segregation is not an intractable American problem.

Racial and economic segregation remains deeply entrenched in American schools. Staff Writer Denisa R. Superville considers the six steps one district is taking to change that. Her analysis is accompanied by an essay from the president of the American Educational Research Association on what is perpetuating education inequality. Read more.

No. 8: Consent doesn’t just belong in sex ed. class. It needs to start a lot earlier.

Assistant Editor Sarah D. Sparks looked at the research on teaching consent and found schools and families do way too little, way too late. Her report is partnered with a researcher’s practical guide to developmentally appropriate consent education. Read more.

No. 9: Education has an innovation problem.

Are education leaders spending too much time chasing the latest tech trends to maintain what they have? Staff Writer Benjamin Herold explores the innovation trap. Two technologists offer three tips for putting maintenance front and center in school management. Read more.

No. 10: There are two powerful forces changing college admissions.

Some colleges are rewriting the admissions script for potential students. Senior Contributing Writer Catherine Gewertz surveys this changing college admissions landscape. Her insights are accompanied by one teacher’s advice for navigating underserved students through the college application process. Read more.

Wait, there’s more.

Want to know what educators really think about innovation? A new Education Week Research Center survey delves into what’s behind the common buzzword for teachers, principals, and district leaders. Take a look at the survey results.

A version of this article appeared in the January 09, 2019 edition of Education Week as What’s on the Horizon for 2019?

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New advances in technology are upending education, from the recent debut of new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT to the growing accessibility of virtual-reality tools that expand the boundaries of the classroom. For educators, at the heart of it all is the hope that every learner gets an equal chance to develop the skills they need to succeed. But that promise is not without its pitfalls.

“Technology is a game-changer for education – it offers the prospect of universal access to high-quality learning experiences, and it creates fundamentally new ways of teaching,” said Dan Schwartz, dean of Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE), who is also a professor of educational technology at the GSE and faculty director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning . “But there are a lot of ways we teach that aren’t great, and a big fear with AI in particular is that we just get more efficient at teaching badly. This is a moment to pay attention, to do things differently.”

For K-12 schools, this year also marks the end of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding program, which has provided pandemic recovery funds that many districts used to invest in educational software and systems. With these funds running out in September 2024, schools are trying to determine their best use of technology as they face the prospect of diminishing resources.

Here, Schwartz and other Stanford education scholars weigh in on some of the technology trends taking center stage in the classroom this year.

AI in the classroom

In 2023, the big story in technology and education was generative AI, following the introduction of ChatGPT and other chatbots that produce text seemingly written by a human in response to a question or prompt. Educators immediately worried that students would use the chatbot to cheat by trying to pass its writing off as their own. As schools move to adopt policies around students’ use of the tool, many are also beginning to explore potential opportunities – for example, to generate reading assignments or coach students during the writing process.

AI can also help automate tasks like grading and lesson planning, freeing teachers to do the human work that drew them into the profession in the first place, said Victor Lee, an associate professor at the GSE and faculty lead for the AI + Education initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. “I’m heartened to see some movement toward creating AI tools that make teachers’ lives better – not to replace them, but to give them the time to do the work that only teachers are able to do,” he said. “I hope to see more on that front.”

He also emphasized the need to teach students now to begin questioning and critiquing the development and use of AI. “AI is not going away,” said Lee, who is also director of CRAFT (Classroom-Ready Resources about AI for Teaching), which provides free resources to help teach AI literacy to high school students across subject areas. “We need to teach students how to understand and think critically about this technology.”

Immersive environments

The use of immersive technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality is also expected to surge in the classroom, especially as new high-profile devices integrating these realities hit the marketplace in 2024.

The educational possibilities now go beyond putting on a headset and experiencing life in a distant location. With new technologies, students can create their own local interactive 360-degree scenarios, using just a cell phone or inexpensive camera and simple online tools.

“This is an area that’s really going to explode over the next couple of years,” said Kristen Pilner Blair, director of research for the Digital Learning initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, which runs a program exploring the use of virtual field trips to promote learning. “Students can learn about the effects of climate change, say, by virtually experiencing the impact on a particular environment. But they can also become creators, documenting and sharing immersive media that shows the effects where they live.”

Integrating AI into virtual simulations could also soon take the experience to another level, Schwartz said. “If your VR experience brings me to a redwood tree, you could have a window pop up that allows me to ask questions about the tree, and AI can deliver the answers.”

Gamification

Another trend expected to intensify this year is the gamification of learning activities, often featuring dynamic videos with interactive elements to engage and hold students’ attention.

“Gamification is a good motivator, because one key aspect is reward, which is very powerful,” said Schwartz. The downside? Rewards are specific to the activity at hand, which may not extend to learning more generally. “If I get rewarded for doing math in a space-age video game, it doesn’t mean I’m going to be motivated to do math anywhere else.”

Gamification sometimes tries to make “chocolate-covered broccoli,” Schwartz said, by adding art and rewards to make speeded response tasks involving single-answer, factual questions more fun. He hopes to see more creative play patterns that give students points for rethinking an approach or adapting their strategy, rather than only rewarding them for quickly producing a correct response.

Data-gathering and analysis

The growing use of technology in schools is producing massive amounts of data on students’ activities in the classroom and online. “We’re now able to capture moment-to-moment data, every keystroke a kid makes,” said Schwartz – data that can reveal areas of struggle and different learning opportunities, from solving a math problem to approaching a writing assignment.

But outside of research settings, he said, that type of granular data – now owned by tech companies – is more likely used to refine the design of the software than to provide teachers with actionable information.

The promise of personalized learning is being able to generate content aligned with students’ interests and skill levels, and making lessons more accessible for multilingual learners and students with disabilities. Realizing that promise requires that educators can make sense of the data that’s being collected, said Schwartz – and while advances in AI are making it easier to identify patterns and findings, the data also needs to be in a system and form educators can access and analyze for decision-making. Developing a usable infrastructure for that data, Schwartz said, is an important next step.

With the accumulation of student data comes privacy concerns: How is the data being collected? Are there regulations or guidelines around its use in decision-making? What steps are being taken to prevent unauthorized access? In 2023 K-12 schools experienced a rise in cyberattacks, underscoring the need to implement strong systems to safeguard student data.

Technology is “requiring people to check their assumptions about education,” said Schwartz, noting that AI in particular is very efficient at replicating biases and automating the way things have been done in the past, including poor models of instruction. “But it’s also opening up new possibilities for students producing material, and for being able to identify children who are not average so we can customize toward them. It’s an opportunity to think of entirely new ways of teaching – this is the path I hope to see.”

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