EdTech Digest

The latest in a string of books examining technology, kids, and schools hits on far more than it recognizes — including where EdTech may be headed. GUEST COLUMN | by Ian McCullough At EDTECH WEEK 2026, I had one must-attend session: Betsy Corcoran’s interview with New York Times reporter Natasha Singer. Amid the Techlash, I had been wrestling with how I personally felt about Singer’s new book Coding Kids, which examines the influence wielded by large technology businesses in K–12 schools. Like

GUEST COLUMN | by Dr. Matthew X. Joseph and Carl Hooker Every IT professional has a story that still makes them break out in a cold sweat. Maybe it’s thousands of Chromebooks crashing a network, a back-to-school rollout that spirals into chaos, or a password policy so frightening it belongs in a horror movie. For school technology teams, the scariest part is that these aren’t fictional tales. They’re the real-life nightmares that come with keeping schools connected, secure, and running smoothly

Once co-founder Matt Pasternack on helping children become fluent readers—and opening up everything that comes next. INTERVIEW | by Victor Rivero What does helping schools connect their software have in common with securing elections—or teaching a child to read? For Matt Pasternack, each experience has offered lessons in what makes a solution work, and what it takes to bring it to more people. A former middle school English teacher, Clever’s first employee, and co-founder of VotingWorks, Pastern

New 90-day winter pilot pairs home visits with Concentric360 data. Ask a family in January why their child missed school, and the answer is rarely boredom. More often, the answer is the flu, a long walk in the cold, or a missing ride. Chronic absenteeism has eased since peaking at 28.3% in 2022, but 22.6% of students still missed 10% or more of the 2024–25 school year, according to the American Enterprise Institute. Winter makes the problem harder. Concentric Educational Solutions built its new

A classroom whiteboard can become a shared workspace where teachers and students annotate, explore, and build on ideas together. Epson’s BrightLink® 870Ei Ultra Short Throw Interactive Display with 4K Enhancement brings that possibility to nearly any flat surface, with bright, vibrant images up to 130 inches. Designed for collaborative instruction, the BrightLink 870Ei offers: Images up to 130 inches, with crisp text and vibrant visuals for lessons, presentations, and multimedia content. Easy,

Jenn and Jacob on the district partnerships, practical evidence, and human relationships behind lasting edtech success. INTERVIEW | by Victor Rivero Behind every education program that works, there is often a partner relationship that works. That’s the premise of Scaling Success, a new podcast bringing district leaders and their vendor partners together to share how they built something worth expanding—including the challenges along the way. Launched Monday, October 12, 2026, and available wher

Bans reward outdated skills. Grade judgment instead. GUEST COLUMN | by Chris Rohlfs In September, Los Angeles Unified disallowed student AI use across district devices for a year, and New York City Public Schools banned it through eighth grade. Similar moratoriums have been proposed in San Francisco, Seattle, and the Washington, D.C. area. In Chicago, school board candidates want to block it for teachers, too. These bans are as sloppy as the garbage they’re trying to keep out. Writing a passabl

At EDTECH WEEK NYC, StartEd’s Alan Todd gathers CEOs to rethink learning, leadership, and growth in the age of AI. INTERVIEW | by Victor Rivero ROOM TO THINK. For Alan Todd, stepping away from daily operations helps leaders “see sooner, act faster, reduce blind spots, and allocate capital better.” As AI reshapes learning and work, edtech leaders face growing pressure to show what their companies deliver. For Alan Todd, that calls for deeper thinking—and more candid conversations among peers. The

Connected data is only the beginning. Institutions also need clear authority to turn AI insights into action. GUEST COLUMN | by Fred Creugers Four years after the consumer-facing launch of generative AI reshaped the technology landscape, higher education has moved beyond asking whether to adopt it. The challenge now is scaling it thoughtfully—building on what works while reconsidering where early deployments missed the mark. But a more fundamental question should guide what comes next: Is the t

Keeping students involved through whole-class interaction, hands-on activities, and purposeful technology use. GUEST COLUMN | by Marcin Joka Once students put their phones away, a teacher still has a room full of young people to engage. Some are eager to answer questions. Others are confused, distracted, or hoping nobody calls on them. The lesson must give them a reason to participate. ‘The lesson must give them a reason to participate.’ For U.S. schools and districts introducing ph

FETC unveils an agenda for human leadership in the age of AI. GUEST COLUMN | by Jennifer Womble Patrick Gittisriboongul speaking at FETC 2026 Executive Leadership Summit in Orlando. CREDIT: Future of Education Technology Conference These are extraordinary times in education. Artificial intelligence can generate a lesson, summarize a report and analyze a mountain of district data. However, it cannot decide what a community owes its children. It cannot earn a teacher’s trust, recognize a student’s

The families with the most resources are buying more human support, not less. GUEST COLUMN | by Alicia Kacharia There is a lot of excitement about how, for the first time, every student can access a personalized tutor regardless of income, location, or level. To be fair, AI is great at delivering detailed, personalized content. I believe AI can personalize better than any teacher managing 50 students. So, for a motivated student conjugating French at 11 p.m., AI is an incredibly useful tool. &#

The nation’s broadest restriction may buy educators time—but only teacher literacy can provide a durable path forward. GUEST COLUMN | by Sohan Choudhury On September 2, Mayor Mamdani announced a one-year moratorium on student-facing generative AI in New York City public schools, covering pre-K through eighth grade. About 600,000 students are affected. It is the broadest restriction of its kind in the country. ‘Teachers are overwhelmed. Parents are worried. Nobody has reached a consensus o

A new Cengage report finds entry-level jobs increasingly demand work-ready skills—pushing graduates toward internships, stepping-stone roles, and self-directed AI learning. An entry-level job is supposed to be where experience begins. Increasingly, graduates say experience is required just to get through the door. According to Cengage’s 2026 Graduate Employability Report, 77 percent of graduates believe employers expect more experience than an entry-level candidate should reasonably have. More

A K–12 HR leader’s honest take on AI in the hiring process. GUEST COLUMN | by Jennifer Duvall Not long ago, hiring a teacher meant posting a job, collecting applications, reading through stacks of resumes, calling references, and sitting across a table from a candidate to get a feel for their potential impact in the classroom. It was time-consuming, imperfect, and deeply human. That process is changing faster than most K–12 districts realize. ‘hiring a teacher …That process is chang

Hands-on STEM learning can be expensive, complex, or difficult to bring into the classroom. An immersive learning ecosystem from Avantis Education, creators of ClassVR, uses virtual reality (VR) to help remove those barriers and give students access to experiences that might otherwise be out of reach. Designed for middle and high school classrooms, EduverseSTEM brings together ClassVR Xcelerate headsets, curriculum-aligned content, classroom management tools, and a Gold Standard Project-Based Le

For all the attention paid to how children learn to read, writing instruction has not always received the same classroom time or investment. Mystery Writing from Discovery Education aims to help close that gap with an evidence-based, supplemental K–5 writing program built for everyday classroom use. The open-and-go lessons help students develop their writing through engaging real-world hooks, explicit instruction, scaffolded practice, discussion, independent writing, and reflection. The approach

On building trust, strengthening community, and connecting the people and ideas that move education forward. INTERVIEW | by Victor Rivero For more than two decades, Jenn Womble has helped shape one of education technology’s most influential annual gatherings. As Conference Chair of FETC, she has earned a reputation as one of the field’s most respected and trusted leaders—not only for guiding the conference’s continued growth, but for cultivating the relationships that make it matter. Equally at

Certification exams produce a clear result: pass or fail. The harder question comes before test day—how can educators know whether students are truly ready? iCEV’s Certification Readiness Tool helps answer that question by giving Career and Technical Education (CTE) educators a clearer picture of student preparedness before learners sit for an industry certification exam. The tool uses real-time performance data to identify which students are ready for certification exams and which may need addi

Brighteye partners Ben Wirz and David Guérin. The firm has secured a $72 million first close for Fund III, targeting the convergence of education, AI, productivity, and workforce technology. The boundary between education and work technology is fading. Learning now continues throughout a career, while AI is changing the skills and judgment people need on the job. Investors are responding by looking beyond conventional edtech toward tools that expand human capability. That trend is behind Brighte