Can Technology Transform Schools?

Schools have been dealing with technological innovation for 30 years and not much has changed. Will AI be different?

Improvements in education very rarely, perhaps never, come by way of dramatic transformations. They come through deep, long-term commitment to the plodding work of building more robust systems. Large-scale learning technologies absolutely can improve learning opportunities both in informal learning and in educational institutions, but lasting and meaningful change is unlikely to emerge through technologies alone, especially for learners with the least opportunity.

Justin Reich, Failure to Disrupt

I came across Justin Reich’s book when I began doing an Independent Research Project with my students in the fall of 2023. I had been swept up in the hype surrounding generative AI and was convinced the technology was going to have a transformative impact on education.

Since then, very little has happened.

The primary way schools interact with AI is through disciplinary cases involving accusations of academic dishonesty. Of course there are some outliers, with the rare university or school moving purposely towards a coherent and creative AI policy, but my sense is that most institutions are spinning their wheels trying to figure out where AI fits into their pedagogy, especially when teachers vehemently disagree about its potential benefits and harms.

It turns out that what AI is mostly good for, at least in the short term, is a way for students to submit written work that is not their own.

Since 2023, I’ve experimented with almost every AI platform I could access (not just text-generating ones) and also started to explore the history and false promises of educational technologies over the past century. Reich’s book came out, ironically, in September 2020, literally months after school systems around the world were forced to pivot to online learning in the wake of the COVID lockdowns.

The Pattern of Technological Disappointment

Reich’s thesis is a bucket of cold water for anyone who believes AI - or any technology for that matter - will be able to single handedly transform education. He convincingly argues that the promise of technology as a panacea which will usher in educational reform is a fantasy that has been exposed again and again over the past 100 years. He writes:

Across all three learning-at-scale genres, predictions of disruption, transformation, and democratizing education through technology have fared poorly over the last decade, and indeed over the last century. Each of these genres has particular technologies that have proven useful in certain fields or for certain students, but new technologies do not disrupt existing educational systems. Rather, existing educational systems domesticate new technologies, and in most cases, they use such technologies in the service of the well- established goals and structures of schools. Two of the most reliable findings from the history of education technology are that educators use new technologies to extend existing practices and that new technologies tend to accrue most of their benefits to already- advantaged learners. [Emphasis Added]

Justin Reich, Failure to Disrupt

What most writers about AI and education fail to realize is that the problems within most schools today - deeply entrenched structural issues like high-stakes standardized testing, chronic underfunding, widening opportunity gaps, teacher burnout, outdated industrial-era classroom models, grade inflation, and declining student attention and engagement - cannot be solved with AI. The institutional impediments to fix these issues exist with or without the presence of AI. The political, social, and economic inertia that have failed to meaningfully tackle any of these problems will not suddenly disappear as a result of AI.

Investors, entrepreneurs, and writers outside the K-12 ecosystem would like to believe that something as potentially transformative as generative AI will be able “disrupt” an educational model that continues to disappoint and fails to meet even minimal expectations¹. But that won’t happen without significant external pressure.

Three Decades of Educational Technology

My teaching career overlaps with some of the most significant developments in the history of educational technology. When I first walked into my classroom in the fall of 1995, it was the dawn of the internet. Email did not exist. Everything was done on paper and most offices still had fax machines. Desktop computers were a luxury and laptop computers were virtually unheard of.

Now we have smartphones with the world’s information available 24/7. We have technology that can write research papers in minutes, organize your email and plan your vacation. You can record meetings and convert transcripts into organized notes in seconds.

Yet, despite the consistent introduction of these new educational technologies, the fundamental classroom experience remains remarkably unchanged. Most teachers teach roughly the same way they did in 1995.

COVID: The Failed Disruption

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we faced what should have been education's ultimate technological disruption. It opened a brief window to chart a more creative and alternate path. In the spring of 2020, educators were forced to accelerate tech adoption in months over what normally takes years. Teachers with little appetite or aptitude for using technology in their classrooms suddenly learned how to make emoji avatars and master Zoom. Proficiency with online resources, platforms and interactive tools like FlipGrid, EdPuzzle, and PearDeck became essential to keep students engaged online.

If ever there was a moment for technology to "disrupt" education, this was it. The conditions were perfect: universal need, massive funding infusions, tech companies racing to provide solutions, and no alternative to digital adoption.

What’s mind-boggling now when reflecting on the COVID era is how quickly schools regressed back to the status quo. While many teachers still utilize these tools to disseminate and collect work from students, almost everyone reverted right back to traditional teaching methods.

Most teachers shudder to think back to those early days online when staring at dark rectangular boxes had us wondering if anyone was listening. Perhaps the key realization during COVID was how valuable in-person learning really was. Screens could not replace human teachers.

If anything, Reich’s thesis was borne out by the natural experiment that happened during the pandemic. We are four years removed from the most profound disruption in the history of modern education and almost nothing has changed pedagogically. Sure, a few virtual schools popped up here and there, but overwhelmingly Americans came to the collective conclusion that children and teachers need to physically occupy the same space and interact in exactly the same ways they did before COVID.

Does the advent of powerful AI models really represent an inflection point? Given education's remarkable resistance to even pandemic-forced changes, skepticism is warranted. Yet there's something qualitatively different about AI that may suggest a different outcome.

A major distinction between AI and the previous sets of technologies which Reich identifies among the overhyped (MOOC’s and online learning are two examples), is its generative aspect.

The ability to produce, organize, analyze, rearrange, and otherwise manipulate text, images, and sound in an almost infinite number of ways that creates meaning for its users is brand new. Unlike all the technologies which came before, AI puts something in students hands that has forced educators to grapple with existential questions about learning and understanding, especially given that AI allows them to complete work as well or better than humans in virtually undetectable ways.

AI is also developing at such a rapid pace that it’s impossible to know how much it will continue to improve in the coming months and years.

Why AI Might Actually Be Different

There are three factors that suggest AI might actually lead to meaningful change in ways that previous technologies have not.

First, AI challenges the fundamental nature of assessment and knowledge demonstration in ways that no previous technology has. When students can generate essays, solve math problems, and create projects that are indistinguishable from their own work, educators are forced to reimagine not just how they evaluate learning, but what they're evaluating in the first place. We are totally unprepared for how AI strikes at the very core of our academic practice. Indeed, AI is forcing conversations many teachers would prefer not to have about the effectiveness of their teaching methods and ultimate value of their disciplines.

Second, AI is not merely a school technology but a society-wide transformation. Unlike educational software that stays within the classroom, generative AI is reshaping work, creativity, and information access across every sector. Many students and teachers have already integrated these tools into virtually every aspect of their lives. AI is everywhere and will be the dominant trend moving forward.

Finally, the ongoing improvement of AI capabilities means schools cannot simply wait it out or implement short term adaptations. Each new model brings capabilities that further strain traditional approaches, creating a dynamic pressure that previous technological waves did not sustain. The educational system is due for a major overhaul and perhaps AI will be the catalyst to make that happen.

AI offers an opportunity for schools that embrace it to redefine their purpose in an AI-powered world. Schools that successfully figure out how to incorporate AI without sacrificing traditional skill building and core competencies will chart a path forward for American education and serve as exemplars for other schools to emulate.

1. American Children’s Reading Skills Reach New Lows, NY Times, January 29th, 2025