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WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

This is on point. I'm Megna Chakra-Bardi.

Every year, American schools spend anywhere between $26 to $41 billion on education technology.

That was before the pandemic, according to the nonprofit ed tech evidence exchange.

So what we're talking about is the budget for your school provided laptops and tablets,

but also software and apps.

In fact, the e-learning market is expected to reach a whopping $170 billion by 2030, according to the Market Research Store, Research and Markets.

Education technology promises to assist in things like administrative tasks, lesson teacher burden, even speed up assessments.

For students, the ed tech companies say their products

will help kids and teens learn more and learn better. But, of course, for every claim,

we have to ask, is there evidence? After all, student literacy and math scores on the National

Assessment of Educational Progress, aka the Nation's Report

Card, have remained relatively flat since 1971. Achievement has actually declined since 2020,

and of course, that's pandemic school closure related, but at the same time, it's also when

schools embraced ed tech even more to prop

up remote learning. So, hundreds of billions of dollars, but for questionable benefit.

However, technology is here to stay. It's become central to almost every aspect of our lives.

So perhaps the more important question is, is there a better

way to use tech in schools that will actually enhance student learning? So let's start right in the

classroom. And Katie Akeridge joins us. She's a ninth and tenth and tenth grade English language

arts teacher in Athens, Georgia. Katie, welcome to On Point.

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