Giving Compass' Take:

• Apple’s vice-president of education, John Couch, explains the need he sees for schools to truly embrace technology and change. 

• How can overstretched teachers effectively use technology to change their classrooms? 

• Read about the need to fully evaluate edtech. 

We saw a big push by schools back in 2010 and 2011 to adopt iPads on a large scale. It feels like that’s faded out a little bit. Would you say the problem or challenge for some of those schools that have either backed away from huge iPad programs is that they didn’t change their teaching methods?

The majority of schools—I would say 80 to 90 percent of schools—have bought technology for the sake of buying technology. But they've never employed that technology. There's another [education model] that says there's a symbiotic relationship between the technology, the content and the pedagogy. And you need to change all three. Most schools have not changed all three.

I once told Steve Jobs, "You know Steve, if all the schools do is buy the iPad because it's cheaper—because they think they can replace the cost of the textbooks—but they don't change the fundamental way they teach, we will have failed." And I think there's a lot of iPads out there that are simply being used in a substitute manner. It's kind of like the [digital] whiteboard. Did the whiteboard really change education? No. A lot of schools bought white boards and they said, "Look at our technology. We're ahead of the game." No. You're just using technology as a substitute.

And because of that, technology's got a bad name.

Read the full interview with John Couch about edtech by Jeffrey R. Young at EdSurge.