Giving Compass' Take:

• Farhat Ahmad describes how his EdTech solutions failed one of his students and how personal intervention corrected the situation. 

• What are the limitations of EdTech, and how can they be overcome? What is the best balance of teachers to technology in the classroom? 

• Learn about the need to fully evaluate EdTech. 

Many of my students qualify for free or reduced lunch and don’t have access to devices or WiFi outside of school. When tech—and teachers—make assumptions about what, why and how students learn, it can create a tangled web of challenges for students.

One of my students, Andre, took a diagnostic test and scored low in figurative language standards, specifically distinguishing indirect meaning, but exceptionally high in literal standards, particularly in nonfiction texts.

I made note of this trend and delivered Andre my unit on satire, complete with recently curated videos and teacher exemplars that he could work through at his own pace, but that didn’t happen.

I asked if there was anything I could do to support him, and he requested that I sit with him and help him with the work. We looked at the first task, which asked him to read an article from “The Onion,” Itinerary For Trump’s Trip To Asia.

Andre said he understood irony and satire, but as he read through the red lines carefully, he wasn’t able to spot any instances. When I asked him to define the terms, he was able to verbally, and he could even give me examples outside of this assignment. I was dumbfounded.

He couldn’t relate to the privileged world of political satire I was trying to introduce him to. Suddenly, the problem hit me like a ton of bricks—it wasn’t the skill, it was the context.

Though I had used technology to assess his strengths and weaknesses, and used data to tailor curriculum, I hadn’t met Andre’s needs. And if I hadn’t sat down with him that day, I might not have ever realized the unfair situation I had inadvertently put him in.

Read the full article about technology and teachers by Farhat Ahmad at EdSurge.