Stanford Graduate School of Education Dean Dan Schwartz and other education scholars weigh in on what’s next for some of the technology trends taking center stage in the classroom. 

Image credit: Claire Scully

1. New advances in technology are upending education, from the recent debut of new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT to the growing accessibility of virtual-reality tools that expand the boundaries of the classroom. For educators, at the heart of it all is the hope that every learner gets an equal chance to develop the skills they need to succeed. But that promise is not without its pitfalls.

2. “Technology is a game-changer for education – it offers the prospect of universal access to high-quality learning experiences, and it creates fundamentally new ways of teaching,” said Dan Schwartz, dean of Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE), who is also a professor of educational technology at the GSE and faculty director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. “But there are a lot of ways we teach that aren’t great, and a big fear with AI in particular is that we just get more efficient at teaching badly. This is a moment to pay attention, to do things differently.”

3. For K-12 schools, this year also marks the end of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding program, which has provided pandemic recovery funds that many districts used to invest in educational software and systems. With these funds running out in September 2024, schools are trying to determine their best use of technology as they face the prospect of diminishing resources.

4. Here, Schwartz and other Stanford education scholars weigh in on some of the technology trends taking center stage in the classroom this year.

SPECTOR, C. How technology is reinventing education | Stanford Report. Disponível em: <https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2024/02/technology-in-education>.