{"id":10549,"date":"2026-06-15T21:01:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T02:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/netasite.org\/?p=10549"},"modified":"2026-06-15T21:01:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T02:01:50","slug":"summer-a-good-time-for-slow-coffee-and-deep-thinking-about-ed-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/netasite.org\/?p=10549","title":{"rendered":"Summer: A Good time for Slow Coffee and Deep Thinking about Ed Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am in that part of summer where I am sleeping so soundly that waking up feels like emerging from a dark cave.\u00a0 This spring I was teacher tired on a new feral-cat-like level, but now that it\u2019s June, my brain is buzzing again, thinking about what\u2019s next, while still taking things slower where I can.<\/span><\/p>\n

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That said, a number of things about ed tech have me thinking.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know that any of this is formed thoughts as much as wondering.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been an ed tech gal since 2006, so I\u2019ve lived through some shifts and know more will come.\u00a0 The shifts lately feel more shifty and leave me wondering how I use my voice in the mix.\u00a0 My favorite teacher question is, \u201cSo what?\u00a0 What do we do now?\u201d\u00a0 And as I explore these questions, I don\u2019t know that I have answers, but I wonder what you\u2019re wondering alongside these things I\u2019m grappling with:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. AI Ethics\u2026 A friend suggested I read <\/span>Culpability<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 This Oprah\u2019s Book Club Pick brings up some of the deeper, existential questions that AI brings to the fore as a teen dies from a self-driving car. Who\u2019s fault is it?\u00a0 And how do we navigate these new questions?\u00a0 How do we help our students navigate?\u00a0 What does it mean for big AI data centers to encroach on rural places like Nebraska?<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Screen Time\u2026 There\u2019s a screen time reckoning happening with some <\/span>districts moving toward analog<\/span><\/a>, and I just read <\/span>a NYT article<\/span><\/a> that claimed some teens are on YouTube almost constantly, even during the school day.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to read these articles when you\u2019ve never been in a classroom. How do we continue to manage devices that have real benefit?\u00a0 When do we need to make no-tech spaces?\u00a0 Just this morning I was writing on a good ole\u2019 black and white composition notebook (with a good pen of course), and that felt good.\u00a0 What\u2019s the balance?\u00a0 How does it come together for us and our students with more thoughtfulness and less dopamine doom scrolls of Italian Brainrot?<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Joy in creating\u2026 An English teacher friend just used the word eucharistic to describe writing in a discussion about AI.\u00a0 I can\u2019t quit thinking about it, not so much in a religious sense, but in a human one.\u00a0 Even back when we were teaching six traits of writing, we had that one trait, voice, that felt beyond the concreteness of scoring.\u00a0 You knew it when you heard it.\u00a0 How do we keep our humanity and the writing juice for young writers even as we learn new processes for writing with AI.\u00a0 Should we?\u00a0 When should we?\u00a0 How do we balance it?\u00a0 What does all this mean for me as someone who has spent her life learning about writing and teaching others to write?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Well, there it is, the existential tailspin.\u00a0 It only took me to number three to get there.\u00a0 #hah!\u00a0 I don\u2019t have answers, but good questions matter for us as educators.\u00a0 In a grad class this summer (#nerdalert) our professor had us read an old article that felt worth revisiting.\u00a0 <\/span>Is Google Making us Stupid<\/span><\/a> by Nicholas Carr from 2008 looks at the history of technology up until that time. Admittedly, he\u2019s a critic, but he talked about how the internet \u201cproduces something altogether different\u201d than the printing press. The same can be said with AI today\u2026 What\u2019s different? How is it different? He also talked about the value of building a \u201ccomplex inner density.\u201d That language sticks for me. When I am using tech and when I\u2019m not, how am I enriching my inner life? How am I enriching that of my students in ways that matter?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Well\u2026 thanks for your grace with my messy thoughts. I like a good creative mess. I actually think if you don\u2019t feel messy right now when it comes to ed tech, you might not be paying attention. In all of it, I\u2019ve been finding a landing space with a word a new friend that I met in class used. He said, \u201cdeliberately.\u201d He was quoting Thoreau, but he paused when he said it so much that I took notice. No matter what I do, what I teach, or how I move fast and slow this summer, I want it to be deliberate, more on purpose with a pace that the school year sometimes just won\u2019t allow. But for now, I\u2019m going to sit with these questions and eat a fudge pop on the deck. Maybe I can, as Mary Oliver says, find my way this year to live into some answers.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I am in that part of summer where I am sleeping so soundly that waking up feels like emerging from a dark cave.\u00a0 This spring I was teacher tired on… <\/p>\n

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