One of the most common questions I hear from educators is whether technology should be used in a lesson. Schools are navigating artificial intelligence, digital wellness, accessibility, screen time, engagement, and a growing pile of new tools, and it can feel overwhelming to know when a screen belongs and when it doesn’t. Over time I’ve found one question that makes the decision easier: is technology serving the learning? Technology isn’t good or bad. Sometimes it provides access, makes thinking visible, or lets a student build something that couldn’t exist otherwise. Sometimes it turns a paper worksheet into a digital worksheet. Same tool, different lesson, opposite answer.
There is one more piece that most frameworks leave out, and students tend to notice it long before adults do. A tool can keep students busy and still leave them anxious, frustrated, or feeling less capable. It can also challenge them while making them feel supported and willing to try again. Both look like engagement from across the room, but they do not feel the same to the child using it. So the better question about engagement is: engaged in what, and at what cost?
Four questions run through my forthcoming book The Digital Wellness Age, and they work just as well on a lesson plan:
- What is technology adding?
- What is it replacing or displacing?
- How does it make students feel?
- Is it serving the learning?
Those are easy to agree with and harder to use on a Tuesday afternoon with a lesson due tomorrow. That is what this toolkit is for, and it comes with a few parts.
- The first is a reflection tool you can make a copy of or print and fill out. It walks you through a specific lesson, activity, or unit, and you can use it while planning, during a coaching conversation, on a learning walk, or on your own. It is built so you can hand it to a colleague without having to explain it first.
- The second is the Intentional Technology Coach. You describe the lesson and the AI coach walks you through the same thinking, asking follow-up questions and pushing back in ways a worksheet cannot. It is especially useful when you are planning and genuinely not sure whether the screen belongs.
- I am also building a turnkey faculty meeting around this, so if you are looking for something to run with a whole staff, check back soon.
Enter your email and I’ll send you the toolkit.