Good intentions don’t save bad tools. That’s the first lesson.
ISTE+ASCD spent years figuring out how teachers handle edtech. Fine. Now they’re looking at the actual students. The ones in the seats. The research team asked a simple question. How does the design of digital stuff—technical or pedagogical—mess with how kids actually learn?
They didn’t guess.
Working with In Tandem and Sesame workshop, the researchers went straight to high schoolers across the US. Real contexts. Real screens. Not some lab experiment.
“Findings identify five areas that matter most.”
Students aren’t just passive consumers. They want tools that are intuitive. Meaningful. Engaging. Not just another tab to close.
What comes out of this? A framework. For buyers. For product designers. The folks deciding what lands in your school next year.
You don’t get the full guidance yet.
Wait for 2026.
Until then? We know what students hate. We know what they ignore. The question isn’t whether the tech works. It’s whether the tech bothers to meet students where they are.
Most don’t.
