Some days, it feels like there’s an app for everything. When determining which apps are worth our time as educators, it’s important to think in terms of being intentional, balanced, and least restrictive. Each of these is essential to becoming an edtech minimalist. When we are intentional, technology has a clear purpose. When we are balanced, we integrate a developmentally appropriate mix of digital and analog tools in the classroom. And when we choose tools that are least restrictive, we can scaffold learning without creating more barriers or dependence in learners.
Consider the following four-question framework from my book Reclaiming Personalized Learning (Corwin, 2022) to evaluate—and streamline—your approach to technology and app integration.
1. Does the Tool Minimize Complexity?
Technology should make our lives simpler, not more complex. Too often, though, technology does the latter. I made a rookie mistake when I first started teaching: I had an app for almost every subject I taught, sometimes multiple.
Instead of an app for every subject, choose apps that provide efficient learning solutions across multiple subjects. Take Seesaw, for instance, a digital portfolio application that allows teachers to assign work, facilitate collaboration, and manage communication and feedback. It also gives students the freedom to document their learning in their own ways (through photos, drawings, video, etc.). This app can be used in any subject, and for a broad array of lessons.
Multiuse apps not only make learning more accessible to students, but also increase the ways in which students can demonstrate learning—without added complexity.
2. Does the Tool Maximize Individual Power and Potential?
When our lives are simpler, we have more opportunities to direct our energy toward the parts of our jobs that really matter. Managing passwords or sifting through meaningless data (i.e., usage metrics, questions answered correctly) takes valuable time from us—time we could be using to respond to students’ needs, analyze meaningful data from formative assessments, or plan more universally accessible learning experiences.
When individual power and potential is maximized, students have more opportunities to engage with learning. Consider a versatile app for math manipulatives, such as BrainingCamp, that includes base-ten blocks, number lines, and fraction tiles. Tools like these scaffold learning, offering students a concrete avenue for making sense of a problem.
That said, we must exercise caution, ensuring that tech tools do not inadvertently create additional barriers to learning. Commonly, I see teachers using voice-to-text as an intervention for students who struggle with writing. While this may minimize complexity, it doesn’t always maximize students’ potential. For some students, this is a least restrictive scaffold: without voice-to-text, there would be no opportunity for these students to engage in learning, usually due to a significant learning disability or insurmountable challenges with fine motor skills. For other students, voice-to-text is a crutch, giving them an easy out from writing or typing when they are more than capable of doing so.
New research shows greater brain activity when students handwrite their work versus typing it out on a computer. This illustrates how, sometimes, digital solutions can actually limit individual power and potential, in this case diverting students to a tool that stimulates less of the brain.
Pause and consider: Is this really necessary? Is it worth your time? Is it worth the kids’ time?
3. Does the Tool Reimagine Learning Experiences?
I hate to break it to you, but Kahoot and other game-based platforms aren’t really reimagining learning. We must ask ourselves: what’s the purpose of using a tool that prompts students to compete for correct answers? Who is benefiting from it? And more importantly, who is being marginalized by it?
When we use apps to gamify content, we risk robbing our students of critical time for retrieval practice, especially those who have slower processing speeds or anxiety. If the goal of a gamified tool is retrieval practice (i.e., opportunities to practice recalling key facts, figures, and definitions), a simple formative assessment can fulfill this need. Oftentimes, a Google Form can provide teachers with more fruitful data than a gamified quiz.
When reimagining learning experiences, consider Puentedura’s SAMR model, which encourages teachers to consider whether tools are supporting substitution, augmentation, modification, or redefinition. Tools like PDF annotators, simple word processors, or web-based adaptive tools can provide functional improvement in the form of substituting analog solutions for digital ones, while tools like Google Docs or Seesaw reimagine learning by creating opportunities for learning that were not previously possible.
4. Does the Tool Preserve or Enhance Human Connection?
We learned this lesson (the hard way) during the pandemic: when students are isolated from their peers, their learning suffers. This is also true when students are prompted to turn toward their devices in classrooms more often than they are encouraged to turn toward one another.
I experienced this firsthand while working for an education technology start-up and network of micro-schools from 2014 to 2017. We sought to personalize learning using web-based adaptive technologies and individualized playlists of activities. Not only was creating these playlists unsustainable for teachers due to the amount of time required to plan and prepare, but it dehumanized learning: kids spent far more time learning through screens than in community with one another.
Instead of using web-based adaptive technologies or gamified apps, consider creating inquiry- or project-based experiences that require students to collaborate—and embed digital tools into those experiences. Perhaps you present students with a challenge your community faces and invite them to work in groups to design a solution using Tinkercad, an application that allows users to create three-dimensional designs. Or maybe you ask students to create a collaborative presentation on Google Slides or make a video to demonstrate their understanding of a historical time period.
It’s About Intention
In short, we shouldn’t be using technology just for the sake of it. As I say to students, apps are not toys, they are learning tools. If you happen to answer no to one of the questions shared here, it doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t use the app. But it should prompt you to pause and consider: Is this really necessary? Is it worth your time? Is it worth the kids’ time? And most important, is it making your teaching more or less sustainable?
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