When EdTech Tools Work and When They Don’t

The Allure of EdTech Tools

The promise of implementing edTech tools in education is alluring. Educational technologies help in the classroom and beyond as additional avenues to practice core skills, personalize learning based on ability, add more fun, and enable better collaboration among students and teachers. In short, they can be a valuable aid to improve learning outcomes and keep students engaged. 

However, despite the vast potential of edTech tools, they can inadvertently create situations where student learning gets negatively impacted. Here are a few things to remember when using edTech technology in your classroom to reap the most benefit.  

Reduce Unnecessary Use of Media

It might be tempting to use different forms of media when teaching a concept. However, when multiple forms of media are used simultaneously, they can cause distraction and make it harder to retain information. 

In one experiment, researchers showed two groups of volunteers a presentation about the country Mali. One group was shown a text-only version of the presentation, while the other saw a multimedia version that included both text and audio-visual content.

After the presentation, the text-only group could answer more questions correctly on a follow-up quiz compared to the multimedia group. Researchers summarized the outcome as follows, “The text-only readers found it to be more interesting, more educational, more understandable, and more enjoyable than did the multimedia viewers, and the multimedia viewers were much more likely to agree with the statement ‘I did not learn anything from this presentation than were the text-only readers.”

This does not mean that teachers should stop using multimedia. Different forms of media can be engaging and fun for the classroom as long as they don’t cause cognitive overload when used simultaneously. 

Limit Use of Gamified Elements in EdTech Tools

Many edTech products use gaming elements like badges, points, and more to keep students engaged with the product. While these mechanisms can engage students in the short term, they reduce students’ intrinsic motivation in the long term. The initial engagement is now believed to be due to the novelty of engaging with a new product, and when this novelty wears off, so does the interest in the subject. When gaming elements are used over a long time, students no longer enjoy learning for learning’s sake. 

In one semester-long study, researchers divided students into two groups – a gamified group that used a reward system aligned with the learning goals and a control group that received the same instruction without any gamified elements. At the end of the semester exam, the non-gamified group not only did better but also reported higher levels of motivation and satisfaction at the end of the class! The researchers explain, “The results suggest that at best, our combination of leaderboards, badges, and competition mechanics do not improve educational outcomes and at worst can harm motivation, satisfaction, and empowerment. Further, decreasing intrinsic motivation can affect students’ final exam scores.”

That said, gamified mechanisms can be useful in a few scenarios. It’s still a good idea, however, to limit them to short periods of time. They are helpful when working with lower-order skills, like memorizing facts and spellings, or improving speed, like mental math and typing. To promote higher-order thinking skills, like creative and critical thinking, using gamified elements is almost always a bad idea. 

Use Collaborative EdTech Tools

By default, classroom environments tend to promote student competition, reducing intrinsic motivation. Using technology tools to promote collaboration can help balance this out. Even simple social cues that signal working together have been found to enhance intrinsic motivation.  

These collaboration tools don’t have to be very sophisticated as long as they allow a genuine way to collaborate. One of the things we discovered through remote learning during the pandemic was that collaboratively editing a shared document led to better learning for the whole group. Students who were shy in group conversations could offer more ideas by simply editing the document, and more ideas get incorporated into the final solution. 

Discussion boards are another (simple) and useful tool for building critical thinking in students. They provide an asynchronous opportunity for students to think about the question, do research and reflect upon their idea before sharing it with others. They also learn through their peers – reading through other responses expands their own perspective. 

Reflecting on Outcomes

While edTech tools have the potential to improve learning outcomes, not all of them might be suitable. In addition, how and when they are used in the classroom also makes a difference. Inappropriate or overuse of technology can harm learning outcomes. Educators should pay attention to cognitive overload, intrinsic motivation, and collaboration when incorporating edTech tools in their classrooms.

Read more from author Pronita Mehrotra and her work on using creativity to create positive learning outcomes here.