Anhil Hurkadli, former acting deputy director for the Office of Educational Technology and chief of staff for the Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Education, lives in Minneapolis. The Minnesota Star Tribune recently published an Opinion Piece from him on technology in the classroom…

The 2024 National Educational Technology Plan identified three digital “divides” that characterize more precisely where our intentions fall short: the digital access divide (who does or doesn’t have connectivity, content and devices); the digital-use divide (active or passive technology used to complete instructional tasks); and the digital design divide (systems providing ongoing, robust professional support to ensure all educators use technology more effectively, or not). A student, parent, educator or administrator can use this language to better pinpoint the specific issues technology is creating in their school community.

The letter goes on to offer some recommendations to students, parents, educators and district leaders. He also discussion the importance of policy…

Minnesota is exceptional in many ways, but we lag far behind as a state when it comes to educational technology policy. Gov. Tim Walz made attempts to close the digital-access divide during the pandemic, but little was done to ensure those new devices were used effectively (as teachers and parents who weathered the pandemic can attest). Since ChatGPT was released to the public in 2022, our state government and the Legislature have done little to set a unifying vision for technology or AI in education, or to provide guidance and resources to implement that vision.
We should expect that our next governor, our next commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Education and our next state Legislature have informed, nuanced opinions about the issues involved and the political will to act. Thankfully, strong leadership exists at the local level. St. Cloud’s robust guidance to students, educators and families and Hopkins’ ”pedagogy over policing” approach stand out as regional exemplars.
These are collective opportunities and challenges that will take time to address, but we each play a role in solving them. Don’t spend another semester wishing someone else would do something about it. While the underlying issues may be difficult to identify (but easy to ignore), things will only get more complex. Just ask Claude how agentic AI or quantum computing will affect education.