Teachers Skeptical of Edtech: Why the Newest Are the Most Wary

You might expect the youngest teachers to be the biggest fans of classroom screens. They grew up with them. The data say the opposite. In an EdWeek Research Center survey published October 28, 2026, only 17% of educators with fewer than 10 years in the job said technology does more to increase learning than to decrease it. Among those with 10 to 14 years, it was 39%.

So the teachers skeptical of edtech are, disproportionately, the ones who were teenagers when smartphones arrived. That is not technophobia. It reads more like experience, and it lines up with what two decades of research say about technology in classrooms: it helps in some uses, hurts in others, and rarely delivers what the sales pitch promised.

Key Takeaways

• 17% vs. 39%. EdWeek surveyed 596 educators in February and March 2026. Those with under 10 years of experience were far less likely than mid-career colleagues to call tech a net plus for learning.
• Skeptical is not the same as anti-tech. Newer educators were more likely to say tech is “equally likely” to help or hurt, a mixed view rather than a hostile one. Gallup also found that educators under 40 use AI at about the average rate.
• The track record backs the caution. The OECD’s 2015 analysis of PISA data found that students who used school computers very frequently did worse, and that heavy investment in classroom tech brought no noticeable gains.
• Phones changed the classroom first. In 2023, 72% of U.S. high school teachers called cellphone distraction a major problem, per Pew.
• For parents, the useful question is narrow: which specific tool, for which skill, with what evidence?

What the EdWeek Survey of Newer Teachers Found

The EdWeek Research Center survey is a poll of 596 educators conducted in February and March 2026 and reported by Alyson Klein in Education Week on October 28, 2026. Its central finding is a split by career stage.

Years of experience	Say tech does more to increase than decrease learning	Notes
Fewer than 10	17%	Almost half say tech is “equally likely” to help or hurt
10 to 14	39%	“Nearly 2 in 5” see tech as a net plus
15 or more	Not reported in the article	Less likely than newer teachers to pick “equally likely”

Source: EdWeek Research Center, reported in Education Week (2026). The article does not give the margin of error or full question wording.

Two cautions before reading too much into this. First, it is one survey of a few hundred people, and the article does not publish every band or the margin of error. Second, the question was about technology broadly, not AI specifically. A teacher could doubt tablets and still find a chatbot useful for planning.

That second point shows up in other data. Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation’s 2026 survey of 1,952 educators found AI use among those under 40 close to the 59% average, with the highest use among 40- to 59-year-olds and the lowest, 46%, among those 60 and older. Younger teachers are not refusing technology. They are just less convinced it helps their students learn.

Why the Generational Split Exists: Three Explanations

Nobody has tested why newer teachers are warier, so treat these as plausible explanations drawn from what teachers themselves say, not established causes.

They were the test subjects

Tyler Hunt, a 30-year-old middle school computer science teacher in suburban Chicago, told Education Week: “We see how it affected us and how we had to fight it.” Her generation spent its teen years as smartphones and social media became universal. EdWeek’s own State of Teaching reporting found that some Gen Z teachers set boundaries on their own tech use and encourage students to limit theirs. People who struggled with a technology are rarely its loudest advocates.

Their first years in the classroom were on screens

Many teachers now in their first decade started during or right after pandemic remote learning. Hunt called starting her career then “the worst experience.” If your first classroom was a grid of muted video tiles, you saw up close what is lost when teaching is mediated by a device. Education Week presents this as a possibility, and that is the right level of confidence.

The novelty is gone

Cory Montreuil, a Denver instructional coach with 14 years in schools, put it plainly: for younger teachers, technology is not “cool or fresh or new.” It is “the thing [they] do Snapchat with.” Older teachers saw computers arrive as a leap forward. Younger ones see them as ordinary, which makes it easier to judge them on results.

What these three share is that newer teachers are reasoning from experience, not fear. And Hunt’s own summary is a fair description of the “equally likely” camp: “Some of the best learning that I have is when we unplug the screens, we stop, and we talk to each other.” She teaches computer science.

Why Teachers Skeptical of Edtech Have a Point: The Track Record

The evidence on classroom technology is mixed, and it has been mixed for a long time. That history is why newer teachers’ caution looks reasonable rather than reactionary.

What was promised	What the evidence found	Source
More computers in schools would raise achievement	Impact “mixed, at best”; very frequent school computer use linked to worse results; heavy ICT investment brought no noticeable gains in reading, math or science	OECD, Students, Computers and Learning (2015)
Technology would personalize and improve learning everywhere	”Some technology can support some learning in some contexts, but not when it is overused or inappropriately used”	UNESCO GEM Report (2023)
Devices in class would mostly help	72% of high school teachers called phone distraction a major problem in 2023; 79 education systems had phone bans by end of 2024	Pew (2024); UNESCO (2025 update)
AI tutors would boost math learning	Unrestricted GPT-4 raised practice grades 48% but lowered later grades 17% once removed; a hint-only tutor largely avoided the loss	Bastani et al., PNAS (2025)
Ed-tech apps are safe for kids’ data	16% of countries explicitly guaranteed data privacy in education by law as of 2023	UNESCO (2025 update)

The OECD study, built on 2012 PISA data for 15-year-olds, is the classic reference. Andreas Schleicher, the OECD’s education director, summarized technology’s impact on student performance as “mixed, at best.” The report’s own line is harsher: “adding 21st-century technologies to 20th-century teaching practices will just dilute the effectiveness of teaching.” Schleicher said students who used computers moderately at school “tend to have somewhat better learning outcomes” than those who rarely did, while very frequent users “do a lot worse in most learning outcomes,” even after accounting for social background. Korea and Shanghai, top scorers on PISA’s computer-based tests, had only 42% and 38% of students reporting computer use at school. It is correlational data, so it cannot prove computers caused lower scores. But it was the first big signal that more screens is not the same as more learning.

The Bastani study is the newest and most precise piece. It is a randomized field experiment with nearly a thousand high school students in Turkey, so it can say more about cause. Its finding is the one newer teachers seem to intuit: the same tool helped or harmed depending on design. A tutor that gave answers became a “crutch.” A tutor that gave hints did not.

For a deeper read on tablets and apps specifically, see what classroom technology research actually shows. For the phone side, our look at the 2025 Lancet school phone ban study explains why bans have had smaller effects than headlines suggest.

What This Means for Your Child’s Classroom

Newer teachers are a growing share of the workforce, and their instincts will shape classrooms your child sits in. That is not a reason to expect fewer devices across the board. It is a reason to expect more teachers who want a specific case for each tool.

That matches a broader shift. RAND’s 2025 surveys found that 61% of parents agreed that more AI use would harm students’ critical thinking, compared with only 22% of district leaders. The skeptics, in other words, are often the people closest to the kids: young teachers and parents. The people furthest away, administrators who sign contracts, are the most optimistic. When your child’s teacher is warier than the district, that teacher may be the one in the room seeing what the tool does.

To see how this connects to AI attitudes overall, our companion piece on what teachers really think about AI in 2026 walks through the time-saving and cheating data.

How to Talk to a Skeptical (or Enthusiastic) Teacher

Ask what the tool is for

“What does my child learn on this app that would be harder without it?” is the question every good tool can answer. A reading app that adapts difficulty, or a simulation that shows something you can’t do with paper, has a clear job. “It keeps them engaged” is not a learning goal.

Ask what happens when the screen goes away

The Bastani finding suggests the real test is performance without the tool. Ask how the teacher checks that skills stick: in-class work, quizzes on paper, explaining out loud.

Treat the teacher’s doubts as information

If a newer teacher tells you they limit screens, ask what they’ve seen. You’ll often get a concrete answer about attention, writing or conversation that you can’t get from a district handout.

Match home to school, not the other way around

If your child’s class is low-screen and home is high-screen, the mismatch is worth noticing. Ask yourself what the screens at home are displacing, the same question a careful teacher asks about class time.

What not to do

Don’t assume a teacher who limits tech is behind the times, or that one who uses a lot is reckless. The EdWeek data show the most common position among newer teachers is “it depends.” That’s the honest answer, and it deserves a follow-up question, not a verdict.

What to Watch For Over the Next 3 Months

• Week 4: List every app or platform your child uses for school. Ask the teacher which ones they consider essential and which are optional. Many districts are reviewing tools this year, including New York City, which said it would remove those considered nonessential.
• Month 2 red flags: Homework that is mostly clicking through a platform with no writing or explaining; grades that look fine on the app but a child who can’t do the same work on paper; screens used to fill time at the end of class.
• Month 3 self-check: Can your child describe one thing they learned this term that they could only have learned with the technology? If neither of you can name one, that’s worth raising.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are younger teachers skeptical of edtech?

No study has tested the cause. Teachers interviewed by Education Week point to growing up with smartphones and seeing their effects, starting their careers during pandemic remote learning, and seeing technology as ordinary rather than exciting. Many hold a mixed view: tech is “equally likely” to help or hurt.

Do newer teachers use AI less?

Not according to Gallup. Its 2026 survey of 1,952 educators found AI use among those under 40 close to the 59% average. The lowest use, 46%, was among educators 60 and older. Skepticism about whether tech helps students learn is different from refusing to use it for planning.

Does technology in classrooms improve learning?

It depends on the use. The OECD’s 2015 PISA analysis found moderate school computer use associated with somewhat better results and very frequent use with worse ones. A 2025 PNAS experiment found an AI tutor helped or harmed math learning depending on whether it gave hints or answers.

Should I ask for less screen time at my child’s school?

You can ask, but a more productive request is specific: which tools are used, for what skills, and how the teacher checks that learning holds up without the screen. That gets you a real answer and treats the teacher as a partner rather than a target.

Is the EdWeek survey representative of all teachers?

It surveyed 596 educators, and the published article doesn’t report the margin of error or every experience group. Treat it as a strong signal worth watching rather than a precise national estimate. Larger surveys, like Gallup’s, point in a consistent direction on caution.

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About the author

Ricky Flores is the founder of HiWave Makers and an electrical engineer with 15+ years of experience building consumer technology at Apple, Samsung, and Texas Instruments. He writes about how kids learn to build, think, and create in a tech-saturated world. Read more at hiwavemakers.com.

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Sources

1. Klein, A. (2026). “Newer Educators Are Less Likely to Say Tech Helps Students Learn.” Education Week. https://edweek.org/technology/newer-educators-are-less-likely-to-say-tech-helps-students-learn/2026/10
2. Brenan, M. (2026). “Teachers Using AI Say It Frees Up Time for What Matters Most.” Gallup. https://news.gallup.com/poll/715364/teachers-using-say-frees-time-matters-mostost.aspx
3. OECD. (2015). Students, Computers and Learning: Making the Connection. PISA, OECD Publishing. As summarized in Trucano, M. (2015). “New landmark OECD PISA study on ‘Students, Computers and Learning: Making the Connection’.” World Bank Blogs. https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/education/OECD-PISA-computers-learning
4. Earp, J. (2015). “Great tech can’t replace poor teaching.” Teacher Magazine (Australian Council for Educational Research). http://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/great-tech-cant-replace-poor-teaching
5. UNESCO. (2023, updated 2025). “To ban or not to ban? Smartphones in school only when they clearly support learning.” Global Education Monitoring Report. https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/smartphones-school-only-when-they-clearly-support-learning
6. Hatfield, J. (2024). “72% of U.S. high school teachers say cellphone distraction is a major problem in the classroom.” Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/06/12/72-percent-of-us-high-school-teachers-say-cellphone-distraction-is-a-major-problem-in-the-classroom/
7. Bastani, H., et al. (2025). “Generative AI without guardrails can harm learning: Evidence from high school mathematics.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2422633122
8. RAND Corporation. (2025). “AI Use in Schools Is Quickly Increasing but Guidance Lags Behind.” https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4180-1.html
9. Associated Press. (2026). “NYC, the nation’s largest school system, bans AI for students through 8th grade.” Spectrum News NY1. https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/ap-top-news/2026/09/02/nyc-the-nations-largest-school-district-bans-ai-for-students-through-8th-grade