Many claim that the hurried embrace of technology-dependent remote learning facilitated innovations and transformations that have propelled education into desirable digital futures. Others assert that the turn to ed-tech was the best and perhaps only viable solution to confront the educational challenges imposed by the pandemic. A popular view holds that both groups are correct: technology-centric approaches to education saved the day in an emergency by preserving the continuity of formal learning and normalized practices that have improved and modernized education.

The global evidence, however, reveals a more sombre picture. It exposes the ways unprecedented educational dependence on technology often resulted in unchecked exclusion, staggering inequality, inadvertent harm and the elevation of learning models that put machines and profit before people

West, Mark, “An ed-tech tragedy? Educational technologies and school closures in the time of COVID-19″. Unesco, 2023. https://doi.org/10.54675/LYGF2153