BOULDER, CO (June 19, 2025)—In this month's episode of NEPC Talks Education, Christopher Saldaña explores the widespread adoption of education technology in schools and its unintended consequences with Faith Boninger, Publications Manager and Co-Director of NEPC's Commercialism in Education Research Unit, and Andrew Liddell, co-founder of the EdTech Law Center, a consumer protection law firm that helps families solve problems where school meets technology.
Liddell and Boninger explain that schools are haphazard in their approach to adopting and implementing educational technologies. In large part this is because schools lack the resources and expertise necessary to vet the safety practices, data collection methods, or educational effectiveness of technology products.
The discussion highlights significant privacy and safety concerns. According to Liddell, technology companies collect enormous amounts of data from children throughout their school experience, often sharing this information with third parties. Boninger and Liddell also report that there are now many examples of children using school-issued devices experiencing online sexual abuse, cyberbullying leading to self-harm, and sexual extortion.
Boninger emphasizes the lack of transparency in educational technology, noting that teachers, parents, and administrators often have no understanding of how algorithmic decisions are made about student learning and assessment. She describes how "personalizing education" often means isolating students with individual devices rather than improving educational outcomes.
Liddell and Boninger argue that disclosure and consent processes are inadequate, with districts typically requiring blanket consent for unspecified future technology adoptions rather than providing detailed information about specific products and their data practices.
Regarding artificial intelligence in education, both guests express concern about the rush to implement AI tools without proper regulation or understanding of their implications. They warn that AI intensifies existing problems with data collection and opacity while potentially encoding bias into educational predictions and decisions.
Liddell and Boninger recommend that parents work collectively to advocate for transparency and restraint in technology adoption. They encourage policymakers to pay attention to the unregulated environment that has developed around educational technology and to implement oversight, accountability, and transparency requirements. They also emphasize that schools should establish a clear educational vision and goals before adopting any technology, ensuring that products genuinely advance learning rather than simply replacing human instruction with algorithmic decision-making.
A new NEPC Talks Education podcast episode, hosted by Christopher Saldaña, will be released each month from September through May.
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