Between Hype and Harm: Finding the EdTech Balance

Why ‘It Depends’ is the Right Answer in EdTech

In a nutshell:
The impact of technology on education is often misunderstood, with public opinion swinging between extremes—either as a revolutionary solution or a harmful distraction.
In reality, educational technology is a mixed bag: some tools are genuinely transformative, while others can be counterproductive.
Especially in India, where the context and challenges differ significantly from the West, we need more nuanced, purpose-driven conversations about which tech to use, for what purpose, and under what conditions.

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→ First, some rambling personal updates that have nothing to do with the rest of this blog post.

Hi! It’s been a while since my last post. I’m on vacation right now and trying to carve out a few moments to break the long silence. This half of the year is generally my low-posting season—probably thanks to the lead-up to the new school year, which tends to be intense.

During this time, I’ve also slacked off on reading research (a post on my process). My inbox now has over 300 papers sitting in the "To Read" folder :(

On the flip side, I’ve built solid momentum using Google Apps Script to automate a truckload of tasks at school (post 1 and post 2 on this process). That “Automations List” Google Sheet mentioned in post 2 now has 52 projects listed. These have literally saved hundreds of hours of manual work for our team. But even more than that, it’s been a perfect creative outlet for me. I’ve reached a point where I’m more often in flow than in frustration. This continues to be my most useful and promising application of AI to date. Hopefully, sometime this year, I’ll be able to distill and share that learning in a meaningful way.

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I’m returning to a thought from a few years ago: the influence of tech on education is rarely disruptive or swift—and we need to approach it with patient optimism. It’s a slow and often incremental process. As Justin Reich puts it, “Education technology is a good field for those who see themselves as patient optimists.”

This untrendy take feels out of place in a world dominated by extreme, either-or thinking. In the U.S., people either love or hate Trump’s policies. In India, some see strong leadership guiding the country into a golden age, while others believe it's sliding into autocracy and losing its diversity. There’s little room for middle ground. It’s the same with climate change—you’re either a “climate alarmist” demanding radical change or a “climate denier” who dismisses the problem. Balanced views that recognize both the urgency and the trade-offs hardly get heard.

We’re like someone fiddling with the shower knobs, trying to find the perfect water temperature. First, it’s freezing, so we crank the heat. Suddenly it’s scalding, so we jerk it back the other way. Then it’s icy again. We keep swinging between extremes—too hot, too cold—never quite landing on just right.

Educational tech hasn’t escaped this pendulum either. One day it’s “going to disrupt education,” the next it’s “destroying children’s lives.”

After COVID, investors thought EdTech was ready to revolutionise education and poured money into it—especially in India. Hype was high, funding flowed, and EdTech startups exploded in scale and valuation. Then reality set in: education is complex, and tech isn’t a magic bullet. The same companies that were once on pedestals quickly fell, and funding dried up. (For a deeper dive into this journey, I highly recommend the Ed-Set-Go newsletter by Olina Banerjee at The Ken—she's covered it brilliantly over the years.)

Now, it feels like the pendulum has swung the other way—especially in the West. The dominant sentiment seems to be: “Tech is bad.” Tech is ruining adolescence. Tech is ruining schools. Beware of tech.

But the opposite of “EdTech is not a silver bullet” is not “EdTech is harmful.” And yet, it’s hard to keep that shower knob from swinging to the extreme again.

As always, these sweeping claims contain some truth—but lack nuance. And the nuance is critical. Two things can be true at once: some technology can be transformative for learning, and some tech can be harmful for students. We need to be able to hold both truths in our minds. Binary thinking is a trap, and we have to work hard to avoid falling into it—especially when media and popular discourse seem intent on pushing us there.

Here are two ideas I keep in mind when thinking about EdTech, especially in India. They help me hold onto the nuance.

1. The giant bucket of “tech” includes both helpful and harmful tools.

We tend to talk about "tech in education" like it's one thing—but it's not. It's a wide and varied category.

Here’s an old post that breaks down the “black box” of screen time. For example:

1. Using a laptop in a classroom is very different from having a cellphone in there. Laptops allow you to use creator tools for word processing, design, coding, number crunching etc. They are easier to supervise and if needed manage internet security. Cellphones on the other hand are less useful for work and productivity purposes. They are small, often with their own internet source and have found to be a much greater source of distraction / unproductive tech use in the classroom.

2. There is technology that provides students with access to information and expertise, rich, engaging content, personalized pathways, AI tools, creator and collaborator tools. There is also the digital world of social media, tik toks and passive viewing/ gaming that seem to be greater distractors than purposeful tech in an educational setting.

There’s tech that opens up access to knowledge, helps personalize learning, enables creativity, and enhances collaboration. And there’s also tech that promotes passive consumption, compulsive scrolling, and distraction.

2. The Indian context is very different from the West—and that matters.

A colleague recently sent me an article by Michael Bloomberg about overusing tech in classrooms. It makes valid points—like tech should supplement, not substitute teaching. And that there is still a very important role for physical materials and activity—but one sentence jumped out:

“Today, about 90% of schools provide laptops or tablets to their students.”

Wait… what? In which world? Oh yes—that world. The Western world.

In India, the reality is entirely different. Even in cities like Mumbai, many schools do not reflect the tech and information-rich environments outside their walls. There’s a massive digital divide—not just between rural and urban areas, but within cities themselves.

And as we move beyond cities into smaller towns and villages, the divide deepens. In many places, we’re still working toward foundational literacy. Tech can play a role in closing those gaps. Our challenges are different, and so our solutions may look different too.

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So let’s acknowledge two key things:

1. “Tech” is a mixed bag—some of it is helpful, some of it is harmful.

2. India has a different context and different needs from the West. We should evaluate our tech priorities accordingly.

Only then can we move past tired arguments like “Tech is good” vs. “Tech is bad” and start asking the questions that actually matter:

• Which tech is helpful?

• For which purposes?

• Under what conditions?

• How can we use it well?

• How can we protect children from its downsides?

We don’t have to choose between casting tech as a hero or a villain.

Let’s be okay with the idea of “some.”
Some tech is helpful. Some tech is harmful.
The real work is in separating the two—and using that clarity to design better systems for learning.

Let’s bring nuance back. That’s where the productive conversations—and real progress—can begin.