Schools Are Stuck in the Past. Our Kids Aren’t. – By Jennifer Aouad

 A professor, mother, and entrepreneur’s call for a new era of education.

Every day, I watch my 11-year-old son navigate a digital world with ease. He video-calls friends to solve homework problems, books pizza online, orders toys from AliExpress and tracks the shipment, finds his uncle’s street in Paris on Google Maps, reads stories with ChatGPT, takes online piano lessons, and even films, edits, and uploads his own stop-motion videos to YouTube. When he doesn’t know how to do something, he simply searches for instructions and teaches himself while surfing in a safe, child-friendly space that his dad and I prepared for him. From educational apps we approve to games and YouTube channels that are child-safe.

This is his world: connected, interactive, and full of possibility because we taught him how to use the internet for his own benefit.

And yet, every morning, that same boy carries a heavy backpack full of books to a classroom that looks exactly like the one I sat in thirty years ago. One teacher lectures to thirty students, delivering the same lesson at the same pace, regardless of who is struggling or who is ready to fly ahead. He comes home bored, unseen, unmotivated—and burdened with homework that often makes little sense to him, because let’s face reality, Gen Alpha is very different from us millennials and Gen X, and yet they are treated like an old generation.

This glaring gap between the lives of our children and the education we offer them has catastrophic consequences. Students are not prepared for the real world. They are not learning how to compete in an ever-changing environment. And worst of all, many are losing their love of learning before they’ve even had a chance to discover it.

The Case for Educational Technology

The solution is not to ban technology, but to embrace it with purpose. Educational Technology—EdTech—is not just about screens. It’s about using computer hardware, software, and digital platforms (from learning management systems to AI tutors, AR, and VR) to make learning personal, interactive, and meaningful.

When used wisely, technology can:

• Teach critical and creative thinking through age-appropriate games.
• Blend digital and traditional play, like Minecraft, inspiring real-world building projects.
• Connect students with people across the globe, fostering collaboration and cultural understanding.
• Empower children to produce content, whether music, films, blogs, or animations.
• Build problem-solving and goal-setting skills through apps and trackers.

But this integration cannot be blind. With power comes responsibility.

Teaching Ethics in the Digital Age

Our children are growing up with AI, AR, and VR. These tools can be extraordinary learning partners—but only if we teach students how to use them ethically and safely.

• AI: Students must learn the difference between using AI as a brainstorming tool versus copying its output. AI can spark creativity and deepen understanding, but without guidance, it becomes a shortcut that undermines learning.
• AR (Augmented Reality): AR can bring ancient history to life in a classroom, placing the Pyramids on a student’s desk. But children must also be taught to question the accuracy of digital reconstructions and distinguish simulation from fact.
• VR (Virtual Reality): VR can transport students inside the human body or to the surface of Mars. Yet, they need to learn balance—immersing themselves in virtual worlds while remaining rooted in real-world reflection and responsibility.

Without ethical instruction, the risks are enormous: cyberbullying, exposure to fake news, manipulated photos and videos, privacy breaches, and even cyberattacks. Left alone, children can quickly become overwhelmed, misled, or harmed by the very tools meant to empower them.

With guidance, however, they become digital citizens—responsible, discerning, and capable of harnessing technology to create, innovate, and solve real-world problems.

The Teacher’s Evolving Role

This doesn’t mean teachers are being replaced. Quite the opposite. In fact, technology allows teachers to step into their most essential role: the human facilitator. Teachers are the ones who transmit emotional intelligence, who listen, who guide, who inspire. AI can personalize a math lesson for each child, but only a teacher can see the fear in a student’s eyes and offer encouragement.

A Future Within Reach

This vision is not science fiction. Platforms like Khan Academy are already integrating AI instructors. Finland is experimenting with EdTech-driven personalized learning models. The evidence is clear: students engage more deeply, understand more fully, and prepare more effectively for the world ahead.

So let us not fear technology. Let us teach it. Let us guide our children not only in how to use digital tools, but how to question them, shape them, and improve them.

A Call to Action

As a professor, a mother, and an entrepreneur who built an educational app Ata3allam, that teaches Arabic for kids, I believe this is our responsibility. If we continue to teach our children in outdated ways, we fail them. But if we equip them with both the tools and the ethics to use technology wisely, we empower them to become innovators, problem-solvers, and leaders who will shape a brighter, more inclusive future.

Technology is not the enemy. Ignorance is. The earlier we teach our children to embrace technology ethically, the stronger, smarter, and more resilient they will be.

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