Where technology can have the greatest impact in primary education
Schools and parents are right to scrutinise the role of technology in education.
Scrutiny is an essential aspect of all elements of education. Teaching methodology, the curriculum, the aims of education itself and the resources we use, including digital resources, should be regularly evaluated to ensure that they are adequate and effective.
While we have a responsibility to regularly evaluate resources, including technology, we have an equally important responsibility to ensure that this evaluation is thorough, well-informed and strategic.
Evaluation of resources must be based on their effectiveness at achieving established aims. Without this objective framework, we are at risk of making subjective decisions, changing the course of education and undermining teacher and parent confidence.
Once we have established our aims, decisions about which tools to adopt, considering their versatility, cost and impact, become increasingly objective and targeted. In turn, this creates long-lasting school digital strategies which are resistant to any scrutiny that takes place.
Recognising the context of individual schools
Evaluation of resources and methods needs to be objective to ensure that it transcends the views of groups or individuals.
A school's digital strategy should be a part of its overall, long term strategy which is grounded in its aims and ethos.
This ensures that decisions about use of technology are firmly grounded in the long-term strategy of the school. It also recognises that schools are unique, shaped by their history, heritage, surroundings and the vision of those who are invested in them. While parents want to know that all schools will provide an effective education, they also want to be able to choose schools that match their own aims and values.
Of course, while schools have the right to shape their own methods and focuses, they are also bound by government mandates, including curriculum requirements and safeguarding standards. In England, use of technology in primary schools is becoming increasingly directed.
Government mandates affecting technology use
In 2013, the English national curriculum introduced computing as a subject to replace ICT, including elements around computational thinking and digital literacy.
In 2026, the updated Relationship Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education statutory guidance (link) came into effect. This requires schools to teach health and wellbeing topics that help protect children's physical and mental health, including elements linked to online activity.
KCSIE 2026 contained provision that has added implications for safeguarding in schools and in particular, how schools must approach Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital safety. I wrote about this in detail in
this post.
Updates to the English National Curriculum are due in 2028. For primary schools, this will include mandatory citizenship, media, financial and digital literacy, education on sustainability and a greater emphasis on oracy.
In terms of AI, The UK Department for Education has announced plans to use technology and AI in education to improve pupil outcomes and reduce staff workload. (link) This plan includes the aim of using AI tools to tackle the attainment gap and support up to 450,000 disadvantaged pupils.
The Department for Education plan includes a roadmap, spanning from 2023 to present (2026), covering infrastructure, testbeds that include teacher workload and learner outcomes, safety, security and training.
Next steps include creating a taskforce that helps establish whether tools are grounded in high-quality, curriculum aligned content and co-designing and trialling AI tutoring tools. It is stated that these tools will be "curriculum aligned, safe by design and tested through in-school trials to ensure they deliver real educational value."
At the same time, in summer 2026, the Department for Education released the guidance, 'Screen Use, How to limit children's screen use in settings and ensure it supports children's learning and development' (link). A key recommendation of this guidance was that children up to the age of 5 spend a maximum of one hour per day in front of screens. The Department for Education has also launched a call for evidence that will affect policy thinking on the use of screens in schools (link).
The Department for Education is attempting to harness the incredible power of technology, while addressing concerns around children's safety and the balance of digital tools alongside analogue and physical forms of learning. These are legitimate areas of focus, but what is needed is a strong grounding on the desired outcomes of education itself, so that we can evaluate where digital tools are the most impactful in achieving these aims.
Around the world, we can see a spectrum of approaches to technology in primary education, from full integration of AI in countries like China and Singapore to restriction of screentime and AI tools in parts of the USA and Nordic countries. It is consideration of desired aims and the most effective way to achieve these, not of technology itself, that will enable countries to develop robust approaches to deployment of resources including digital tools.
Where digital tools deliver high impact in primary education
1) Reimagined outcomes
The SAMR scale, developed by Dr Ruben Puentedura described different categories of technology integration: substitution, augmentation, modification and redefinition.
An alternative is the PICRAT matrix, developed by Royce Kimmonds, Charles Graham and Richard West, which covers replacement, amplification and transformation, but also considers the way in which students interact with technology, describing passive, interactive and creative use of technology.
Both the SAMR scale and the PICRAT matrix point to the existence of tasks that would be impossible without technology. Examples of these might include:
Building and programming robots, electronic or mechanical systems
Creating multimedia work, such as a podcast, video documentary, video analysis, 3D model or computer simulation
Exploring concepts in 3D or minute detail, through photography and exploring landscapes using satellite photos
Collecting data about science or sport
Communicating ideas through video calls, emails or web publishing
The impact of technology on projects that include outcomes like these can be immeasurable. Well-chosen and well-planned projects that use technology to facilitate exciting outcomes can inspire children, result in exciting contexts for learning and deepen learning itself.
In this blog post, I wrote about how in its updated 2022 curriculum, South Korea is incorporating meaningful STEM projects into education. These expose children to work with real-world impacts, such as building devices to measure air quality or building automated road crossings. This is a good example of how we have not just an opportunity, but a responsibility to teach children how they can address real-world issues. A large part of doing this will be through using technology to solve challenges.
2) Independence and agency
One of the most exciting uses of technology is in providing children with opportunities to become more active participants in their learning journeys.
Children, like adults, want to know the purpose of their learning, see the journey ahead of them and have opportunities to evaluate their success. They also want to be able to learn at a pace that suits them, taking into account their own circumstances, varying levels of understanding and focus.
Well-curated resources and virtual learning environments (VLEs) can transform the learning experience that children have. Children can be taught to be no-longer dependent on a teacher as the sole source of feedback, challenge and support. They can access videos for support, tailored resources and digital tools to support their understanding. They can re-watch resources as many times as they need, learning in an organic and personalised way.
Use of materials and resources requires significant discussion of the process of learning itself, which can be called 'metalearning', or 'learning about learning.' Children need to be educated about things that affect their focus and concentration, ways to use digital resources to support and challenge and the importance of having agency over their own learning.
It is not enough to simply provide children with digital tools. Time must also be invested in training children and teachers in how these tools can facilitate agency and higher standards.
3) Teacher workload
The reality of a teacher preparing several lessons per day for a class of 30 children, offering support and challenges as appropriate, providing feedback and offering pastoral support is that teachers must often choose areas of their work to prioritise.
Technology can help to alleviate some of the workload that teachers face, particularly in resource preparation and increasingly in offering feedback and support.
AI tools can help teachers to save time in producing resources that are tailored to the exact context of the lesson and stages of learning that children are currently at. As discussed previously, there is the increasing potential for digital resources to offer children feedback on their work and opportunities for support or challenge. Even if these are not AI tools, they can be well-selected videos, quizzes or simulations, made available through a well-managed VLE.
Removing some of the administrative burden from teachers and saving time spent in preparing lesson resources provides teachers with the time and energy that is vital for self-care and personal student support.
4) Digital citizenship and digital literacy
We have a responsibility to recognise that our children are inhabitants of both the physical and a digital world.
Children who go home and watch streaming services need to understand that content is often suggested to them and that videos can be auto played. They need the capability to evaluate content and balance their decisions to consume digital content against their other needs. This is just one area of the digital world that primary children experience, but the same principles apply to mobile phone use, use of AI, gaming and exposure to content online.
As stated above, KCSIE 2026 recognises some of the significant harms that children can face with technology, including artificial intelligence.
Children are also well-placed to begin exploring and contributing to a positive digital world, beginning to think of themselves as responsible digital citizens who help shape their digital, as well as physical world.
Children's decision making about potential threats, and attitude to creating a positive digital environment for themselves and others is supported by positive use of technology in school.
5) Accessibility and inclusion
Technology can help to remove barriers to learning and expression.
Children can be held back by special educational needs, lack of fluency with English, or working at a level that is significantly higher or lower than the majority of the other children in their class.
Used well, tools such as speech to text, text to speech, customisable text displays, live translation and video resources do not lower academic expectations, instead they help give pupils equitable access to challenge according to the curriculum.
Children who understand complex scientific concepts can be offered alternative ways of recording their ideas, such as using voice narration tools in an app like Book Creator. Children who require the opportunity to rewatch content or explanations, or to view content in different forms of media can gain access to learning through using technology to enable this.
Areas where digital technology can present low, or negative impact
1) Physical development
Use of technology can be associated with sedentary work, running the risk of children not developing vital gross or fine motor skills. Particularly at primary-age, children need to engage in activities that develop all aspects of their gross and fine motor skills and coordination, including cutting, sticking, writing, balancing, building and physical forms of exercise.
The phrase 'can be associated' is used deliberately here. Children who are engaged in robotics work, electronics work or work that combines physical use of technology with screen-based work may be developing their motor skills, as well as their technological proficiency. Even in sport, children who are using video to record, analyse and improve their movements may be developing physically as a result of using technology.
2) Passive consumption
Challenge is a vital aspect of education.
Children need to learn to embrace challenge and see it as something that can help progress their understanding and ability.
Some technology, by design, removes some of the challenge that children need to encounter. On some digital platforms, answers can be provided, without the need to struggle present in a paper-based or concrete activity.
Of course, some technologies support the process of of cognition and challenge, this is where carefully selected aims and teacher training are important. Related to this, not all struggle present in traditional activities is beneficial to children's development.
3) Oracy and social interaction
With the changes to the primary curriculum in 2028, oracy is due to be given equal weight to writing and reading. This recognises that children's written expression and successful social interaction begins with strong verbal communication and listening.
We need to be careful that use of technology does not detract from children's spoken communication. Even everyday classroom interactions with the teacher and classmates are valuable forms of interaction that build children's social skills. Some subjects, like PE, PSHE and Drama require building children's speaking skills for success in these subjects.
There is no reason to suggest that children's use of technology is inherently detrimental to spoken interactions. In fact, children engaged in practical engineering, robotics, filmmaking or app design projects are highly motivated to take on spoken communication roles. technology can also facilitate speaking through shared, collaborative whiteboards, contribution to shared documents and using technology to rehearse spoken passages.
There is also nothing wrong with activities where children are highly focused on a screen, if the outcome of the piece of work requires this. As with all effective use of tools in schools, digital or non-digital, the teacher must decide what the desired outcomes are and then select the best tool to enable these.
Conclusion - Evaluating aims, not tools
The stated aim of this article was to examine where technology can have the most impact on primary education. But is this the right question to ask? Instead of focusing on the outcomes, is it focusing on the tool itself?
If we were to list the goals of primary education, they would include establishing safety, building knowledge, developing creativity, providing equality and inclusion, developing communication, building health and control of the body, developing respect and empathy, growing curiosity and helping children understand the world and mechanisms of society. Subjects across the curriculum deal with narrower aspects of these, and other goals.
I can say with confidence, that use of technology can serve all of these aims, in some areas more obviously than others. But any discussion of use of technology, or any other tool in schools, needs to start with aims such as the one above. It then needs to consider the impact it will have on the aim, as well as the cost, training and routines required for implementation.
By grounding our digital strategies in well-defined educational aims, respecting the unique ethos of individual schools and remaining open to constructive scrutiny, we can ensure that the digital tools we use are impactful and justified in their use.
