Whenever I’m evaluating educational technology for my school, I often think about the Trojans and the problem they had with that horse. The Greeks won that famous war, not because they were a superior force; they won because the Trojans failed to properly inspect a ‘gift’.
We are often in that same position when faced with technology in our schools. Far too frequently, educators are too exhausted or get too excited about the ‘AI-enhanced promise’ to properly look inside the horse before dragging it through the school gates.
Proper inspection is the difference between transformation and the surrender of our pedagogy. Without a clear plan, we can quickly realise that the new app isn’t impacting teaching or learning, it is just adding another layer of frustration for staff.
I’ve been through so many iterations and failures of how to evaluate and implement the right classroom tech and wider school solutions. I’ve managed to take those successes and failures and create three simple steps that I now always try to follow. They’ve been absent when things have gone wrong and at the very heart of transformative technology implementation. The kind of transformation that has stood the test of time and that got the approval of that colleague who still hasn’t quite got to grips with MS Teams.
Know your why: A pedagogy first approach
Inspect that horse: The balanced integration
Remember your Troy: Reclaiming professional agency
1. Know your why - A pedagogy first approach
I wonder if the Trojans, after all of the fighting, were just too tired to ask if they even wanted the gift of the horse. I think in schools we can be guilty of doing something similar; spotting a new app or hearing about this revolutionary tool at a cluster meeting and immediately thinking we have to have it, without ever asking if we need it. There is growing pressure on us as educators to ensure that technology is used widely to prepare learners for an uncertain future.
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an American economic think tank, stated that although AI (and AGI/ASI) will bring boosts to the economy, there is a question mark over income distribution, labour markets, and skill devaluation. In other words, we have no idea what the economic landscape will look like, but we do know that our children will need the agency to navigate it. That agency is made up of lots of different aspects; digital skills, metacognitive abilities, communication and collaboration skills, as well as having some fundamental subject knowledge. We therefore have to balance ensuring our pupils are prepared in multifaceted ways socially, emotionally, with knowledge and with digital skills to name but a few.
The only way we can do that is by evaluating our why. We have to know what is out there but we must also know our needs before we bring in new approaches or tools. Some of the questions I consider are:
Why do we actually want to bring this technology into the classroom?
Is it to solve a pedagogical friction point, or are we just succumbing to innovation pressure?
What are our goals and targets for our learners and our school? Will this help us achieve those or distract us from the mission we are on?
Will this technology enhance pedagogical approaches or just deliver something in a more modern way?
We know that technology can be transformative and impactful in education. No modern school leader would dream of reverting to paper-based attendance, safeguarding logs, or handwritten reports. In these administrative arenas, technology didn't just help; it liberated us. It gave us the power to improve processes and become better practitioners.
We shouldn’t be beholden to use technology at every turn just because we can; we should use it when it makes sense pedagogically. One of my favourite things to do is to read outside with the children I teach. Fresh air and stories spark great imagination and discussion. Learning in the same way the ancients did when they sat around the Agora really does get results. I don’t think I’d want tech and AI getting in the way of this magical connection, ever.
So at the point of considering it, think closely about what this will actually mean in your classroom and school. Is it going to enhance, empower and liberate or is it going to fundamentally interfere with meaningful pedagogy already embedded in your school. If it doesn’t do the former you probably don’t need to drag it through the gates to start with.
Sometimes tech is the answer, and sometimes it isn’t.
2. Inspect that horse - the balanced integration
If you’ve decided that you want to open the gates of your school to something new, you’ve got to check it and test it thoroughly before implementing it. Just because on the surface it looked like an AI powered super solution, doesn’t mean that in practice it actually is.
I have sat in meetings with subject leads who want to roll out an app or implement a framework to the whole school, before trialing, testing and understanding how it will impact the classroom in their setting. This initial process is part of the difference between EdTech (just pixels) and PedTech (proper pedagogy). I often think of it as the difference between taking a photo and being a photographer.
I’m no photography expert, but I know that most people on the planet now carry a camera in their pocket. A number of us (myself included) simply point, shoot, and hope for the best. In schools, we’ve all been guilty of this: we point an app at a problem and hope the software captures the complexity of learning. It might get a lucky snapshot every now and again, but a snapshot isn’t a masterpiece.
A photographer, on the other hand, leaves nothing to chance. They read the environment, they know their equipment, and they understand the story they want to tell. They have trained to use their technical and creative skills to preserve a moment with intention. When it comes to implementation, PedTech is that professional eye; it is understanding which "lens" is required to bring a learner’s potential into focus.
We are all looking for a masterpiece, but are often only prepared to take snapshots. We can miss vital, diagnostic questions and setting up structures in which to properly inspect the incoming technology. Some of the ways that I evaluate are:
Environment: Where should I trial or test this new technology? Who can champion it? How do I set parameters to understand its effectiveness?
Skills: What training do I need and staff need to truly get to grips with this new piece of tech? Is it achievable against other requirements? Do I need to take a long-term view to test this properly?
Evaluation: Are the outcomes as we intended? Are there any benefits? How can I gather feedback effectively? How can I measure this quantitatively and qualitatively? Are the outcomes better than before I had this technology in place? Does it feed into wider technological aims?
Whenever you’re inspecting educational technology as a solution, ensure that you’ve got parameters and a framework to evaluate it properly. In other words, inspect that horse!
3. Remember your Troy - reclaiming your professional agency
I definitely forgot about my Troy when I was first given the responsibility for integrating technology within my school. I’m quite naturally curious and I try and see the best in things, even when they might not be the best for the problem I was trying to solve. I forgot that I was in a position of strength and that as educators, we are the experts in so many ways. Knowing our settings, knowing our learners and knowing our wider communities which we serve. When you're rolling out new EdTech, a well-prepared pitch from a salesperson doesn’t matter. They don’t have our institutional knowledge. Don’t forget your position of strength. Don’t forget your Troy.
Just because we’ve gone through a process of carefully inspecting and evaluating a piece of EdTech doesn’t mean that when you send the logins to the whole school your work is done. Whatever we brought in has to keep making sense and sometimes it rolls on from one year to the next, but sometimes it's no longer meeting the needs of the wider community.
At this time of huge shift, when every EdTech product is claiming to ‘fully harness the power of AI’, we are right to step back and question the effectiveness of some of our tools. ISC research suggests that AI implementation should be ‘driven by pedagogy,’ not just efficiency. So many tools are focussed on (and are charging for) things one could, with a little prompt-craft and patience, achieve greater results for free or for a single monthly fee. I can’t tell you the amount of time I’ve spent trying to get my prompts right, setting up my custom GPTs and now developing deployable agents, but now I’ve gone through that journey (and isn’t that the whole point of learning anyway?) I'm sharing the process with colleagues and the children I teach.
Our role as educators and our pupils’ roles as learners are going to shift, much faster than we think. Our ability to adapt is going to be put to the test, but in all of this, remember: you’re the expert in your Troy. Remember your position of strength and try not to lose sight of it.
An example in action
Last academic year we applied this framework and diagnostic lens to a specific problem in our Maths and English departments. We wanted to ensure a way to develop our in-the-moment feedback and find opportunities for independence with stretch and challenge questions. We weren’t initially looking for a new app or subscription, but tech, in the end, was the right answer.
We ended up buying in Learning by Questions (LbQ) to address these needs. At first glance, the platform didn’t have that slick UX that we as educators very much appreciate. But as we eyed it over the walls of our Troy, clunky menus and settings aside, this seemed to meet our needs. It doesn’t have to be the best looking, it has to be the best for your school.
When we started to 'inspect the horse', unlike so many other platforms, this felt like it was actually made by someone who has seen the inside of a classroom and understands what children need in order to learn. Honestly, it’s not only refreshing but should be lauded as one of the great PedTech applications. It provides real-time information for teachers and allows quick and easy ways to model and address misconceptions. Feedback becomes a natural and key part of the lesson, not just something that happens after. We trialled it in certain year groups and then rolled it out across the school.
Needless to say, the implementation was a success, not just because it is a great platform, but because it was deployed in a way that aligned so closely with our why. We had buy in from our teachers and our students got why they were using LbQ. They enjoyed the challenges and benefitted from improved feedback. It ended up having a great effect on classroom culture too. After the collective cheer that LbQ was going to be used, the only conversations (arguments) that erupted were those that were linked to some of the more challenging questions, when passionate pupils had to share their point of view. These questions offered are curriculum-linked, providing both challenge and scaffolding (and not just the type a lot of sites offer, I mean practical, provocative questions that make young minds think). It empowered our teachers to do more than they could without it and helped learners make more progress. It kept our position of strength as educators and allowed us to continue to deliver amazing learning opportunities.
Success came from understanding what our classrooms needed first, and then matching those requirements with the right application that kept our expertise intact. We understood our "why," and found the platform that met the mission.
Conclusion
So, know your why, inspect that horse and don’t forget that you have the power to change things if you need to. When you’ve started with a firm foundation you can get buy-in, support and be supported by the team, ensuring it makes a real difference to learning. Proper pedagogy, not just pixels; that’s always got to be the whole point.
I wanted to create this to offer a place for my thoughts as I tackle my PhD and just practice the process of writing and editing. But if I can help out colleagues as we are faced with one of the largest shifts in technological history that will directly impact our core mission; ensuring learners make great progress, then I’m pleased to be able to do that. I’m hugely passionate about PedTech, AI and probably most importantly (and close to my heart) how curriculum, assessment and our development as professionals need to adapt to keep up with the rapidly changing landscape of technology today.
I would love to hear about your best products/applications/subscriptions or reach out if you want to chat about tech, curriculum or assessment (or indeed Bradford City AFC or Formula 1)!
References
American Enterprise Institute. (2024, May 22). The Age of AGI: The Upsides and Challenges of Superintelligence. AEI. Retrieved from https://www.aei.org/articles/the-age-of-agi-the-upsides-and-challenges-of-superintelligence/
80,000 Hours. (2025, March). When do experts expect AGI to arrive?. Retrieved from https://80000hours.org/2025/03/when-do-experts-expect-agi-to-arrive/
Aubrey-Smith, F., & Twining, P. (2023). From EdTech to PedTech: Changing the way we think about digital technology. Routledge.
Learning by Questions - https://www.lbq.org/
ISC Research. (2024, September 5). AI in Education: Emerging Trends and Critical Challenges. Retrieved from https://iscresearch.com/ai-in-education-emerging-trends-and-critical-challenges/
Miki Devitt
Ashton Edu