7 Tech Routines for Balanced Usage

Across the country, a backlash against classroom technology has been bubbling up, prompting some states and districts to limit laptop use while others re-evaluate the role devices should play in instruction.

For educators however, the ongoing debate often makes it feel as if there are only two options before them: laptops open all day, or no laptops at all.

“Instead of talking about students' screen time, I would rather talk about redefining our relationship with technology and using technology intentionally,” says Alana Winnick, an educational technology specialist in New York. Rather than trying to decide whether device use is good or bad, Winnick says the better question to ask about tech use is: “Does this enhance learning, and does this provide access?”

As schools and districts debate and reconsider their approaches to technology, many educators and technology specialists we spoke to say they are focusing on what they can control: the reasoning, routines, and expectations that shape how technology is effectively used—and balanced—in their classrooms.

Lead With Human Connection

One of the biggest dangers of over relying on classroom technology, teachers say, is crowding out the face-to-face interactions students need to build stronger relationships in the classroom and increase their sense of belonging. 

High school English teacher Marcus Luther avoids this by bracketing digital work in his classroom with collaborative, off-screen activities. Before students create a collaborative slide deck, for example, they first annotate and analyze a text by hand and form small groups to share their findings. “If you skip this stage, groups can fall into the trap of having a handful of members type up what they found individually—and you miss the important opportunity to give each student a chance to voice aloud their findings and questions,” Luther says. 

After students finish their slide decks, Luther bookends the activity with a stationary gallery walk. Students explore one another’s slides, take notes on what they find important or interesting, and share what they learned from their peers’ work.

Keep Tech Use Time-Bound and Guided

Instructions for tech use like “spend the period researching [insert topic]” or “work on your first draft” don’t always give students a clear goal or a sense of urgency that can make it less likely for them to distract themselves. Instead, educators like Kathi Kersznowski, a technology specialist in New Jersey, recommend time-blocking device use and giving students clear objectives to accomplish during those blocks. For example, you could tell students: “You have 15 minutes to research this topic. Identify two credible sources and be ready to share one useful finding at the end.”

To help students appropriately pace themselves, Kersznowski recommends using timers—digital or analog—at the front of the room. “If I've got a timer in the front of the room and I know that I've got 19 minutes left, I'm not going to have 27 tabs open,” she says. “I know that something's got to be done at the end of 19 minutes.”

If assignments involve multiple steps, educational technologist Debra Jacoby recommends chunking directions into smaller, more digestible time-blocks and goals, “so students can catch up on the task” and remain focused. 

Build In Meaningful Breaks

There are inevitably days when students must use technology for extended periods to conduct research or work on a paper. But even then, teachers say, it’s important to build in screen breaks that give students a reset and create opportunities for human connection.

Patrick Hausammann, an instructional technology resource teacher in Virginia, encourages teachers to follow the American Optometric Association's 20-20-20 rule: Every 20 minutes, take a 20-second break to look at something 20 feet away to help prevent digital eye strain. Use those breaks as more than just a quick pause, Hausammann says. If students are conducting research, for example, ask them to close their laptops at the 20-minute mark, write down something interesting from at least one source, and share their insights with a peer or a small group.

These pauses don’t only help students; they also give teachers a natural moment to circulate, check-in on students’ progress, and offer support to anyone who may be stuck.

Set Clear Device Care Standards

Keeping devices charged and cords organized may seem minor, but small routines like these can prevent major classroom headaches—and distraction. Without clear expectations for where devices are kept, cared for, and stored, teachers say they end up spending more time managing devices than using them for instruction. 

At Hausammann’s elementary schools, devices stay in the classrooms and he recommends repeatedly modeling the basics: how to unplug, remove, carry, and properly return devices to a cart when needed. If students don’t place a device in the cart correctly, for example, they can accidentally unplug it from the back and leave it overnight thinking it’s charging—only to find out they “don’t have a device for the next day,” he says.

For students who take devices home, the disruption can look different: like arriving at school with a dead battery or missing chargers, says high school history teacher Alyssa Coop-Vickstrom. To head off that problem Coop-Vickstrom creates a designated device-charging table, or multiple tables if needed. “It keeps all the chargers together, and everyone who needs access to an outlet can access one,” she writes. Principal David Lamaster takes a similar preventive approach, sending families a weekly reminder to have students bring fully charged devices to school. Parents and families, he says, appreciate it.

Guide Attention With Clear Cues

When should laptops be open in your classroom? When should they be closed? Should students retrieve devices on their own, or only when prompted? What signal will tell them it’s time to shift their attention back to you? These are all questions teachers recommend having clear answers to.

In Megan Ryder’s middle school STEAM class, for example, students hear the same directions as they enter each day: store their iPads, take out their folders, sit down, and begin the warm-up. Teachers can also have clear instructions posted around the room—easy for students to reference. The aim is for processes to become “so routine that they’re stored in students’ long-term memory,” says Jacoby. 

Once a device is out, clear cues help direct students’ attention. At Hausammann’s school, teachers often use symbols or icons to show how devices should be used. A blue dot on the whiteboard might mean that devices should be on students’ desks, while an image of an open or closed laptop can signal exactly what state the device should be in.

Verbal cues work, too. At Summit Preparatory Charter High School, teachers ask for “professional courtesy” when they want their students’ full attention. “Computers are at half-mast. Headphones are out. And students are completely present with the teacher in that room,” explains history teacher Chris Kelly. Teachers at Winnick’s school use a similar cue: “Empty hands on heads.” When students hear it, they raise their hands off their devices and place them on their heads, making it harder to keep typing or clicking while the teacher is talking.

The cues can look and sound different depending on the grade level and context, but the key is to establish a shared language early. “You'll probably have to lay that foundation and say it a few times,” says Hausammann, but it will be worth it.

Monitor and Circulate

Not all schools block websites such as YouTube or Tiktok, and even if they do, students can still bypass filters or drift off task elsewhere. To prevent students from succumbing to distractions, teachers say it helps to actively monitor device use—whether through circulating the room or using digital tools like Securly or GoGuardian.

Luther uses monitoring software to keep tabs on students’ online activity. “If I see a kid flip over to a game or social media, it’s easy to close that out and go talk to them,” he said. Still, he notes, these apps are not a magic bullet.

Circulation offers another way to monitor tech use while staying connected to students. “Your best friend in any situation in a classroom is proximity,” says Kersznowski. Moving around the room, she says, lets teachers see what students are doing, and check in before small distractions fester. If you do circulate, make it purposeful, says instructional supervisor Amir Taron Ayres. Check for engagement and try to answer questions like: How are students interpreting my prompt? Where do they need scaffolding? Who needs help getting unstuck?

Make Room for Paper-Based Work

Ultimately, teachers must decide whether technology is the best tool for a given lesson, assignment, or task. To strike a better balance, teachers recommend asking: Is this tech enhancing learning? Sometimes, it may be the case that pen and paper are a better fit.

High School English teacher Brett Vogelsinger regularly carves out time for students to work entirely on paper. “I know what the research says about the effectiveness of writing and annotating by hand versus a screen,” he says, so students write on paper, annotate photocopied texts, and highlight information—“vintage activities.” 

There are big benefits to going back to basics. Capturing details on paper unites “fine motor skills, neuromotor processes, and multiple cognitive processes” in a way that forces students to engage more intensely with the material, writes Edutopia research editor Youki Terada. Typing, by contrast, can become “automated” and less cognitively demanding, leading to weaker recall and shallower understanding. 

For careful, deliberate academic work—like reflection, retrieval practice, or close reading—writing by hand can encourage more contemplative thinking in a distraction-free environment. After introducing a new concept, high school English teacher Cathleen Beachboard asks students to jot down everything they can remember into a notebook, helping them to track their thinking and draw connections between concepts over time. “Students don’t just remember more—they own what they’ve learned,” she writes.