Ep247. ft. Dr. Paula Cushanick - Why EdTech Isn’t Enough: What Multilingual Students Actually Need to Learn (Part 1)

More screen time does not automatically mean more learning. And for multilingual students, the difference can be enormous. In Part 1 of this conversation, Dr. Paula Cushanick joins the Languages Pedagogy Podcast to challenge one of education’s most expensive assumptions: that greater use of educational technology automatically produces better academic and language outcomes. Drawing from her doctoral research, classroom experience, and work with multilingual learners, Dr. Cushanick reveals a striking finding: students who spent dramatically different amounts of time using an online language platform did not show a statistically significant difference in language growth. So what is missing? We explore the science of learning, cognitive load, comprehensible input, language output, teacher training, human connection, and why EdTech implementation matters more than simply purchasing another platform. We also examine AI in education and the crucial distinction between using artificial intelligence to amplify great teaching and allowing technology to replace the very human interactions through which language develops. For teachers, school leaders, EdTech decision-makers, and anyone ser...