Why EdTech Innovation Falls Short and What Can We Do About It?

You’ve probably heard this before: “This changes everything.” It’s said about every new platform, every new idea, and every new tool.

Change doesn’t come from hype; it comes from strategy.

Most education initiatives have a short shelf life. There’s a pattern that keeps repeating. A new tool builds excitement, early adopters dive in, and then the energy fades. And within two or three years, a new initiative takes its place.

This article covers the discussion with Dr. Annalies Corbin, CEO of the PAST Foundation, which is dedicated to blending anthropology with science and technology. “We threw everything we had at the wall,” Dr. Corbin said, recalling the pandemic-era measures to save education. When asked, “Why do you think innovation of that sort in education so often falls short of real change?” Her answer was simple and sharp: time.

But the problem wasn’t the effort. It was that no one could build strategy or sustainability into those efforts.

Real change in education depends on strategic innovation, where ideas are thoughtful, tested, and made to last.

 

Common Challenge: Band-Aids Over Strategy

Education treats innovation like a Band-Aid. Federal funding comes in short 2 to 3-year cycles, and with it, a new fix. But these cycles are rarely long enough to support real cultural or systems-level change. As a result, institutions keep layering new initiatives on top of old ones without addressing root issues or building for sustainability.

The biggest challenge? Mistaking innovation for implementation.

A new tool is not a strategy. And without taking time to plan, test, iterate, and build cultural buy-in, the tool won’t survive past the funding cycle.

And educators know this. As Dr. Annalies Corbin shared, many teachers have been through enough waves of “the next big thing” that they’ve stopped investing emotionally or intellectually. When that kind of cynicism sets in, it doesn’t matter how good the tool is. Without strategic cultural change, nothing sticks.

 

Going from Fear to Fluency with AI

AI is today’s internet: misunderstood, mistrusted, and here to stay. We’ve seen this movie before. “There’s a bit of déjà vu,” Dr. Annalies Corbin said, recalling early panic around the internet in classrooms.

Today, AI is triggering the same fears. Fears like learners will cheat, the tech isn’t safe, or that it’s too powerful. But just like the internet, AI is a tool.

And the real question is, what can we do with it?

True AI literacy isn’t about banning or blindly adopting; it’s teaching learners how to ask great questions, vet information, and draw conclusions.

For educators, AI opens a whole world of support.

But this kind of shift won’t happen by chance. It needs support, trust, and time to build confidence. Once that’s in place, AI becomes a powerful partner in the classroom.

 

5 Elements to Make EdTech Innovation Stick

After years of research, Dr. Annalies Corbin found a pattern: five elements showed up consistently in the programs that endured. These are the core ingredients for any school or district serious about sustainable change.

1. Student Agency

When learners have voice and choice, they don’t just show up; they engage. But “student agency” goes beyond picking from a list of projects. At its core, it’s about co-designing learning pathways with learners. When that happens, engagement becomes intrinsic, not forced. It means institutions trust learners enough to let them try, fail, and try again.

Learners need to feel a sense of ownership. That might mean helping define goals for a unit, choosing how to demonstrate understanding, or proposing their own project ideas. When learners get to shape how they learn, they’re more likely to stay motivated, challenge themselves, and take pride in their growth.

2. Cultural Relevance

Cultural relevance means knowing who your learners are. Make sure your content and experiences reflect their lives. If learners can’t see themselves in what they’re learning, they’ll tune out, especially as they get older. But when learning feels personal and meaningful, they stay engaged. Pair that with a student agency, and that creates relevance, which ensures engagement.

3. Mastery-Based Learning

This one scares systems the most. Mastery-based learning means learners move forward when they understand the content and not when the calendar says it’s time.

It means allowing for time and depth, recognizing that learning isn’t linear and mastery doesn’t come on schedule. In traditional models, if a student doesn’t get the lesson on Tuesday at 2:00 PM, they restart on Wednesday from something new. This disconnect does not allow for learning that can be synthesized down the road.

Mastery-based systems create space for practice, revision, and reflection. They say, It’s okay to take more time; what matters is that learners get it.

4. Transdisciplinary Approaches

Learning shouldn’t live in books with different subject titles. In the real world, math, science, history, and language don’t appear in neat compartments. They overlap. Real problems require multiple disciplines to solve.

Transdisciplinary learning asks educators to teach in context. This means a unit on climate change might include environmental science, persuasive writing, policy analysis, and math equations in one. It’s messier, yes. But it’s also closer to the real world. And when learners work across disciplines, they build critical thinking and collaboration skills they’ll need long after school.

5. Problem-Based Learning

This is the toughest and the most transformational. Problem-based learning (PBL) is the high end of the
hands-on learning spectrum. It asks learners to work on real-world problems that don’t have one right answer.

Institutions often resist this because it looks different. It feels less controlled. And at first, learners struggle because they’re used to being told what to do. But once they adjust, they thrive. “They will outperform learners in traditional classrooms every single time,” Dr. Annalies Corbin said.

PBL also allows educators to bring their full selves to the work. Teachers can lead with passion, pull in community partners, and help learners see learning as something alive and meaningful.

 

EdTech Innovation Starts with the Low-Hanging Fruit

If education innovation feels overwhelming, you are worrying about the right things. Instead of throwing the first idea out there, starting with a well-thought-out strategy is a good way to go.

The good news? Institutions don’t have to start by reinventing the wheel. One of the most accessible entry points is mastery-based learning at the classroom level. Despite the misconception that it demands sweeping policy reform, it doesn’t. Any educator can begin shifting focus from grades to growth, giving learners time to dig deeper, revise, and truly master content. It’s a change in mindset, not legislation.

Looking ahead, the real transformation lies in embracing problem-based learning, even though it’s the hardest shift to make. The reason? It upends traditional routines. But as Dr. Annalies Corbin makes clear, once learners adapt to this approach, they outperform peers in conventional systems every time. That temporary dip in familiarity is worth the long-term payoff.

Institutions that adopt even one of the five lasting innovation elements—student agency, cultural relevance, mastery-based learning, transdisciplinary learning, or problem-based education—are already on a better trajectory. Start with what’s practical today. Build the muscle for what’s visionary tomorrow. And above all, never let school get in the way of real learning.

The future of education isn’t locked inside a tool. It lives in strategy, culture, and relationships. The good news is that we already possess the necessary resources to start. We already have what we need to begin.