ORLANDO — Lisa Berghoff, director of instructional technology at Highland Park High School in Illinois, identifies with a label that might seem counterintuitive to her job title: tech-skeptical.
At the annual Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) in January, Berghoff insisted that technology must prove its value by transforming the learning experience in ways that analog or face-to-face formats cannot. Most notably, she emphasized that the ultimate compass for any tool must be those who are thinking and learning in the classroom — students.
This philosophy, she said, is deeply rooted in her 19 years as a special education teacher, where she learned that digital tools do not automatically provide accessible learning experiences. For example, she warned that simply using a Chromebook does not guarantee an accessible lesson and cautioned against “the click barrier” — that is, assistive features that are too difficult for students to find or activate.
