Guest Post: 6 assumptions about tech in schools – and how to design around them

This is a very welcome guest post from Karen Wespieser, MBE. CEO of Teacher Tapp. Teacher Tapp is the largest daily survey of teachers in England, helping shape policy and improve schools. Free. Easy. Trusted. Takes just 30 seconds a day.

Let’s get into it…

If you work in an education business, charity, or policy team, it’s easy to inherit tidy assumptions about how technology fits into school life. But Teacher Tapp’s daily polling suggests reality is messier… and more interesting! Here are six places where the on-the-ground picture diverges from the myth, plus what that means for products and programmes.

1) “All teachers have laptops.”

They don’t. Roughly three in ten teachers still lack a school-issued laptop, with phase and region shaping access. That matters because planning, safeguarding admin and assessment often happen outside the classroom. If your offer assumes universal portable kit, you’ll miss usage and create extra friction for staff who are already time-poor.

Design for it: make core workflows device-optional. Offer printable and projector-first versions with genuine parity, low-login access, and simple capture of results later (e.g., quick codes or photo upload). Pair individual licences with school licences so teachers aren’t blocked by procurement timing.

2) “Deprived schools are less able to use devices.”

A common misconception. When lessons do require devices, usage is not lower in higher-FSM schools (although independent schools are an outlier to this rule). In other words, don’t self-exclude from the places where impact might be greatest.

Design for it: ship the same feature set with offline/low-bandwidth tolerance, clear first-use checklists, and quick fallback paths if kit is shared or inconsistent. Confidence grows when the first two or three interactions are smooth.

3) “Most lessons are 1:1 device experiences.”

Only 41% of lessons currently involve a device for all students, up from 38% (2024) and 25% (2019), but still a minority. And when tech is used, whole-class mode remains common, particularly in primary, but present everywhere. That means your best shot at classroom traction is often a single laptop and a projector, not a cart of tablets.

Design for it: build a brilliant whole-class mode. Prioritise join codes over logins, projector-friendly flows, and “one device per group” options. If the product works with one laptop and five minutes to spare, teachers will actually use it.

4) “Security is sorted; teachers can manage plenty of logins.”

Password fatigue is real: 31% of teachers juggle 7+ passwords daily, and 84% use 2FA. In that world, an extra login or mid-lesson re-auth isn’t a small ask; it’s a lesson derailed and goodwill spent.

Design for it: default to SSO, keep logins per task to a minimum, respect “remember this device” where policy allows, and ensure fast, human reset paths. If your tool has to be secure (it should), make it feel effortless.

5) “Teachers don’t really use AI yet.”

Use has tipped into the majority: 58% of teachers say they used AI for schoolwork in the past week (up from 31% a year ago), and the “never used” group has fallen to 11%. Adoption is broad across subjects and phases, with large gains in the humanities. This isn’t hype; it’s habit formation.

Design for it: ship policy-friendly features (audit trails, citations, privacy assurances) and subject-ready prompt packs that save time on planning, feedback and communication. The win isn’t “AI” in general; it’s reducing the number of clicks between a teacher and a usable draft they can adapt safely.

6) “Leadership and classroom needs are basically the same.”

They aren’t. 73% of heads used AI in the past week, versus 53% of classroom teachers. Leaders tend to adopt desk-based tools faster; classroom use faces time pressure and device friction. If you design one generic workflow, you’ll delight one group and frustrate the other.

Design for it: create two moments of use. First, a planning/admin path with richer features, policy controls and tidy exports. Second, a classroom-speed path that works under pressure: low bandwidth, offline tolerance, join codes not logins, and zero dead ends if a device drops.

From myth to usable practice

Across these assumptions runs a simple thread: schools are moving forward, but time and school-level practicalities still decide what gets used on a Tuesday morning! The best EdTech organisations are those that make their products work brilliantly with devices and acceptably without. They reduce logins and clicks, and translate AI into safe, subject-specific helpers which respect the different rhythms of leadership and classroom work.

If this kind of evidence is useful, our weekly newsletter shares the charts behind these points and the practical tweaks that help programmes land. You can also use our platform to commission your own surveys and find out the realities of life inside the classroom. You can contact me – karen@teachertapp.co.uk – to find out more.