Historical Echo: When Innovation Outpaces Oversight—The Recurring Gap in Educational Technology Governance
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The introduction of radio, then computers, then AI into classrooms followed the same rhythm: deployment first, governance decades later. Each time, the delay did not prevent transformation—it ensured it would be uneven.
It happened with chalkboards, it happened with radios in classrooms, and now it’s happening with artificial intelligence: every major educational technology arrives with fanfare and promise, only to expose a hollow core in our systems of accountability. When radio broadcasts were introduced into American schools in the 1920s, educators celebrated the democratization of knowledge—yet no one asked who curated the content or how it shaped young minds [Douglas, 1987]. Decades later, the same silence surrounded early computer use in schools, where LOGO and BASIC were taught without ethical guidelines or equity audits [Papert, 1980]. Today, AI tools are being integrated into grading, tutoring, and curriculum design with similar faith in progress—but as history shows, the absence of operational governance doesn’t prevent transformation; it just ensures that transformation will be uneven, contested, and often unjust. The real lesson isn’t that we need more rules—it’s that we always wait too long to make them.
—Sir Edward Pemberton
Published January 29, 2026