Voices: As a parent and a teacher, I’ve seen how technology helps students. It’s time we stop villainizing it.

In Utah, we talk a big game about being a future-ready state, yet current legislative priorities, specifically HB273, Classroom Technology Amendments, also known as the BALANCE Act, are moving past safety and into the realm of prohibition. These measures don’t just balance tech, they threaten to strip K–3 classrooms of modern tools, mandating a return to a paper-and-pencil-only era and prohibiting the 1:1 device ratios that allow for personalized learning. Additionally, the proposed legislation mandates more technology constraints for grades 4–12, prioritizing an “analog-first” classroom environment.

This approach might feel nostalgic, but for Utah, it’s a dive into a past that no longer exists.

While these acts aim to protect children from online harm and too much screentime, their broad language limits the digital tools that make personalized learning possible. Labeling paper as “safe” and screens as “dangerous” misses the point of modern education. Just as a child needs a pool and lessons to learn to swim, students need technology to learn digital citizenship. They need guided instruction, not avoidance.

As a parent of three children in grades K-2, I’ve seen the brain rot effect firsthand, and I share those concerns. However, from my perspective as an educator, implementing technology bans in the primary grades and tightening restrictions through high school is a regressive move that ignores the realities of modern education. By removing access to digital tools, we lose our best chance to model and teach responsible digital citizenship.

It’s time to move from banning to bridging by empowering families and communities to transform passive screen time into active, intentional learning.

Drawing on my experience as an elementary educator and a district Digital Learning Specialist, I believe this debate is about much more than screen time. It’s about equity. When we severely limit classroom technology, we don’t protect every child equally. We are intentionally widening the digital divide. Higher-income families can provide digital literacy at home. But for many Utah students, the classroom is often the only place they have access to a reliable device or high-speed internet.

Serving as a board member of the Utah Coalition for Educational Technology has reinforced my belief that digital tools are essential for meeting the needs of a diverse student population. Even in 2026, Utah still relies on the one-room schoolhouse model in our most remote areas. For a single teacher managing students in grades K–6, technology is the only way to provide the personalized instruction these students deserve. Stripping these tools away tells lower-income and rural students that they don’t deserve the same head start as their peers.

Utah is currently home to 65,000 refugees and 305,000 immigrants speaking more than 120 languages. For these emerging English learners, a paper worksheet is a wall — silent and frustrating. But access to a device with real-time translation is a bridge. I had a student who sat quietly in my classroom for weeks, a silent observer of a world he couldn’t join. Once we implemented translation tools on his Chromebook, his first output wasn’t academic: He asked a classmate if they could play together at recess.

By mandating paper-first classrooms, we aren’t just widening the achievement gap — we’d be removing the tools that help our kids build relationships and learn to navigate a digital world.

Our kids are graduating into a future defined by tech integration and AI partnership. In his book “Digital for Good‚” Richard Culatta, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education, argues that we must stop treating technology as a list of “don’ts” and start treating it as a toolkit for “dos.”

The goal isn’t just to graduate students who are safe online, but to cultivate digital citizens who use their agency to solve real-world problems.

To be truly future-ready, we shouldn’t limit student growth with learning practices from the 1980s while the adults are busy building the 2050s. We must stop legislating our classrooms into tech deserts and start treating them as places where students engage with technology thoughtfully, ethically and creatively.

Kelli Cannon is a 13-year veteran of Utah schools and a board member of the Utah Coalition for Educational Technology (UCET). A leader of the Utah Google Educator Group, she specializes in EdTech, STEM, instructional coaching and ESL.

The Salt Lake Tribune is committed to creating a space where Utahns can share ideas, perspectives and solutions that move our state forward. We rely on your insight to do this. Find out how to share your opinion here, and email us at voices@sltrib.com.