Tech Intentional Schools: Why More Screens Are Failing Kids

📋 The Ruckus Report

Quick take: Schools didn’t gradually adopt tech — they surrendered to it. This episode is a wake-up call for leaders ready to reclaim learning, relationships, and childhood from screens.

🎓Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker

Emily Cherkin, M.Ed., The Screentime Consultant, is leading the fight for a Tech-IntentionalTM childhood. Emily works with schools, families, policymakers, and advocacy organizations to ensure the future of education prioritizes skills, safety, and relationships over screens, EdTech, and A.I.

Emily is an author, speaker, consultant, and associate professor of public policy at the University of Washington. She is also co-chair of Fairplay’s Screens in Schools Action Network and the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against one of the largest EdTech companies in the world. Emily is also the creator of the UnPlug EdTech Toolkit.

🌱 Breaking Down the Old Rules

In this episode, Emily Cherkin challenges traditional education paradigms:

🧰 Key Insight #1: EdTech = Innovation

  • What’s broken: Schools assume more devices = better learning.
  • The shift: Question the role of Tech through a child development lens.
  • Impact: Leaders prioritize cognition, focus, and real engagement over screen time.

🧰 Key Insight #2: Convenience Over Relationships

  • What's broken: Grade portals, emails, and AI replace human conversations.
  • The shift: Bring back friction — phone calls, dialogue, real connection.
  • Impact: Stronger trust with families and deeper student-teacher relationships.

🧰 Key Insight #3: Teach Tech Early and Often

  • What's broken: Giving young kids constant access to devices in the name of “preparation.”
  • The shift: Later is better. Less is more. Skills before screens.
  • Impact: Students build communication, resilience, and critical thinking first.

🗣️Quotable Ruckus

"If Tech is doing the thinking, your students aren’t!”

– Emily Cherkin

🧩 Your Do School Different Challenge

Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:

  1. Tomorrow: Audit one tech tool on your campus — ask: Is it effective, safe, and necessary?
  2. This Month: Reintroduce one human-centered practice (phone calls, in-person feedback, discussion-based learning)
  3. This Semester: Build a campus-wide “tech intentional” philosophy rooted in relationships and skill development

🔗 Connect & Continue

🎯 Get the full episode transcript here

👩🏻‍💻 Follow Emily Cherkin:

  💻 Website: https://thescreentimeconsultant.com

 😎 The Unplug EdTech ToolKit https://thescreentimeconsultant.com/resources/unplug-edtech-toolkit

 🤝 Emily speaking to UK Parliament: https://firstfish.substack.com/p/testimony-to-uk-parliament?r=250yb9

 📕 Book: https://www.amazon.com/Screentime- Solution-Judgment-Free-Becoming- Tech-Intentional/dp/B0CB9JS5KB

  • Instagram: @thescreentimeconsultant
  • LinkedIn: @emily-cherkin
  • Facebook: @thescreentimeconsultant
  • Youtube: @thescreentimeconsultantllc6072
  • BlueSky: @emilycherkin.bsky.social
  • First Fish Chronicles: Unplug EdTech, Save Democracy http://firstfish.substack.com

📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act

If education ain’t a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning?

This show isn’t about doing school better.

It’s about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what’s possible.

 

🧠 Four Ways We Can Help You on Your Do School Different Journey

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✅  Every tool, community, and coaching program we offer is built to help visionary school leaders play the new game — one where leadership is creative, tech-enabled, and unapologetically student-centered.

The podcast is your starting point. The movement is just getting started.

🎙 Today’s RUCKUScast in Partnership with:

  • ODP Business Solutions®
    Looking to create the kind of campus experience students never forget? ODP Business Solutions® transforms ordinary spaces into extraordinary learning environments.

    🔍 Visit odpbusiness.com/education to revolutionize your school's learning spaces.
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    🔍 Get started today at ixl.com/leaders
  • Frontline Education:
    1,000+ school leaders just weighed in on staffing, absenteeism, AI, and funding shifts. The 2026 K-12 Lens Survey Report gives you a national view of where the pressure is — and where momentum is building.

    🔍 Learn more: https://frontlineeducation.com/leaders

Twelve Practices LLC © 2026 | If Education Ain't a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning?

More Podcasts You’ll Love

If education ain’t a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning?

This show isn’t about doing school better.

It’s about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what’s possible.

Here are four ways we can help you on your Do School Different journey

notebook

Subscribe to the Free Newsletter

— An opportunity to Do School Different 3x a week. Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work: ruckusmakers.news

Read Ruckus Makers

— Exclusive content on Substack. Premium leadership insights, AI prompts and custom GPTs, new books before the bookshelf: ruckusmakers.media

 

Join The Ruckus Maker Club

Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, AI Prompt Library, and more:
The Ruckus Maker

 
 

Apply to the Mastermind

— Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus:
Apply Now

 
Every tool, community, and coaching program we offer is built to help visionary school leaders play the new game — one where leadership is creative, tech-enabled, and unapologetically student-centered.

The podcast is your starting point. The movement is just getting started.

Today’s RUCKUScast in Partnership with:

IXL: Meet your students where they are and take them where they need to go. Join over 1 million teachers who trust IXL to drive data-informed excellence in their classrooms.
🔍 Learn more: ixl.com/leaders

The Ruckus Maker Club Community beats compliance every single time. The Ruckus Maker Club is your on demand network of bold school leaders designing the future of education. Join today for $100 a month and get coaching on demand courses, AI prompts and custom GPTs and all our automatic school frameworks and tools within our private digital community.
🔍 Learn more: here

ODP Business Solutions®: Solutions “Our STEAM program is too complicated” = Code for “We’re doing it wrong.” Stop letting fear kill innovation. Some leaders are transforming STEAM with a three-part framework that’s not what you think.
🔍 Get the playbook: ODPbusiness.com/education

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Danny Bauer

Daniel Bauer

As a chronically late student, Danny Bauer once told his Chemistry teacher a fib about saving an entire girl scout troop from a burning building to get out of a tardy.

Danny is not sure if it was the very made up story, the very real cookie he offered his teacher, or a combination of both that got him out of a detention that day …

That experience taught him it pays to develop your storytelling skills.

Danny has been telling stories since then, most recently on the Better Leaders Better Schools podcast, ranked in the TOP 0.5% of 3 million global podcasts, and via his two bestselling books, Mastermind: Unlocking Talent Within Every School Leader and Build Leadership Momentum: How to Create the Perfect Principal Entry Plan.

He also loves telling stories while facilitating in person leadership workshops at national conferences and for school districts.

Danny’s mission is to help Ruckus Makers Do School Different™.

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Since 2022, Soniya has played an important role in supporting BLBS with her comprehensive website services.

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Dragan Ponjevic

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Dragan has been producing BLBS audio and video content since 2020.

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Christina

My passion for both baseball and literature was the initial catalyst that led me into education. Growing up as a softball player and a die-hard fan of the Chicago Cubs from the North Side of the city, I developed a profound appreciation for the South Side of Chicago, not enough to convert me into a White Sox fan. As a National Board certified teacher, with over 16 years of experience on Chicago’s South Side, my journey as an educator has taken me from my roots in the Windy City to Virginia, as an instructional coach.

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Premaria Mutambudzi

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She is a practically-minded idealist, a profound believer in people and their potential for good, committed to collaborative leadership environments, and instinctively and naturally drawn to create order and systems in seemingly chaotic contexts.

After more than 30 years in the classroom and almost 20 as a school leader, Sofía now divides her time as Schools Development Manager for Cambridge University Press and Assessment, Executive Secretary for the International Confederation of Principals, Facilitator for the ESSARP Teacher Training Centre in Argentina and BLBS Mastermind Coach.

Each of her current roles allows her to travel near and far while contributing to her own lifelong learning, and that of school leaders across the world, in the slow way she cherishes: one experience, one adventure, one conversation and one relationship at a time.

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Dan Watt

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Once a roller derby ref, now enjoying “retirement”, Dan’s got some wild tales from the track. Picture this: Dallas, a Division 1 tournament, and Dan’s zipping around as an “outside pack ref” when suddenly, BAM! He gets bulldozed by “Ruthless Red” charging out of the penalty box. But did he stay down? Not a chance! Dan bounced right back up, finished the game like a champ, and jetted off to Barcelona for the World Cup, broken tailbone and all.

Bruises and broken bones couldn’t keep Dan out of the action. Those derby days weren’t just about dodging collisions—they taught him about grit, resilience, and leadership skills that he’s been flexing for 15 years as a school leader. Whether he’s coaching leaders as part of The Ruckus Maker Mastermind™ team or dodging freight trains in the fast-paced world of roller derby, Dan is always willing to lean into the next challenge.

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Jason Dropik

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Having recently completed a two-year term as President of the National Indian Education Association (NIEA.org), he advocated for and spoke on the importance of tribal sovereignty, policy, appropriations, and student support across the country. As a Board Member of NIEA, Jason continues with that work, championing training and providing information for schools and community organizations, while creating visibility and understanding of Indigenous perspectives.

His greatest passion is creating welcoming spaces for students to develop their identity, take pride in their language and culture, and to celebrate the rich legacy and the promising future of Indigenous communities.

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Gene Park

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First and foremost, I’m a husband, father and son. I’m someone who is driven by my faith. I’m the Principal of A. Russell Knight Elementary in Cherry Hill, NJ. The Parks are animal lovers. We have 3 dogs and 2 cats. Some things that I’m loving at the moment is playing Pickleball and cooking for my friends and family. I also have the privilege and joy of serving as a BLBS Mastermind coach.

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