By Charles Sosnik
The Learning Counsel organizes regional Digital Transition Discussion events to help education leaders address the practical challenges of moving schools and districts along a continuum of digital transformation. At a recent roundtable in our nation’s capital, administrators, instructional technology specialists, and classroom teachers gathered for an informal but focused conversation to identify and prioritize the real barriers standing in the way of sustainable change.
“What we saw in every city this year was change on a scale we’ve never seen before,” said LeiLani Cauthen, publisher and CEO of the Learning Counsel, as she opened the discussion. “There is a growing mismatch between what people expect in daily life and what a traditional school often provides. Learners can access vast information on their phones, order goods quickly, and expect rapid service. In contrast, many school processes remain slow, rigid, or designed for a different era. At the same time, students need human interaction more than ever, yet our systems sometimes move in the opposite direction. The question for educators is straightforward: what barriers are preventing us from adapting, and what practical steps can we take to change that?”
Participants surfaced multiple obstacles: limited professional development time, uneven access to devices and reliable connectivity, assessment systems that favor memorization over creation, and cultural expectations about what a “good” lesson looks like. One issue raised repeatedly—and one that often goes unrecognized as a barrier to digital integration—was the nature of classroom observations and how they influence teacher practice.
“I work primarily with middle school teachers,” explained Tracy Brown, Instructional Technology Specialist at Anne Arundel County Public Schools. “A frequent concern teachers share is that formal observations discourage them from using technology in the classroom. Observers—different people at different times of the year—often expect a very traditional lesson: students facing forward, pencils in hand, all on the same page. When observers see a classroom that looks different—students collaborating, using devices, or engaged in project work—they sometimes write comments like ‘I don’t even know what those kids were doing for that 20 minutes.’ That sends a strong message: technology is chaotic, and the teacher didn’t deliver the expected lesson.”
Brown emphasized that many observers are well-meaning but distant from modern classroom practice. “At higher levels of leadership, people are often removed from day-to-day instruction but still responsible for evaluating it,” she noted. “They tend to equate a successful lesson with passive student behavior and visible teacher control. Yet the highest level of integration isn’t students passively consuming information—it’s students creating, curating, and applying knowledge. When observation systems reward passive behaviors, they unintentionally block teachers from experimenting with authentic, student-centered practices.”
Observers are supposed to coach and support teachers, but Brown pointed out how the process can feel punitive rather than developmental. “Many teachers view coaching as a criticism,” she said. “Even when feedback is intended to help, the expectation is often negative: ‘Those students shouldn’t be doing that,’ or ‘You should be focusing on this content.’ A teacher who has spent hours designing an interactive lesson can feel deflated when an observer’s notes don’t reflect the learning that actually took place. Yet informal conversation, even when students are off-topic, can support social-emotional learning and help build the relationships that enable deeper academic engagement.”
Changing how observations are conducted is a manageable and high-impact step in support of digital transformation. District leaders and building administrators can take immediate action by clarifying the purpose of observations, aligning observation rubrics with modern learning goals, training observers to recognize student-centered instruction, and emphasizing coaching rather than penalizing. When observation protocols focus on growth, evidence of student learning, and teacher reflection, they become a catalyst for innovation instead of a constraint.
For administrators who currently rely on traditional observation practices, it’s worth asking: Why are we observing? Who is qualified to observe? How will feedback be used to support development? What student behaviors and evidence of learning should observers prioritize? Thoughtful answers to these questions can convert observations into a powerful professional learning tool that complements technology-rich instruction and supports teachers in doing what they do best—connecting with students, facilitating meaningful learning, and responding to individual needs.
If handled poorly, classroom observation risks wasting time and undermining morale. Handled well, it can remove one significant barrier to digital integration and free teachers to focus on the human work of teaching—guiding inquiry, fostering collaboration, and nurturing student agency while technology supports personalized, scalable learning experiences.
About the Author
Charles Sosnik is an education journalist and editor and serves as Editor in Chief at the Learning Counsel. He draws on long-standing connections across the education community to provide context and clarity to the evolving education narrative. Charles writes frequently for major education media, including The Learning Counsel, EdNews Daily, edCircuit, and EdTech Digest. He identifies as Southern and describes himself as an editor by trade and Southern by the grace of God.