“For it is inescapable that every culture must negotiate with technology, whether it does so intelligently or not. A bargain is struck in which technology giveth and technology taketh away.” Neil Postman, Technopoly.

The title of this presentation references two of Neil Postman’s works, The Disappearance of Childhood and Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. These works, written in the 1990s, are an invaluable and timeless lens for viewing emerging educational trends.

In January 2025, students across the USA were invited to take part in the Digital Well-being Challenge, a program developed by the Office of Educational Technology (OET) in the US Department of Education and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. My team of students and educators based in New York City were selected as one of 30 teams to participate in the Challenge, which focused on co-designing innovative solutions to problems related to digital well-being.

In March 2025, just as students were to begin their work on the Challenge, the OET was eliminated as part of the reduction in force of the federal government, the first phase in dismantling the Department of Education entirely. The Challenge was one of the student-facing programs that ceased to exist and which would have added practical value to educational institutions across the country through developing and sharing resources.

The OET was established in 1994 to "carry out activities for Federal leadership in educational technology, including:
(1) a national long-range technology plan; and
(2) assistance to States to plan effectively for the use of technology in all schools."

This information is still accessible on the US Congress website. However, when searching for the same information on the OET site, a 404 error appears. The URL https://tech.ed.gov/ now only exists in its original form as archived pages. It once hosted the 2024 National Education Technology Plan as well as other key guidance documents on the use of technology in education; these are now only hosted on sites not affiliated with the US government. A redirect, both physical and metaphorical, to a new page highlights statements from the new administration declaring the return of education to the states, a shift in ideology that has historical precedents.

What is new, however, is that prior to recent events, the support of educational technology and related professional development has been featured on the education agendas of both political parties, framed as an essential part of preparing students for careers and postsecondary opportunities.

This elimination of the OET contrasts with the parallel elevation of tech industry titans as seen at the 2025 Presidential Inauguration.

What is the path forward without national leadership developing policy on technology in education? How can we replicate what is lost?

While engaging in the technology planning process for the New York State Instructional Technology Plan for New York City, I evaluated the effectiveness of collaboration on best practices in educational technology. Using lessons learned, I will explore alternatives for institutions and educators in the USA and the international community to work together with the goal of fostering collaboration through communities of practice to reimagine structures that have global impact.

Keywords: Technology, education, equity.