Front Page: Summer Reading

By Theresa Kelly Gegen

So far, 2026 has been buzzing with discussion about education technology. For boards of education in Illinois that are considering policy and practice, here are three overarching and distinct issues that we anticipate will tick the education news boxes this summer:

The May/June issue of the Illinois School Board Journal featured discourse on the sometimes tangled web of artificial intelligence, in the boardroom and in the classroom, with evolving ethical and practical considerations. AI is “creating just enough instability to make people question their own sense of what’s real and what’s not,” according to AI ethics researcher Rebecca Bultsma. AI “represents a genuine generational shift,” according to Joshua W. Stafford, Superintendent of Vienna HSD 13-3. That discourse continues in this, the annual Summer Reading issue of the Journal, including the second in a series of articles on AI and governance by Gary Fasules, IASB Director of Outreach & Training.

If AI in education piques your interest like a moth to a flame, for further reading, consider Education Week’s wide-scale and thoughtful coverage of artificial intelligence, from current events to special reports to commentaries. Also, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) will be publishing statewide guidelines on artificial intelligence this summer.

Speaking of our state, the Illinois General Assembly was a hive of activity on the topic of cellphones in the classroom. New legislation that will limit cell phone use in public schools has passed and awaits Governor JB Pritzker’s signature. K-8 schools will be required to implement a “bell-to-bell” ban during the school day; high schools may have discretion for lunch breaks and passing periods. Once signed, the law will take effect in the 2027-2028 academic year. Many Illinois districts are one step ahead of the legislation, with cell phone ban policies already in place. If you’d like to take a deep summer dive into the rationales behind the policies, I recommend a report entitled “Strengthening K-12 Cellphone Policies to Support Student Learning and Well-Being,” by a team of researchers from UCLA.

Beyond AI, and intertwined with cellphones in the classroom, is the issue of pushback against edtech. This topic flies in the face of recent conventional wisdom and is making headlines and driving conversations worldwide. Here in the Journal, in “When Technology Reshapes the Conditions for Learning,” educator Amy L. Kelly, Ed.D., offers that “technology is no longer simply supporting instruction. It is shaping the conditions under which learning happens.”

Many at IASB are reading The Digital Delusion: How Classroom Technology Harms Our Kids’ Learning and How to Help Them Thrive Again, in which neuroscientist and educator Jared Horvath, Ph.D., posits that widespread use of edtech is “harming student cognitive development, shrinking attention spans, and driving a measurable decline in academic performance.”

For still more on AI and edtech, join IASB and your fellow school leaders and make a beeline to the 2026 Joint Annual Conference, where we will cover these topics in even more depth, including a General Session and a Friday Focus Workshop featuring Horvath. As school board members, you are welcome at the Conference, even if you are not a social butterfly.

Theresa Kelly Gegen is Editor of the Illinois School Board Journal and Director of Communications/Editorial Services for IASB. You can put a (figurative, please) bug in her ear on AI, edtech, or any other governance/education topic at [email protected]