Jun 23, 2026
Technology Should Work for Teachers, Not the Other Way Around: A Recap of Chris Hull on EdTech Empowerment
By: Otus Team
If you’ve ever sat in a PD session thinking, “I don’t need another app, I need more time,” — Chris Hull gets it. As a former seventh-grade social studies teacher turned co-founder of Otus, Chris has lived both sides of the ed tech experience. And his take? Technology only earns its place in a classroom when it genuinely makes teaching better.
Chris recently joined Juan Rodriguez on the EdTech Empowerment podcast, and Chris didn’t hold back. It’s the straight talk that K-12 leaders and educators need to hear. Below are three messages to take back to your school or district.
Stop collecting data you’re not going to use
This one stings a little, because we’ve all been guilty of it. Schools are awash in data, and yet, they still don’t have the insights they need to make a real difference. Somewhere along the way, collecting data became the goal, completely disconnected from instruction. Every time a student sits down for a quiz or an assessment, they’re giving up instructional time (and in some cases, naturally getting stressed or frustrated in the process). If that data doesn’t change what happens next in the classroom, you’re just doing data for data’s sake.
The real shift is asking better questions before you collect anything: What will I do differently based on these results? If you don’t have an answer, you’re not ready to measure it yet.
“If you're trying to teach someone how to read, and you're constantly measuring their test scores, you're not getting into the actual technique. There is this misconception that collecting more data is better. It can be, but there is a diminishing return. You can collect too much data. You have to find that balance so we can actually use that information to better their learning path.”
Chris Hull
President and Co-founder
,
Otus
Technology for its own sake is a dead end
Coming from the founder of an edtech company, this may surprise you, but there were plenty of days in Chris’ classroom when the Chromebooks stayed shut — and that was intentional. Educators shouldn’t use technology when it’s called for. When it truly benefits the learner.
This is something school leaders need to hear, especially as pressure mounts to show that devices are being used and platforms are worth the spend. Instead of asking if technology is present in a lesson, schools need to ask if the technology is the right tool for what they’re trying to accomplish.
A well-timed pair-share beats a digital activity that takes 20 minutes to set up and only marginally extends the learning. A five-question auto-graded pre-quiz that informs your next three days of instruction? Now that’s technology earning its keep. The goal is and always has been learning, the tools are just there to help you get there faster and smarter.
“Oftentimes as educators, we need to realize that we have a toolkit that's pretty big and we need to make sure we're using the right tool in the right circumstance to get the right result.”
Chris Hull
President and Co-founder
,
Otus
AI can tackle tasks that teachers shouldn’t have to
Chris has a vision for where edtech is headed (and what Otus is actively building toward): automating the administrative weight that buries good teachers before they even get to the good stuff.
Prepping for a parent-teacher conference? AI can pull together a student summary, anticipate the questions families are likely to ask, and even help frame standards-based language for a non-educator audience. Building a quiz aligned to a specific standard? Describe it and let the AI generate the questions. Personalizing practice for a kid who loves basketball and is working on grammar? There’s a paragraph about Jalen Brunson in there somewhere.
Nothing will ever replace teachers, because people connect. Knowing a kid, reading the room, building trust—that connection is uniquely human and is irreplaceable. But the hours spent hunting through spreadsheets, juggling a dozen tools, and manually reviewing assessment data? That’s precisely where AI can genuinely give teachers what they’re dreaming of in PD sessions: their time back.
"I was always jealous of those college professors with TAs who were able to help them out. I'm like, ‘I want my own set of TAs.’ And so that's what we're building with our Otus AI assistant."
Chris Hull
President and Co-founder
,
Otus
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