Thirteen years ago, a Gleaner news story headline said, “E-books to change Jamaican landscape.” At the time, structural optimism prevailed. Digital publishing was championed as an antidote to the prohibitive costs of traditional printing, while our leading academic institutions set ambitious targets for the adoption of tablets and other digital learning resources.

Today, however, that early optimism has given way to a more complex and uneven reality. The emergency pivot to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic forced an overnight embrace of digital education. Yet the subsequent return to face-to-face schooling has revealed a distinct cultural regression – a pedagogical snapback in which digital devices are often prohibited and educational technologies dismissed as distractions rather than recognised as powerful learning tools.

This retreat is felt most acutely in rural schools, where persistent challenges such as unreliable internet connectivity and limited access to devices already constrain educational opportunity. The challenge before us, however, is not merely infrastructural; it is also one of public narrative.