Edtech and Digital Learning Tools in Finnish Schools

Finnish primary classrooms use a mix of digital platforms, apps and devices, but always alongside books, handwriting and time away from screens. Technology is chosen to serve the curriculum, not the other way round.

Digital tools as one part of the classroom, not the whole of it

Finland's national curriculum treats digital competence as one of seven transversal competences pupils develop across every subject, alongside things like thinking skills and cultural competence. That framing matters: technology is meant to support learning goals that already exist, not to become a goal in itself.

This has led to a visible correction over the past decade. After a period of enthusiastic screen adoption in the early 2010s, many Finnish schools and now national policy have deliberately rebalanced towards books, handwriting and unplugged activity in the early primary years, without abandoning digital tools altogether.

What digital learning looks like in K-5 classrooms

In practice, a Finnish primary school might use a home school communication platform, an interactive whiteboard, subject specific apps for maths or language practice, and simple coding and programming activities that have been part of the curriculum since 2016.

Programming in the early grades rarely means writing code from scratch. It usually means visual, block based tools and unplugged exercises that build computational thinking, woven into maths and other subjects rather than taught as a separate technology class.

• Learning management and communication platforms for teachers, pupils and parents
• Interactive whiteboards and classroom display tools
• Subject apps for maths, language learning and reading practice
• Visual, block based coding tools introduced from the first grades
• Digital assessment tools that give teachers and pupils quick feedback

Eduten: one example of Finnish maths edtech

Eduten is a Finnish developed platform, built through work with University of Turku researchers and teachers, that gives pupils adaptive, gamified maths practice and gives teachers a view of progress and common errors. It is one of the digital maths tools used by a number of Finnish schools, and it is featured by the Finnish National Agency for Education as an example of homegrown Finnish edtech.

It is worth being precise about what that means: Eduten is one example among several Finnish maths and learning tools, such as ViLLE and Qridi, not a required or universal feature of Finnish curriculum classrooms. Whether any individual school uses it, or something else entirely, is a decision made at school level based on its own needs.

Balancing screens with hands on learning

Finland has also moved to limit unstructured device use during lessons. National legislation that took effect in August 2025 restricts pupils' personal phones, tablets and laptops in grades 1 to 9 unless a teacher allows their use for a specific learning purpose, reflecting concern from teachers about the effect of constant device access on attention.

For K-5 pupils specifically, schools tend to weight this even further towards analogue methods: handwriting, printed books, physical maths manipulatives and outdoor learning remain central, with digital tools brought in for particular tasks rather than left running throughout the day. See how Finnish classrooms manage screen time for more on this balance.

Finnish teachers tend to treat digital tools as one instrument among many, picked up when they serve a clear learning purpose, not as a substitute for books, discussion or the outdoors.

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