Technology in Education
originally written Wednesday 11th October 2017
edited Friday October 30th 2020
edited Friday October 30th 2020
Whenever new technologies first start infiltrating the classroom, there are three fundamental problems. Firstly, there is an incredibly steep learning curve for teachers in understanding how things work. Secondly is the sometimes mistaken belief that students will be interested and willing to engage - just because it's new and just because you can plug it in does not inherently make it appealing to students. So the third problem is how to use it, well. Does it make a topic or process more engaging? Does it broaden capacity for collaboration? Creativity? Does it create more curiosity and engagement?
The idea that the latest technology will be the panacea that addresses improved engagement and assessment outcomes, is quickly proved false if the teaching doesn’t change and if teachers are not appropriately supported to develop their own skills. Great technology without confident teachers using appropriate pedagogy is not useful.
How much to use new technologies in education and when to introduce them is a really important conversation to have. So is the articulation of a vision and purpose for what we are trying to achieve through education. The consensus that is emerging places a focus on the development of critical and creative thinking skills developed through collaborative and cooperative teaching and learning. While in many ways this can be achieved without the use of new technologies, it would be a great mistake to deny the vital and dynamic role they play. The key is getting the balance right.
We cannot have a conversation about the relevance of technology in education without considering issues of access and equity. For some people, having access to new technologies can literally mean a chance for an education that would not otherwise be possible. With the rise of the free, accessible and pedagogically sound MOOC, has come a sort of democratisation of education. New technologies are literally making possible that which was previously not – the education of vast numbers of people who, for incredibly diverse reasons, previously had no access. For Daphne Koller (2012), it is all about these people.
"Sustained access to meaningful learning that has utility is critical to long term improvements in productivity, the reduction of inter-generational cycles of poverty, demographic transition, preventive health care, the empowerment of women, and reductions in inequality." (Why Access to Education is Important, 2015)
Of the six key drivers that power online learning identified by David Price (2013), autonomy is perhaps the most important in this context. But online education only works where there is access. Fewer than half of the 7.6 billion people in the world can get online. Much of the research in reference to internet usage worldwide does not, at first glance, address issues of access. Researchers are starting to realise that the data we collect to ascertain internet access is not necessarily telling the whole story. The number of mobile phone subscriptions – a previously used measure of internet connectivity – is not actually an indicator of usage or internet access.
Looking more deeply we can see that those for whom a lack of infrastructure is the issue, things are moving forward, all around the world, with solutions as diverse as solar planes, drones, balloons and thousands of new satellites. Hopefully this mix of technologies will address the diversity of need based on location and population for some of the currently under served.
But affordability is still an issue, both in terms of a broadband connection and a device. In the community in which I currently work, large numbers of students come from households where there is no broadband or dedicated student device. This was really highlighted during the Covid 19 pandemic when we saw large numbers of students either forced or opt to work from home. This period did not just highlight the lack of equity of access, but also, perhaps surprisingly, made clear the fact that some students actively choose not to engage with remote learning. Of the two groups of students at my current site - those in traditional mainstream and those in reengagement programs - those in reengage programs were the least likely to opt into access the equity program offered by the Department for Education. This brings us back to the question of whether or not a teacher has had the chance to engage a student through the use of the new technology.
So too are issues of cultural relevance and privacy and the principles of net neutrality. Facebook’s Free Basics initiative, for example, is being roundly rejected as a kind of digital colonialism through its limited access offerings.
Rather than continuing to debate its use and relevance, universal, affordable access to the internet should be the conversation we are now having with regards to the use of technology in education. And then, as educators, we can take on the task of making learning meaningful, relevant and student centred, with the help of new technologies.
Dani Burbrook ©
<https://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_koller_what_we_re_learning_from_online_education?language=en#t-1221231>
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fGv3_kaGa8> David Price on the Open Learning Revolution
<http://www.designshare.com/Research/Nair/Learning_Technology.htm>
<https://www.unfpa.org/gender-equality>
<http://international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/priorities-priorites/women-femmes.aspx?lang=eng>
<https://www.extremetech.com/internet/237215-will-zuckerbergs-third-world-internet-come-to-north-america
<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/27/facebook-free-basics-developing-markets>
<http://www.adweek.com/digital/study-shows-75-global-internet-access-will-be-mobile-year-174300/>
<https://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/report/q3-2015-soti-connectivity-final.pdf>
<http://www.create-rpc.org/about/why/> “Why Access to Education Is Important”, Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity. Viewed 12.10.17
<https://phys.org/news/2016-11-world-population-internet.html>
<http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/10/02/353288711/why-4-4-billion-people-still-dont-have-internet-access>
The idea that the latest technology will be the panacea that addresses improved engagement and assessment outcomes, is quickly proved false if the teaching doesn’t change and if teachers are not appropriately supported to develop their own skills. Great technology without confident teachers using appropriate pedagogy is not useful.
How much to use new technologies in education and when to introduce them is a really important conversation to have. So is the articulation of a vision and purpose for what we are trying to achieve through education. The consensus that is emerging places a focus on the development of critical and creative thinking skills developed through collaborative and cooperative teaching and learning. While in many ways this can be achieved without the use of new technologies, it would be a great mistake to deny the vital and dynamic role they play. The key is getting the balance right.
We cannot have a conversation about the relevance of technology in education without considering issues of access and equity. For some people, having access to new technologies can literally mean a chance for an education that would not otherwise be possible. With the rise of the free, accessible and pedagogically sound MOOC, has come a sort of democratisation of education. New technologies are literally making possible that which was previously not – the education of vast numbers of people who, for incredibly diverse reasons, previously had no access. For Daphne Koller (2012), it is all about these people.
"Sustained access to meaningful learning that has utility is critical to long term improvements in productivity, the reduction of inter-generational cycles of poverty, demographic transition, preventive health care, the empowerment of women, and reductions in inequality." (Why Access to Education is Important, 2015)
Of the six key drivers that power online learning identified by David Price (2013), autonomy is perhaps the most important in this context. But online education only works where there is access. Fewer than half of the 7.6 billion people in the world can get online. Much of the research in reference to internet usage worldwide does not, at first glance, address issues of access. Researchers are starting to realise that the data we collect to ascertain internet access is not necessarily telling the whole story. The number of mobile phone subscriptions – a previously used measure of internet connectivity – is not actually an indicator of usage or internet access.
Looking more deeply we can see that those for whom a lack of infrastructure is the issue, things are moving forward, all around the world, with solutions as diverse as solar planes, drones, balloons and thousands of new satellites. Hopefully this mix of technologies will address the diversity of need based on location and population for some of the currently under served.
But affordability is still an issue, both in terms of a broadband connection and a device. In the community in which I currently work, large numbers of students come from households where there is no broadband or dedicated student device. This was really highlighted during the Covid 19 pandemic when we saw large numbers of students either forced or opt to work from home. This period did not just highlight the lack of equity of access, but also, perhaps surprisingly, made clear the fact that some students actively choose not to engage with remote learning. Of the two groups of students at my current site - those in traditional mainstream and those in reengagement programs - those in reengage programs were the least likely to opt into access the equity program offered by the Department for Education. This brings us back to the question of whether or not a teacher has had the chance to engage a student through the use of the new technology.
So too are issues of cultural relevance and privacy and the principles of net neutrality. Facebook’s Free Basics initiative, for example, is being roundly rejected as a kind of digital colonialism through its limited access offerings.
Rather than continuing to debate its use and relevance, universal, affordable access to the internet should be the conversation we are now having with regards to the use of technology in education. And then, as educators, we can take on the task of making learning meaningful, relevant and student centred, with the help of new technologies.
Dani Burbrook ©
<https://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_koller_what_we_re_learning_from_online_education?language=en#t-1221231>
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fGv3_kaGa8> David Price on the Open Learning Revolution
<http://www.designshare.com/Research/Nair/Learning_Technology.htm>
<https://www.unfpa.org/gender-equality>
<http://international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/priorities-priorites/women-femmes.aspx?lang=eng>
<https://www.extremetech.com/internet/237215-will-zuckerbergs-third-world-internet-come-to-north-america
<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/27/facebook-free-basics-developing-markets>
<http://www.adweek.com/digital/study-shows-75-global-internet-access-will-be-mobile-year-174300/>
<https://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/report/q3-2015-soti-connectivity-final.pdf>
<http://www.create-rpc.org/about/why/> “Why Access to Education Is Important”, Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity. Viewed 12.10.17
<https://phys.org/news/2016-11-world-population-internet.html>
<http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/10/02/353288711/why-4-4-billion-people-still-dont-have-internet-access>