Dead trees

11. Technology's impact on teaching and learning.

Technology changes behaviour, whether you like it or not. As a late-adopter I tend to take what evangelical early-adopters say with a pinch of salt - and hang on to the old ways of doing things. 

But I now rarely buy a print book and my 'newspaper' comes to my tablet, not the corner shop. So, it seemed strange to be buying an old-style ink-on-paper Western Mail yesterday - it now seems a bit retro, but wood pulp still has its uses when you're waiting for a bus.

As it happened one of the Letters to the Editor had something to say about technology in education. The writer, Jonathan Bishop, was taking issue with a Western Mail story about e-learning, but also had some more general points to make about new tech and education. 

There is, he claims, a problem with teacher take-up of new technologies. The stand-out point for me was his suggestion that: "Many teacher training courses in Wales still think of teaching as involving a teacher standing in front of a board and blabbing off a series of facts."

He may have a point, but we are proof that technology is a priority for today's student teachers. It's an intergral part of our course.
There is, I think, a real challenge in all of this for education as a whole. I came across a TES news story from earlier in the year that accused the FE sector of being too timid about use of technology.
It was quoting a City and Guilds report, which I read last month, that calls on the sector to embrace a “culture of experimentation” that explores new methods. The report has lots of interesting examples of  new ways of working, but does not have much to say about how best to persuade teachers to set aside what's familiar.
To my way of thinking, to make an experimentation culture happen will take an alliance of hare and tortoise. As a late-adopter I can see the potential of the new, but do need understanding and moral support to move towards it with confidence.

Sources
Pullen, C. and Varley-Winter, O. (2014) Culture, Coaching and Collaboration. London: City & Guilds Centre for Sills and Development 
Link
TES Connect, 'Colleges have failed to keep pace with technology, report claims ', published 31.5.14. Link 
Western Mail, Letters, published 13.1.15) Link