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editorial paper and opinion (title: “Teachers and technology: time to get serious”)

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“Teachers and technology: time to get serious”
Although classroom computers have been with us since the 1970s, schools have only recently
become truly ‘digital’. Now, every school seems full of digital devices and display screens. Anything that
can be digitized is stored online. Lessons are live-streamed, resources are downloadable and
communication takes place through apps and email. Behind the scenes, schools maintain their own
servers, host school-wide Wi-Fi and run complex management systems. In contrast to even a few years
ago, today’s schools depend upon substantial amounts of digital technology.
This is not to say that technology use in education is now straightforward. If anything, digital
technology is more of a headache for teachers than ever. On the one hand, schools are bombarded with
claims from software vendors and technology enthusiasts about the power of various new technologies to
transform what goes on in the classroom. On the other hand, the impacts of technology use on teaching
and learning remain uncertain. Andreas Schleicher the OECD’s director of education caused some
upset in 2015 when suggesting that ICT has negligible impact on classrooms. Yet he was simply voicing
what many teachers have long known: good technology use in education is very tricky to pin down.
At the same time, it could be argued that the technologies featuring most prominently in teachers’
professional lives have little to do with teaching and learning at all. Instead, it often feels that digital
technology is primarily a managerial tool for keeping tight control over what goes on in the classroom.
Digital technology is certainly a key part of school data-gathering and teacher monitoring, as well as a
means of extending schoolwork long into evenings, weekends and holiday time. While IT firms continue
to make millions of pounds from selling their products to schools, teachers could be forgiven for never
wanting to switch on a laptop again. We have come a long way from optimistic endorsements of
classroom computers as ‘the teacher’s friend’.
This issue of Impact therefore coincides with the growing realization that everyone in education
needs to get serious about how technology is used in schools. We are no longer in the ‘booster’ decades of
the 1990s and 2000s, when it was fashionable to enthuse about anything ‘cyber’ or ‘virtual’. Instead, as
we enter the 2020s, people are becoming decidedly wary of digital technology. Incidents such as
Cambridge Analytical and the Edward Snowden NSA revelations have prompted notable pushbacks
against the use of technology in schools. Parents are increasingly unhappy with purchasing 20,000 pesos
laptops for their children. Politicians are calling for bans on smartphones in classrooms. Teaching unions
are challenging the influence that ‘big tech’ companies such as Google have over public schooling. Civil
rights organizations are raising legal and ethical objections to the increased use of data and analytics.
While no one is arguing that we should get rid of computers completely from schools, there is growing
suspicion of the technological ‘opportunities’ that are being pushed onto education.
Against this background, teachers face a tough task when it comes to making sense of
technology. There are still many benefits to be gained from digital technology, but this is an area that
requires careful attention. Unfortunately, there are no quick or easy answers to what works’. Instead,
perhaps the most helpful thing to do at this point is to offer seven brief bits of advice for any teacher

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“Teachers and technology: time to get serious” Although classroom computers have been with us since the 1970s, schools have only recently become truly ‘digital’. Now, every school seems full of digital devices and display screens. Anything that can be digitized is stored online. Lessons are live-streamed, resources are downloadable and communication takes place through apps and email. Behind the scenes, schools maintain their own servers, host school-wide Wi-Fi and run complex management systems. In contrast to even a few years ago, today’s schools depend upon substantial amounts of ...
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