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Unsure about technology and learning.

Last post 18/11/09 at 18:48 by emmalily, 25 replies
Post started by Chatterbox1607 on 07/02/09 at 20:36

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  • Chatterbox1607 avatar
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    Posted by: Chatterbox1607 07/02/2009 at 20:36
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    I have been asked to look into technology which does not support learning well.  Im not really sure what this means.  Does any body have any suggestions?  I thought about the internet and research because if you don't know where to look for the information this could prove difficult.

     

    Hope you can help.
  • HappyHippy avatar
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    Posted by: HappyHippy 07/02/2009 at 21:09
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    By whom? For what purpose? Context is key.

    JB will be along shortly to say VLEs (specifically Moodle), Macs and any programming language other than VB. He's a cynical *** and I disagree on each of those points :-)

    You could start by looking at a lot of the software we already use that is geared towards business (e.g. MS Office) - are we educating or training? I'm not making a definitive statement either way, but it's a question to ask.

    At the other end of the scale we have social networking/Web 2.0 stuff - 2nd Life, delicious, blogs, ELGG, Mahara, Nintendo DS Brain Training. Again with the holding my tongue on personal opinions. Suffice to say that one opinion doesn't cover all of those.

    The most counter-productive piece of technology IMHO? The Internet filtering service. Yeuch.
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    Posted by: HappyHippy 07/02/2009 at 21:11
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    Oh, and there was a recent thread about the merits of flowchart type software (e.g. Flowol & Logicator) vs. programming software (e.g. Logo, Scratch & Alice). Interesting (if heated) discussion.
  • johnbrown avatar
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    Posted by: johnbrown 07/02/2009 at 21:34
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    There is technology that doesn't support learning as well as some would claim - teaching can be a bit 'faddy' and some (usually younger) teachers will get carried away with things.

    You might look at some of the previous threads on this forum regarding 'vle' s - I am one of the supporters of these.

    Also EWBs which some teachers will worship but others, again like myself see as limited compared to the more traditional projector. You weill also find that discussion on this forum in many threads.

    Also, you will find some teachers mentioning portable hand-held devices in hushed tones of admiration - this has also been discussed in threads.

    And netbooks - again - check the threads for discussions about the limitations of these.

  • madcat avatar
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    Posted by: madcat 07/02/2009 at 22:13
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    The problem is that it is not the technology that brings about carp lessons/poor learning. It is the way it is used.

    Powerpoint is a good example. In the nands of a skilled practitioner it can be used to bring even the dullest of topics to life, but in incompetent hands it can actually impeed the learning process
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    Posted by: gavcradd 08/02/2009 at 08:45
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    I agree completely with madcat above - I can't think of a single piece of techology that improves learning just by it being in the classroom. The Internet and Powerpoint have gone a long way to regressing learning (anyone had a cover lesson where the teacher asks the class to research a topic using the Internet and produce a presentation on it?).

    You might want to look at interactive whiteboards as well - see if you can find out how much money has been spent on them in the past few years and how educational standards have improved (or not!) over that time, it should prove interesting research.

    As madcat says though, it's the teacher using the tools well that improves learning, not the other way around.
  • autismuk avatar
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    Posted by: autismuk 08/02/2009 at 08:46
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    Exactly. The problem is it is driven by idiots.

    VLEs are the classic example.

    What we should do is find a few schools with people with expertise, knowledge and time in some balance or other, that can trial VLE packages, VLE content and content generating tools, training for staff and so on. Then that knowledge can be distributed in a useable form. I am not a VLE specialist by any means, but there is more than one person here well capable of doing that.

    What we get is a cretinous management. Starting at the top, our fnckwitted government lays down that all schools must have a VLE by some date, because it looks good in the papers. Incompetent LEA morons are then schmoozed by companies into wasting vast sums on the product and incredible sums on maintenance contracts and because they are idiots, they buy from the best salesmen (or more likely, who provided the best lunch). Vast numbers of teachers, many of whom have no idea what they are doing, (especially in primary because of the lack of specialisms) then set up trivial VLEs with zero content or sensibly useable features, then they tick a box saying they have 'got a VLE' and some twit with an a in government jerks off to the press about how advanced we are

    Every technological 'advance' is done like this. The main problem is that while teachers are generally reasonably competent, the people with the power, money and control are laughably inept.
  • autismuk avatar
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    Posted by: autismuk 08/02/2009 at 08:47
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    "(anyone had a cover lesson where the teacher asks the class to research a topic using the Internet and produce a presentation on it?)."

    The question is more perhaps has anyone *not* had a cover lesson in this format.
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    Posted by: johnbrown 08/02/2009 at 09:20
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    johnbrown:

    There is technology that doesn't support learning as well as some would claim - teaching can be a bit 'faddy' and some (usually younger) teachers will get carried away with things.

    You might look at some of the previous threads on this forum regarding 'vle' s - I am one of the supporters of these.

    Also EWBs which some teachers will worship but others, again like myself see as limited compared to the more traditional projector. You weill also find that discussion on this forum in many threads.

    Also, you will find some teachers mentioning portable hand-held devices in hushed tones of admiration - this has also been discussed in threads.

    And netbooks - again - check the threads for discussions about the limitations of these.

     

    For the record, I am not a supporter of VLEs.

    And it's about time i started calling EWBs, IWBs like everyone else in the world does.

    I do, on occasions, drink alcohol in the evening.

  • Chatterbox1607 avatar
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    Posted by: Chatterbox1607 08/02/2009 at 11:33
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    I have to look at a any pieces of technology and state what unhelpful features they have and how if teachers had the chance - how would teachers design them instead?
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