“ LESS IS MORE:
ITS PROFUNDITY LIES AS MUCH IN WHAT IT DOESN’ T ASK AS IN WHAT IT ACTUALLY DOES.“
“ HOW GOOD MIGHT OUR CHILDREN REALLY BE?”
It’ s a simple question, one you are likely to hear from leading UK academic Professor Stephen Heppell, a figure synonymous with technology for learning. Less is more: its profundity lies as much in what it doesn’ t ask as in what it actually does.
How good might they be, if we didn’ t:
Narrow their horizons with prescriptive curricula?
Limit their contributions with rigid, outdated assessment regimes?
Hamper them from pursuing learning across subject confines, as they would in adult life?
Stultify their creativity and engagement by placing them in unsuitable learning environments?
Fail to exploit the power of technology to support, extend and improve learning and teaching?
Education reform expert Professor Michael Fullan has brought technology into his work in recent years( see“ A Rich Seam – How New Pedagogies find Deep Learning”). His view is that while technology is not one of the key levers for education reform, it can accelerate all the ones he has identified in his writings.
Professor Fullan is committed to change at scale, and has already demonstrated how it can be done. So what’ s the problem with education’ s encounter with technology?
Pundits have been fond of blaming teachers for failing to engage with technology, but here in the UK what has become clear is that technology for learning has virtually disappeared from the political agenda for schools in England. That’ s not the case in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland but the acme of schools strategy for England, where all were once encouraged to become academies, is seen by many as a backwards move, the reintroduction of grammar schools.
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