There has been a fast technological development in recent decades, especially in the area of digital technology. In school, however, it has slowed down. Admittedly, old PCs have gradually been replaced with newer, but an average school IT usable has little development in recent decades. Examples are limited access in a computer room where login takes a long time, the computers have mainly been used for writing, Internet browsing, and maybe some drilling tasks in mathematics. Pedagogy and learning have been little affected by IT.
Until now.
In the last few years there has been a rapid and noticeable change in the use of information technology in many schools. This technology is much more integrated into the learning work and the tools are central to achieving the goals of the curriculum, both in terms of subjects and digital competence.
Some key factors are important for achieving good results.
1) The technology must be stable and fast
2) Each student needs his own 1: 1 device.
3) The teacher needs good skills in educational use.
Are these three prerequisites in place, the possibilities are very good for technology to be a good tool in learning work.
In terms of language learning, technology provides opportunities for traditional learning resources. Keyword here is the use of audio, images and videos. The student can listen and read texts and watch learning movie. To the student is to listen and see a text a good tool in language development in terms of grammar, phonetics and content. Heating students reading audio files is a very good tool for the teacher in assessments. It will be much easier to provide accurate feedback to each student.
What an interesting blog post. You raise some important questions. Just the fact that we are getting this assignment shows that the development and the integration of ICT in the educational system have taken big leaps the last decade.
I would like to comment on two of the key factors that you list in your post. All of them are relevant, but I have some personal experience with two of them.
First of I would comment on the fact that you emphasis on the point that each student need to have their own device. I have had classes where we had 1:1 coverage on IPads and classes where IPads were available, so we could have two pupils on one IPad. For me the difference here has been how convenient it was to give assignments to the pupils on the IPads. Whether or not the educational processes have been better with 1:1 coverage can be questioned. It all depends on the next key factor that you mention. “The teacher needs good skills in educational use”. In my opinion 1:1 coverage is subordinate to the teacher skills in educational use.
So what kind of knowledge does a teacher need? First and maybe the most important element in using devices as educational tools is the control of the classroom. The pupils have the possibility to choose among so many different things to do. You need to be sure that the pupils choose to do what you tell them. And it is important that the pupils understand that they can’t do something else when the teacher is talking. I have often experienced the Norwegian expression “skal bare” in classes that doesn’t use devices that much. The teachers also have to invest time in choosing appropriate apps, both for the subject and for the pupils. This also applies to the technical “know how”. The teachers need to stay up to date, and that requires some hours in trying and reading.