Tech v teaching: it's a dialectic not a war

It’s not about the technology, it’s all about the learning. Learning then tech? Tech then learning? Both positions are wrong. Both sides have their book-selling evangelists. The truth is a little mroe prosaic.The relationship between learning and technology is a complex dialectic. It always has been and always will be. The great revolutions in technology, that shaped the learning landscape were writing, alphabets, writing instruments, paper, printing, books, calculators, computer, the internet– none of this technology came from the ‘learning’ community. What did come from the learning community were lecterns, blackboards and…. On the other hand a lot of learning technology has been shaped by great learning professionals who make it usable, productive and manageable. It’s not one way traffic – it’s cross-pollinated.

Nozick – the world is not simple

Nozick wrote a brilliant paper called Why Do Intellectuals Oppose Capitalism? And if you read it and replace Capitalism with Technology, you’ll see the parallel. The real world is messy, not at all simple. It is very different from the structured world of wordsmiths, schools, Universities and corporate training departments. The real world creates loads of brilliant consumer tech that is useful and compulsive. Just because it doesn’t fit the straightjacket of a classroom of lecture hall doesn’t mean it’s of no use in learning. Learners start doing things for themselves. Teaching and learning is also messy and doesn’t fit the neat formulaic nature of technology. What we need is dialogue and synthesis. Jaw, jaw, not war, war.

Tech then learning

In some cases learning technology emerges, without reference to learning, yet had a profound pedagogic effect on the way people learn. Google is a good example. It changed the way we access knowledge, find academic papers, do research and so on. This was a serious pedagogic shift, that irreversibly changed the way we learn. Similarly with Wikipedia, a crowd-sourced knowledge-base, was a major step forward in terms of the way knowledge was seen (as corrigible), created, edited, discussed, distributed and accessed. YouTube has become a learning platform in its own right, with uploads, video editing, channels and a vast library of videos where learning by doing or ‘how to’ learning became, not only available, but accessible. Khan Academy and many other services came, not from within the world of education but from outsiders who shaped technological innovation on the web.

Learning then tech

Also, those who teach, or interested in learning, used the technology sensitive to the needs of learning and learners. Indeed, there are many examples of technology that emerged from this sensitivity to learning theory and learner needs. All manner of useful content creation, content delivery, communication, collaboration, assessment, learner management, learning management, simulation, spaced practice, adaptive systems have been developed with learning in mind, often by educators. Moodle is a good example, where Dougiamfas took the LMS idea and turned it into something useful for educators.

Fails

Both sides produce failure when they stick to their prejudices. The tech folk when they overreach and overpromise; the learning folk when they refuse to listen and overreact. We’ve seen the disastrous consequence when both tech and teachers get obsessed with ‘devices’ leading to the wrong focus on short-lived mosquito projects, using iPads, mobiles, lego, Microbits, Whiteboards - when what is needed are turtle projects – sustainable projects that appeal to actual users. This is what happens when over-zealous hardware vendors team up with ‘device fetish (10 examples)’ teachers and educators.

Way forward

They way forward – think strategically, not tactically; scale and efficacy, not pilots and ill-defined research projects. A good example is AI and adaptive learning. After 2500 years of mathematical progress, AI has come of age, as the internet feeds the rocket-ship with data. We see real progress by people from maths, physics, coding and AI backgrounds. This is being tempered with good teachers and learning theorists to produce productive and useful tools. That’s the way it should be. Blended learning is another good example, something almost everyone on the tech sides agrees with but remains difficult to implement becuae of the tech v teaching wars.

Conclusion

In practice, and I’ve been doing this for well over 30 years, it is a complex dialectic. Tech arrives and sometimes it changes the learning landscape without any intervention from the learning folk, sometimes it’s adapted by the learning folk, sometimes it’s just used by hundreds of millions because it’s useful. The educators v tech argument is specious because it fails to recognise that the real world is messy.  That is the way of the world, complex causality, not ‘us v them’, ‘tech v learning’, ‘teachers v tools’. Sure both sides have their purists but most see a synthesis.

10 examples of how ‘DEVICE fetish’ is ruining EdTech

Educational debate around technology is, as my father often says, ‘arse before elbow’, as are shows such as BETT. It’s obsessed with devices – tablets, mobiles, whiteboards, holes-in-walls, micro:bits, Raspberry Pis, 3D printers, VR and so on - which is to focus on the wrong end of the problem. Device fetishism has been a destructive force in research, procurement, projects and outcomes in education. So here’s some blowback. Note that I’ve been implementing and writing about the use of tech in learning for 33 years, so I’m speaking, not as a philistine, but a convert.

Here’s Audrey

This is Audrey Mullen, a US high school student, with an entrepreneurial flair. She does Kite Reviews, through a consultancy that hires out fellow students to evaluate Edtech. I like this. She found that faculty, schools and HE tended to think devices first, bandwidth and services second. She's right. I founded and ran a large test lab, called the ‘Epicentre’ and for years and got to know a lot about testing, usability and target audience evaluation. One thing I did learn, was to listen to real users, backed up with methodologies developed by Nielsen, Norman, Krug and others. It’s so easy to get 50 year-olds entranced by shiny devices, to buy stuff, implement their ideas, only to find that they are then treated with contempt by users. Young people always like receiving new shiny toys, then look on their use in school as if they were watching their dads dance in a nightclub.

Fail 1:  Poor procurement

This is the big one. Devices are identified and purchased without a detailed plan for the actual improvement of learning outcomes. Teacher support is left out, actual cost-effectiveness analysis (never ever seen one) is absent, detailed analysis of the device affordances matched to learning tasks rarely thought about, mainteannce costs underestimated, insurance a problem, change management and internal communications plans usually beyond the skills of the purchaser. They’re so often bought, with external funds, grants or on the back of the whim of someone who has attended a couple of conferences and ‘seen the shiny light'. That’s the first problem right there – piss, poor planning.

I’ve seen some of these documents, where the pedagogic bit does nothing more than list some ‘C’ words. I actually saw one yesterday that had a record of ‘C’ words; Cultural Cognitive Constructive Communicative Confident Creative Critical Civic. Is the world really that alliterative? Here’s my alliteractive alternative for the premature purchase of devices. Poor Planning Leads to Piss Poor Performance. For a serious analysis of bad procurement see here.

Fail 2 – iPad is NOT a computer

Listen to what Audrey and her mates have to say about iPads. “A Cat Is Not a Dog; An iPad Is NOT A Computer” she starts. “Have you ever typed directly on an iPad? Kill me. Almost every word is a typo… and don’t get me started on keyboards that connect to the iPad”. Her advice to teachers, “On behalf of millions of students everywhere, I beg: Don’t make us type on an iPad”.

I have few problems with iPads in primary school but in secondary and Higher Education it’s totally misguided (see my critiques here). It’s a consumer device and when it comes to more advanced and almost any serious, productive skill like long-form writing, coding, photoshop, spreadsheets - it’s a ‘dog’. You can’t write effectively, as touch-screen typing is slow and produces far too many errors. Cut and paste work, essential to good redrafting and writing, is difficult (indeed there’s evidence that it cramps writing style). They’re expensive, difficult to network and encourage the cul-de-sac that is apps development.

Fail 3: Coding devices

Coding is a software skill. Sure peripherals matter but the core skills are around structure, logic, comments etc. Unfortunately, and this is part of our awful, English hobbyist culture, fed invariably by the ‘Cash in the Attic’ folk at the BBC, hideous devices are thrown at the problem like confetti. The Raspberry Pi and late and badl branded MicroBit (critique) are not the solution to our problems in computer studies and coding, they may even exacerbate the problems. If you really want to frighten new entrants, especially girls, show them one of these circuit boards, that take ages to get working. They’re largely bought by already nerdy kids and their dads. That’s OK but it it’s illusory to suggest that they’re a catalyst for change. Focus on good software not ugly gadgets.

Fail 4:  Mobile devices

“Put Away the Phone” says Audrey, and “Save us from ourselves”. Her advice to teachers, “Don’t go crazy with phone rules and regulations because we won’t follow them… Instead just stick with the basics – no phones during school hours”. Not what we tend to hear from the mobile learning lobby. The affordances of a phone are rarely congruent with learning needs. We use them for everything BUT learning.

Fail 5: Devices over organisation

Audrey hates it when teachers ignore the need for proper software that allows everything to be accessed and stored in one place. “Be Crazy, Hyper-Organized With Your Technology And We Will Love You For It” she says. By this she means have a VLE/LMS or system that is universal for all use of tech and one that works. Forget all this jazz around devices – most stuff now works on most devices. She pleads with teachers to. “Keep all your information in one place…. Don’t go scattering it around in different apps”. That last word is a salutary warning. Apps are apps, they’re cul-de-sacs. Browser based stuff is the stuff of learning. Focus on mobile devices and you focus on apps – big mistake.

Fail 6: Content matters

Educational professionals can be very sniffy about content and when it comes to Wikipedia, Khan Academy (my analysis), YouTube, Duolingo and MOOCs (my view on), they turn into illiberal prohibitionists. Get real, hundreds of millions use this stuff. It’s free content. It works.  Audrey’s advice “More Please”. To be specific, “Khan Academy has science, language, arts and much more… I like to think of it as my partner in school. If a teacher is hard to understand, I pop onto Khan…  often I only need 30 seconds. I visit the website maybe 20 times a week”. Enough said.

Fail 7: Pavlovian gamification

Don’t play Pavlov with learners…. That doesn’t mean don’t use games or gamification. It does mean that you shouldn’t be making folk chase down rubies while being chased by a pacman, when they need to focus on learning something useful. Gamfication, led by apps, and an obsession with devices, has led to a flood of ‘edu-games’ that usually (not always) distract, disappoint and even put learners off learning.

Many young people look upon these games with contempt. Games are difficult to make, good games are fiendishly difficult to make. University departments, JISC, the BBC, C4 are NOT the places where good games are made. Many simply result in cognitive overload, as the learner has to learn the rules and implement the mechanics of the game, as well as learn. Oh,.. and to do them well cost real money. Ignore devices and apps and focus on some core virtues from games that are based in good learning theory; progress through levels, failure (even catastrophic), repeated practice until skill acquired, time constraints and congruence between the game and the learning competences.

Fail 8: Don’t dump devices in developing world

Sugata Mitra and Negroponte have both made a career out of dumping devices into the developing world and teachers lap it up as if they’re some sort of saints. Listen carefully – they don’t like teachers and schools. Researchers, like Arora, from Erasmus University Rotterdam, visited hole-in-the wall sites and reported “little real independent evidence, other than that provided by HiWEL“, accusing Mitra of “not comparing amount of time spent on hole-in-wall material with same  time in school… making the comparison meaningless”. It was, she concluded,“self-defeating… ‘hole-in-the-wall’ has become the ‘computer-in-the-school”. This was confirmed by Mark Warschauer, Professor of Education at the University of California, who also visited sites, only to find that “parents thought the paucity of relevant content rendered it irrelevant“ and that “most of the time they were playing games…. with low level learning and not challenging”. The “internet rarely functioned” and “overall the project was not very effective”. I also visited a site, in Africa, and confirmed all of this and more. Read Mitra’s comment on my blog, “it took me 30 minutes to think about and write this response. I would have spent the time on planning a new project for very poor children. Would someone, perhaps Donald, like to take the responsibility for this wastage and the resultant loss to them.” Sugata Mitra. This is what happens when devices trump reason.

Fail 9: 3D printers

OK, if you have a spare grand or so for a 3D printer. But are they the ‘next big thing’ or merely an expensive way to produce lots of ‘small, useless, plastic things’? Apart from adding considerably to planetary waste, what impact will 3D printers have in learning? Every educational institution could have a 3D printer that can create objects across the curriculum, on demand. STEM subjects are often the first port of call, but many other subjects can benefit, especially art and design. While it is true that the potential of a technology is often realised once people start to use it in anger, 3D printers are in danger of being the ‘next big thing’ when they are, in fact, just expensive machines that churn out ‘lots of useless small things’, more gimmick than game changer. I’m not against the use of 3D printers in learning just against buying them and hoping that they’ll be useful in learning. It’s way too early to invest in these things.

Fail 10: Whiteboards

That most expensive of devices, whiteboards, were hailed as the technology saviour in schools, but many saw them as reinforcing an old preachy, teacher-centric, classroom model. And so it came to pass. The UK has led the way here with more whiteboards in schools than European and US schools. But has it worked? Studies in the UK show NO significant improvement in attainment through whiteboards. Professor Frank Coffield warned us for years that this was a misguided policy. A critical review of the literature by Heather J. Smith, Steve Higgins, Kate Wall & Jen Miller, Centre for Learning and Teaching, School of Education Communication and Language Sciences, Newcastle University. showed that there is "insufficient evidence to identify the actual impact of such technologies upon learning either in terms of classroom interaction or upon attainment and achievement.”

Mosquito v Turtle projects

All of this focus on devices leads, year after year, to a swarm of ‘mosquito’ projects. Let me explain. Most EdTech projects are mosquito projects; lots of buzz, tricky to spot & short-lived. They are funded but rarely sustainable. Innovation is not innovation if it is not sustainable. We need long-life 'turtle' projects.

Turtle projects are infrastructure projects that improve bandwidth in schools, the Open University, Janet & SuperJanet, Wikipedia, Khan Academy, YouTube, MOOCs. Moodle… I could go on all day. None of these initiatives are device-focused. They focus on cognitive ergonomics not consumer electronics. Lesson here – stop the largely wasted research on device-based projects, the endless stream of apps and do not keep on taking (and buying) the tablets. Think about learning and learners not devices.

Chomsky on education & learning – curiously utopian and elitist?

Noam Chomsky is a towering intellectual. He is to linguistics, what Darwin is to biology. He is also famous for his relentless work in politics, an outspoken critic of US foreign policy. As a cognitive scientist he also has deep and considered views on many areas of human endeavour, including education and learning.

Theory of knowledge

To understand Chomsky’s thoughts on learning one must understand its roots in his "transformative-generative grammar" which describes the deep syntactical processes common to all human language, as opposed to its surface structure. The minds is not a tabula rasa, it has a set of innate rules in language, hardwired in the mind. Knowledge builds on prior knowledge on an underlying cognitive matrix. Our human nature, with a set of common cognitive traits, is the driver for learning. Education, in his view, must continue to encourage this growth and development and not thwart its progress. The teacher must nurture the natural capacity to discover.

Education

Like many Marxist theorists (although he is not a Marxist), he thinks that the state shapes education which in turn shapes minds to the needs of the state and market. It is nothing less than ‘indoctrination’ through control and coercion. Children are taught, not to think for themselves, but to ‘obey’. He likens schools, college and universities to factories, where students are, by and large, indoctrinated by a ‘liberal elite’ to conform to their orthodoxies. In particular, he thinks that history, a self-serving narrative, is written by these elites

Assessment

He is a strong critic of education that proceeds by staged preparation for tests. Taking tests can be useful but they should be ‘ancillary’ not central to the educational process. As an advocate of genuine search, inquiry and discovery, to challenge and look for alternatives., he hopes that teachers can bring students to the point where they can autonomously operate and learn for themselves. Rather than shape young people it should encourage them to shape themselves.

Criticism

Chomsky may confuse conformity with real needs. We can all bow to this academic, Enlightenment view of education but this may not be relevant in poorer countries where the needs are for vocational learning, something that Chomsky finds all too easy to denigrate. Not everyone can or is suited towards being creative intellectuals. He may also be charged with being part of the very intellectual elite he denigrates, promoting an overly intellectual and academic approach to education that focuses on the production of an academic elite, rather than the many needs of society.

Conclusion

Chomsky is an enlightenment figure, who believes fundamentally in free, independent and autonomous thought. Education, for him, must have the purity of this spirit of inquiry. He rightly warns us about the hidden hand of the state or commerce and warns us of the dangers of indoctrination. While this is true to a degree, it is not clear that it is a fully explanatory theory of education and learning.

Bibliography

Chomsky, N. (2000). Chomsky on miseducation. Oxford.

Chomsky, N. (2002). Chomsky on democracy and education.

10 ways to avoid snafus in WEBINARS

Whether it’s a webinar, webcast, online meeting or online instructor-led training, the potential for snafus is enormous; no audio, feedback loops, chaotic breakout groups, timezone confusion… you name it, it WILL happen. You’re only one click away from oblivion. So here's a few tips to reduce the risks.

Virtual snafus

First, let me say, it’s a wondrous thing, being able to communicate visually and orally across the globe. Yet it is not easy to do well, as it comes with a truckload of potential snags, glitches and complications. What you need to do, to be effective, is master the process, so that you can focus on the delivery of the experience, not get sucked into distractions and troubleshooting. So here's a few tips.

1. Use checklists

Seems simple but people often underestimate the management and logistics of virtual sessions. Checklists for planning, marketing, troubleshooting.... whatever. They seem to work for a lot people, as it’s easy to miss things and you benefit from the accumulation of experience. Preparation matters but structured preparation matters more.

2.  Takes two to tango

Some organisations have large teams, with a Producer, Presenter, Technical support and Monitor. Most recommend that you have at least two people, especially for sessions that want to have polls, high levels of engagement, or breakout sessions - one to present, the other to manage the process and sort out problems. That second person can be a godsend, not only when there's problems but also to monitor chat, welcome people and wrap up.

3. Test

Test before your session. There’s lots of things that can go wrong; technically, loading PowerPoints, loading videos, audio issues, timing issues. One full test will save lots of live pain.

4. Audio is No 1 problem

Audio is the number one problem in virtual learning. If it can go wrong, it will. What if your audio disappears? Do you know how to open mics and mute? What problems will users have at their end? If you have hundreds online this can be overwhelming. First, get to know the software. Second, try the software. Third, test, test, test. Know how solve the problems that WILL arise.
Ideally you want to hardwire your device to your router via an ethernet cable or at least sit as close as you can to your router. Then use headphones and, ideally, a headset microphone. get your audio levels sorted prior to launch. Know how to mute and unmute.

5. Instructions

Remember, you can send lots of stuff beforehand but, believe me, they won’t read it. So you have to find a way of making this simple and effective. Make this really clear with visual and verbal cues. For example, on timezones, state what time they need to be there in their timezone. Explain, before you start, that there will be questions, polls, whatever. Encourage them to chat.

6. Takes time

Timing is tricky but critical. Some things are quicker online but many are take longer than you think. Presenters often go way over time. The biggest problem is too much content – too many slides. The second is going off at a tangent. Rehearsal and practice will solve these problems.

7. Presenter skills

Try to avoid the ‘uuums’ and filler words. Speak enthusiastically but be natural, be yourself. Learn to cut and paste URLs for your audience. Coaching is useful here as it’s not easy to see ourselves as others see us. Above all, avoid reading from a script (the audience can tell) and don't do a monotone delivery. They often can't see you and don't have any facial or body language cues, so up your level of enthusiasm and emphasis. Also, pause, occasionally, especially when you're moving to a new topic or want people to reflect, even respond.

8. Engagement

What tasks are required to produce engaging, virtual, online sessions? First, don’t load them up with long biographical intros, dull learning objectives or a manual’s worth of instructions. You must grab them by the throat or they’ll be off doing email, Facebook or Twitter. Rely more on visual and verbal cues. Change screen frequently and don't do PPT slides with endless bullet points and text - which you read. if you catch yourself doing this - STOP! Add questions with prompts. Keep things moving as your audience may feel that things have gone wrong if they see the same thing on screen for too long. One word of warning; with breakout sessions, they always take longer than you think and it’s sometimes difficult to get them back.

9. Monitor chat

Presenters often set off at pace then forget to monitor chat. A good practice is to stop, periodically to review chat and answer a few questions. Above all, keep in control and make sure you are happy to both present and monitor chat. There may also be a need to stop chat if it gets out of control or disrespectful.

10. Practice, practice, practice

How do you get to carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice.  You need to be on top of your game to run these sessions well and that means rehearsal and practice.

Conclusion

I know a lot of this seems obvious but it’s the obvious things that most often cause problems. Your audience has to see, hear and engage to learn, the rest must be made invisible or as easy as possible.

There's more!
Top ten tips in top ten topics in online learning:

10 ways to make badass INTROs in online learning 

10 bloody good reasons for using much-maligned TEXT in online learning 

10 essential online learning WRITING TIPS in online learning 

10 stupid mistakes in design of MULTIPLE CHOICE questions

10 essential points on use of (recall not recognition) OPEN RESPONSE questions

10 rules on how to create great GRAPHICS in online learning ‪

10 sound pieces of advice on use of AUDIO in onlinelearning 

10 ways based on research to use VIDEO in online learning

10 ideas on use of much maligned TALKING HEAD videos in online learning

10 unusual ways to make SPACED PRACTICE happen in online learning 

This started with a simple observation that I'm seeing, over and over again, the same mistakes being make on screen, with online learning. I hope you find them useful.