Will teachers be replaced by mobile technology?

Onto the next topic, mobile technology. According to Price (2007) mobile technology is ‘the use of handheld technologies enabling the learner to be ‘on the move’, providing anytime anywhere access for learning’.

The question is, will these ‘on the move’ technologies replace teachers? I believe that teachers will not necessarily be replaced by computing devices, but will not be needed to teach the children, more to support and guide how they use mobile technology to self-educate. Today there are such a variety of mobile learning, such as voki, tellagami and massive open online courses (MOOCS), that if used by children to support learning at home, they stand a better chance of doing well at school (Next Generation Learning, 2009). However, if these technologies are not used sufficiently to educate children then they should not be used at all. Technology should enhance the process of an exercise, not be a substitute for when the educator cannot decide how to fulfil the end of the lesson. This idea of substitution relates to the SAMR model, although I think the model is a good strategy, there is not any constructive evidence that it does work.

I have attached a video below which I believe to be informative about this topic, I can also relate personally to some of the points expressed, such as ‘having a memorable teacher, who had an impact on my life’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gePW63HtV40

References

Hall, D. (2010). the ICT handbook for primary teachers a guide for students and professionals. 1st ed. Oxon: Routledge
.

Higgins, S. Beauchamp, G, and Miller, D. (2007) 'Reviewing the literature on interactive whiteboards', Learning, Media and Technology. London: Routledge.

 

Personal experience of ICT

Although I may still be young at the age of nineteen and born in the late 90s, when I think back to my primary school experience with technology I soon realize how much technology has progressed in such a short space of time. Thinking back to the early 2000s and the excitement at the end of a lesson when the teacher would roll in the tv on wheels ready to play a video tape, or get out the cassette player (image to the right) to play music in our gym lessons. To now observe interactive whiteboards and ipads as a common tool used in schools today.

Although ‘back then’ that was seemed as the exciting times of technology, school was also a place for just a text book to be placed in front of pupils and told to simply “read that”. There would be no communication between peers unless told to do so in group work, and the teacher was simply there to observe the children and provide basic resources. The way in which teachers delivered a lesson in secondary school wasn’t that much different than primary school, except for the interactive white boards (IWBs) and upgraded computers; which is perhaps what engaged the children’s attention span and influenced their self-learning abilities. According to Higgings (2007) ‘the resources created and presented are attractive to both teachers and children (Ball, 2003; Kennewell, 2004), and capture and hold pupils’ attention much more strongly than other classroom resources (Smith et al., 2005)’.

Today technology impacts many aspects of children’s lives, including their education. Digital competence will become a cross-curricular responsibility for teachers along with literacy and numeracy (Donaldson report, 2014) meaning that ICT will be equally as essential to children’s learning as their ABCs and timetables. Below I have attached a link that demonstrates 3 ways in which technology is altering the traditional classroom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y17l-hxFz1M

References

https://www.nasuwt.org.uk/asset/A788604C-3046-4005-A1EA0EAFF023E0DD/ (Donaldson report)

Higgins, S. Beauchamp, G, and Miller, D. (2007) 'Reviewing the literature on interactive whiteboards', Learning, Media and Technology. London: Routledge.