A bit about yourself:
Currently a teacher in FE. Enthusiastic about tech but unenthusiastic about some of the attitudes surrounding it. Cynical pragmatist.
1. What place, if any, has technology got in education?
As a tool to make my life easier, or learning more effective. As a full-time, front-line teacher I’m constantly looking at ways to speed up or automate tasks, augment the things that I do in the classroom and generally help me do my job. The right tech helps to do this. This tends to be stuff I’ve discovered and trialled myself, in my own classes as I know what will be useful for me and mine.
2. What’s your favourite edtech tool for learning and why?
Padlet has been great for collecting ideas and resources. It’s an easy to use interface and if you couple it with Google Drive then you’ve got a fairly comprehensive tool to share a large range of info.
3. What are your thoughts on students using mobile devices in the classroom?
Depends on the student. I encourage it in some classes as there have been times in my career where on-site IT provision is not enough to put into practice some of the ideas I’ve had. But there are also other classes where I wouldn’t even dream of doing it as it would kill learning stone dead.
Thanks to Thomas for taking the time to respond to the #threequestions. More tomorrow!
I like Thomas’ pragmatic approach, e.g. to BYOD. Having just submitted my own answers to the three questions, I have two points which align Thomas’ comments to my own (not yet published).
1. In answer to technology saving time, I agree. I would put this down as one way of improving learning by freeing teacher time to do what only teachers can do well.
2. In answer to 2, I agree that there are many tools that help the sharing of information – but this only goes so far in formal education, which is really about managing activity and feedback. Education is much more of a process-driven business than an information-sharing one. The fact that the best tools at present are about information sharing shows how little technology has really engaged with the core business of education.