I have always been a believer in good old
fashioned writing with pen and paper. Even now, writing this blog post on
my iPad i do not feel as comfortable as if I was sitting writing in my notebook
(this may be due to the fact that I am sitting on the stairs of my boyfriends
soon-to-be-rented house whilst he does last minute cleaning and tidying).
However, from a young age putting pen to paper was my first choice in how to
complete a task; through writing in a diary, drawing up revision questions or
even planning my lessons. For this reason it seems a little dishonest for
me to write about the use of technology in teaching (I have an article to be
published next month in a practitioner journal) but this has grown to be one
of my big research interests over the last couple of years. Combined with
a desire to integrate technology into my teaching to ensure that the content is
meaningful and accessible to my students ad those that they too will eventually
go on to teach.
The use of technology within teaching is an area of ever increasing momentum with software to speed up marking, allowing students to complete homework online or apps to support the teaching of literacy and numeracy. Almost every day on twitter I see a new suggestion for ways in which technology can support the delivery of PE in schools. However does the integration of technology into education always mean that there is going to be more or better quality learning? Evidence from my own research suggests that there is intermittent good practice in the field of ed-tech and many are using it to speed up tasks such as assessment, note taking or as a means of delivering content without much thought as to whether this is improving the quality of learning for students.
There is evidence that we learn better when physically writing something down, as the act of putting pen to paper means we have to process what we are writing down which helps information to move into our long term memory. Typing something does not have the same effect and we are able to type pages and pages of notes during lectures or lessons without really taking in what has been said to us. This is especially worrying to me when on a daily basis I am confronted with the lids of many laptops and students eagerly tapping away at keyboards. But is it up to me to dictate how students make notes in my lecture or should I allow them to learn in their own way? Particularly as many students whom I teach have laptops due to dyslexia as they find it much easier to type that to write physical notes.
I will continue to integrate a range of activities into my lectures which encourage students to record information in a variety of different ways, not only to aid their recall but also to get them to experiment with different methods themselves (I only realised how I learn best whilst revising for my final exams in uni!). I will also be experimenting with more ways I can integrate technology into my own teaching however I think it is important to consider why it is being included and what impact it will have on students learning (at any age). I still love the physical process of writing things down (and crossing things off lists) though so can be very certain that no tablet or laptop will replace my trusty notepad and pen!
The use of technology within teaching is an area of ever increasing momentum with software to speed up marking, allowing students to complete homework online or apps to support the teaching of literacy and numeracy. Almost every day on twitter I see a new suggestion for ways in which technology can support the delivery of PE in schools. However does the integration of technology into education always mean that there is going to be more or better quality learning? Evidence from my own research suggests that there is intermittent good practice in the field of ed-tech and many are using it to speed up tasks such as assessment, note taking or as a means of delivering content without much thought as to whether this is improving the quality of learning for students.
There is evidence that we learn better when physically writing something down, as the act of putting pen to paper means we have to process what we are writing down which helps information to move into our long term memory. Typing something does not have the same effect and we are able to type pages and pages of notes during lectures or lessons without really taking in what has been said to us. This is especially worrying to me when on a daily basis I am confronted with the lids of many laptops and students eagerly tapping away at keyboards. But is it up to me to dictate how students make notes in my lecture or should I allow them to learn in their own way? Particularly as many students whom I teach have laptops due to dyslexia as they find it much easier to type that to write physical notes.
I will continue to integrate a range of activities into my lectures which encourage students to record information in a variety of different ways, not only to aid their recall but also to get them to experiment with different methods themselves (I only realised how I learn best whilst revising for my final exams in uni!). I will also be experimenting with more ways I can integrate technology into my own teaching however I think it is important to consider why it is being included and what impact it will have on students learning (at any age). I still love the physical process of writing things down (and crossing things off lists) though so can be very certain that no tablet or laptop will replace my trusty notepad and pen!
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