Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

I got around to listening to James Farmer’s presentation at education.au last night following the audio with his PowerPoint slides. In it he asks (in line with the conference title), “So what’s changed?” and comes to the conclusion, ‘not much’. A fair reflection probably given his viewpoint that educators have been living in a “hopeless utopianism” where we’ve assumed and claimed that the technology doesn’t matter and it’s only the pedagogy that counts. James’ view is that the technology does matter because the environment in which we learn is one of the most important factors that encourages and stimulates that learning. He then goes on to use the example of Blackboard, and its dominance in both the US and Australia in higher education, to illustrate how poor Learning Platforms are at engaging and empowering teachers and learners. His argument is that systems such as this (and Moodle is not immune from criticism) can force us into “poor pedagogy” and “we need to think about teaching and learning online in the same way that teachers think about group work rather than teaching in a Victorian school environment”. As an educationalist who has worked for a software company, I can empathise with James’ views - the realisation of pedagogical ideas and concepts were often disappointing, and giving teachers and learners real power over their learning, while always an aim, was often restrainted by commercial or technological pressures, But the most significant factor was where teachers were in simply understanding how to use these tools. At the moment, most teachers have not yet grasped the use of the simple tools provided by most Learning Platforms.

Listen to his presentation here:

Download link