Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

I’m not in a position to reflect properly on this year’s BETT having been either on my own stand or in meetings related to work or Naace. In many ways I’m glad I was not a visitor trying to find the latest and most interesting new development for 2008, as planning a visit becomes an increasing complex task each year. However, I did manage to look at a few things and offer two reflections as a result.

Too much paper
My first thought is why oh why does a technology show in 2008 still depend on so much paper? Tons of marketing material and branded bags being carried around by increasing weighed down and tired teachers. Some teachers were still bringing wheeled boxes to the show to collect all the brochures they would be coming home with, which was an excellent idea ten years ago, but seems somewhat archaic in 2008. But the truth is that few exhibitors are prepared to risk not having a catalogue available on their stand. So here’s an idea to reduce our carbon footprints for that company that does the lead tracking at BETT using those nifty barcode readers. As well as providing the details of the visitor to the vendor when a badge is scanned, why not provide each registered visitor with a web page with links to the vendor’s product you showed interested in. No more paper to collect and a readily accessible personal online catalogue to refer to throughout the year.

Honeycomb
Back in November 2006, I mentioned that Softease founders, Geoff Titmuss and Danny Young would launch the first truly Web 2.0 educational product, Just2Easy at BETT 2007. One year later and their old company, Softease, is showing their new Web 2.0 product Honeycomb. Honeycomb is a going to be a collection of online Web 2.0 tools, the first being blogs and wikis. Not only was I keen to get a demonstration (thanks Doug for this), but so was Peter Ford, the pioneer of educational blogging. The look and feel of this kit is very impressive, and is clearly founded on many of the reasons educators such as Peter recommend using blogs and wikis with children of all ages. I’m sure once it is commercially available, it will be a real winner. However, in discussion afterwards, both Peter and I wondered if all the pretty layout and drag and drop features might distract pupils from developing the really high order thinking skills that web 2.0 develops so well. Sure it’s very creative and collaborative, but that’s not all these 21st century tools are about. Since ICT tools began to be used in schools in the mid to late 80s, educational software applications have fallen into two categories - those that merely emulate functionality, and those that improve on the basic concept for sound educational reasons. Time will judge whether Honeycomb really adds something special to the educational process above and beyond what is otherwise available, let’s hope it proves to be so, and good luck to it.

Adopting the prevailing paradigm
It started me thinking … 25 years ago, distinct ‘instructional software’ effectively ended, and educational software adopted the prevailing ‘industrial’ paradigm of functional tools which also improved and enhanced key aspects of the learning process. The result was, in an attempt to lower the barriers to entry, educational application developers concentrated on how to attract learners into using the tool. At its worst we got word-processors where you could apply ‘animation’ as a text style, when the point of the software was to produce written work that was printed out. At its best, we got database applications where the learners spent all the available time ‘desk-top publishing’ the data entry form instead of data collecting. Education in the 1990s and in particular teachers, took a long time to recover from this (and some still have not) as the value of software was judged on how well it might absorb the interest of learners rather than the genuine benefits it brought to learning.

Image credit: Doug Dickinson

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