L&T Blog W4- Technology in education

Dear WA,

I hope everyone is well! This week for Bitesize Research, I was interested to look more closely at the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring report for 2023, which this year was focussed on technology in education. This resulted in lots of headlines about mobile phones in schools during the summer holidays.

Objectives: To understand the impact of technology in education. 

Summary: 

• The study states that there is a lack of good, impartial evidence about the impact of technology in education, insofar as much of the evidence is commissioned by educational technology companies.

• It states that educational technology has opened up lots of opportunities - particularly for students with SEND and during the pandemic, but that these are unequal across the world.

• There is some evidence of the impact of technology on outcomes for specific types of learning - including, for example, practice and fluency for primary mathematics. The authors argue that future studies of educational technology need to be focussed on the learning outcomes primarily. 

• There is some good evidence that even proximity to a mobile phone has a negative impact on learning insofar as it is highly distracting for students.

• The authors argue that the following should act as a way of determining the appropriateness of educational technology for government policymakers as well as educators themselves:

• 1) Is it appropriate for our local context? This includes looking at teaching the basic skills to use technology well and using evidence-informed approaches to educational technology.

• 2) Is it leaving anyone behind? This includes looking at whether all students can have equitable access to the benefits provided by educational technology, including disadvantaged students and students with SEND

• 3) Does it support sustainable futures? This includes establishing a broad set of digital competencies which enable students to benefit from technology’s potential in terms of citizenship and employment. 

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• How am I currently using technology? What evidence do I have of its effectiveness?

• What would I like to see WA students doing with technology in the future? How can I change my practice to support this?

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!

Bitesize Research: Impact Of ChatGPT In Education

By Jaya Carrier

I hope you’re all having a good week! As discussions around AI and its current and prospective role in society abound in the media, this week I was interested in reading an interview with two University of Cambridge education researchers about ChatGPT in education. 

Objectives: To understand the potential impact and use of ChatGPT in education today and in the future

Summary: 

• The researchers argue that ChatGPT should be seen as an ‘assistive technology’.

• They urge educators to engage in thinking about what it can and cannot do in education settings, and to move away from binary thinking around ChatGPT in education, characterised as  ‘dystopianism’ vs. ‘boosterism’. 

• The researchers argue that uses it could have in the classroom could include:

• Supporting students to organise their thoughts and ideas in clear and coherent ways, enabling them to focus more upon the idea itself (reducing the cognitive load)

• Supporting teachers to focus more on the big questions and on critical thinking

• Supporting teachers in formative assessment practices

• Supporting students with revision e.g. checking answers, or refining an essay. 

• The researchers argue that the potential for ChatGPT to reproduce social biases and inequities needs to be in the minds of educators seeking to use this technology and that teachers need to support their students in using technology with criticality. 

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• What do I think about AI in education? What excites me about this? What worries me about this?

• How could I use ChatGPT in my teaching practice? How could I support students in using it effectively?

• What more would I like to know?

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!