A message to Auntie

Now and then, just to fall in step with other the tabloid press, BBC News resorts to sensationalist headlines. I'm not sure why they do it, because they already have a huge global audience and they don't need to hype themselves. But one of The BBC's most recent headlines is a little misleading.

Yesterday, 'Auntie' (the affectionate nickname we Brits give the BBC) ran this headline: Computers 'do not improve' pupil results says OECD.

Predictably, the somewhat negative spin in the article provoked a small storm of social media comments and TV interviews, while the anti-technology brigade gleefully rubbed their hands. Earlier, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) had released the results of a survey on the use of technology in schools. Its director of education and skills Andreas Schleicher had said among other things that 'technology had raised too many false hopes.' The BBC article then went on to quote Tom Bennett who said: 'teachers have been dazzled by school computers.' Reading this, you might think the BBC was itself anti-technology in schools wouldn't you? But if you don't read the entire story and simply take in the headline and opening salvo, or fail to get to heart of the OECD report, you won't see the full picture.

Anyone who takes time to read through the OECD report summary will see that it is actually very positive about the use of technology in schools. It's certainly more positive than Auntie's article. It calls for new approaches to integrating technology into teaching, because at present technology use is not optimal.  It would be mindless to read this report and then simply dismiss technology as having no place in schools. What the report is actually saying is that technology is no substitute for good pedagogy. All teachers would agree with this. It also suggests that technology can be a distraction for students if it is poorly deployed. Again, there is no argument with this. Both conclusions tell us more about the pedagogy prevalent in schools than they do about the potential of technology.

The study reports that in schools where they use technology more, children's grades suffer. So technology prevents good grades? Care needs to be taken here. Far too many variables are unconsidered for us to make any firm conclusions about such statistics. To conclude that the more children use technology the lower their grades will be, is tenuous at best, and at worst absolutely misleading.

The bottom line is this - if used appropriately, technology can, and often does make learning more engaging, and it has the potential to transform educational environments. Schleicher has gone on record to say this in recent TV interviews. The key word is 'appropriately'. The crux of the matter is that many schools have yet to find ways to embed technology. In the words of Andreas Schleicher himself: 'Technology can amplify great teaching, but just doesn't replace poor teaching.'

I have a message to Auntie: Please don't use sensationalist headlines to hype your news articles. Simply tell it like it is. We will respect you more if you do.

Related posts:

Mobile phones and iPads hamper learning!! by Neil Atkin
Pedagogy first, technology second by Steve Wheeler
Tech doesn't improve student results study: Why news reports like this are damaging by Claire Amos

Photo by Edward on Wikimedia Commons


A message to Auntie by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.