How has technology transformed the classroom?
Last month I was asked to provide a few lines about how I believe Apple has transformed classrooms. Unfortunately for the organisers I didn’t want to concentrate on just what one company, or even one single piece of technology., has done to ‘transform’ or enhance the classroom. I also don’t agree we should concentrate on one single entity or company as being more important than another. So I wrote a more generic piece about my experiences with changes in technology, as well as its use, who uses it, and why, in classrooms. From this, they could take a few choice snippets as it suited them.
Here’s what I wrote:
“Classroom learning, and for that matter learning in general, has been transformed by the rise of mobile computing. Smartphones and tablets have brought about the ‘always-on’ availability of anyone with the funds to buy the devices. Being connected to the Internet enables interaction and engagement with networks of learners from any locations, from coffee shops to shopping centres, to libraries and schools – it is this that has transformed the use of technology for learning.
The rise of the App Store, whilst not a ‘technology’ per se, has brought about such a change in approach and delivery of learning resources to teachers, parents, and children – at no other time have so many passionate and talented individuals been able to design and implement such a varied range of learning resources, and have the ability to reach a global audience. This is the power of the App Store (once you filter out the dross and poorly designed Apps).”
You can read the published version below and on their website, along with five other perspectives from the likes of Erin Klein and Shelly Sanchez in the first part of the How has Apple transformed your classroom series of articles:
For University of Warwick Business School eLearning Consultant, David Hopkins, there’s no denying that recent technology has transformed learning, specifically with the rise of mobile computing. For Hopkins, smartphones and tablets bring about an “always-on” availability, and by developing the iPhone and iPad, Apple has contributed to this in the classroom.
Easy access to the Internet is enabling interaction and engagement such as, “networks of learners from any location, from coffee shops to shopping centers to libraries and schools,” Hopkins explains.
The rise of the App Store, he adds, has helped bring about this change in approach via the delivery of learning resources to teachers, parents, and children. “At no other time have so many passionate and talented individuals been able to design and implement such a varied range of learning resources, and have the ability to reach a global audience,” says Hopkins.
What do you think? Has Apple single-handedly transformed the learning and classroom landscape, or are they part of a more ‘organic’ movement? Is there a moment where you can see, from your own experience and perspective, a more profound shift in the use of technology in your classes? If so, what was it and when did it happen?
Image source: James Harrison (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Hi David,
I think you were right to stick with your guns. You only have to replace ‘Apple’ with another brand, say, ‘Microsoft’ or ‘Google’. They, along with a lot of other ICT providers, like ‘Research Machines’, have provided the classrooms with the necessary tools, much in the same way as books and libraries.
The enhancement does not come from the book or ICT tool per se, these are educational enablers. The enhancement and the transformation comes from how a teacher chooses to use that book or ICT tool with their students. These create new and exciting learning opportunities, but the teacher needs to know what they can and cannot do with these tools and when it is appropriate to do so.
We have all seen examples where ICT has not been used in the way it has been intended, with teachers and students subverting or disrupting the technology in ways that the designers have not imagined.
I would argue that ‘Apple’, ‘Microsoft’, ‘Google’ and their kin are enablers to learning rather than enhancers to learning.
Best wishes,
Wayne
My only issue is the direction we are being taken … are we to trust these mega corporations that their next best product will enhance the learning, or are we to be he ones to shoehorn a solution into a box that just so happens to be shiny and new? There is no doubt the impact they have made in education, that technology has developed in a wonderful and innovative new direction, but what was the driving force …. to provide for the good of learning or a companies bottom line and its bank account and shareholders?
Sorry, I’m too cynical see days to believe there is anything other than selfish financial reasons for things like the iWatch. I can see the iWatch as test-bed for the next ‘big’ thing (like the iPod Touch was to the iPhone), but not in it’s own right.
While I agree that education has changed and sculpted the educational landscape of the past several decades, I do not think that Apple is the catalyst. In my opinion and experience, Apple has only more recently had any impact on the classroom. Classroom education using technology is driven by windows based software. How many of us used office products as our first and therefor base of knowledge to build our use of technology for education. Most software used in the classroom is used to make presentations and write papers. Although Apple has great software to produce these educational products, office has been and continues to be the front runner in education. Apple products are the “hip” products of today with sleak advertising campaigns and marketing but lack the real substance to be a game changer yet. Apple has great products that are user friendly and make life easier but need to become more innovative in the education department.