Using new technology

My teaching career has spanned most of the history of computers in schools.

As a pupil myself we didn't ever see a computer except for the one visit to a local company organised by our enthusiastic Maths teacher in the lower sixth. This was then followed by the excitement of actually creating a simple computer programme which we then punched out on cards. Days later the result came back - pages of old style computer printout and there it was "Syntax Error"...

This was the signal to give up for most of the class but a few of us then went through every card and found the error(s). Days later it came back - results so simple it wasn't really worth the effort.

As a student at university in the 1970s I hardly came across a computer, although we knew they were there and being used for research.

Then as a teacher in the 1980s we suddenly came across the BBC Model A and B and the idea of a school network had arrived. I can remember the talks at INSET days telling us how this was going to revolutionise everything. Little then changed for the next 30 years.

Until now, that is...

However, I don't really feel that it is a revolution. Nothing old is going to be swept away. It is more a case of evolution. Good, old-fashioned teaching isn't suddenly going to disappear, despite what OFSTED might want! What will happen is that good teachers are already beginning to develop new approaches and are using mobile technology to create new activities. This increases variety and engagement for many pupils.

What I think we are seeing is the beginning of the Information Technology Evolution, rather than Revolution as was so often mentioned in the 1980s and 1990s! As with evolution of species there are phases when progress is more rapid and I do believe we are in the early stages of this sort of time. Teaching is changing rapidly, but we mustn't lose sight of the fact that good teaching is still good teaching, and everything new only serves to enhance what is already going on in good schools with committed teachers.