EDTECH

FEATURE EDTECH BRAVE NEW WORLD

An acceleration of the use of education technology (EdTech) is likely to be one of the longer-term impacts of coronavirus in the education sector, helping to connect students and teachers away from the classroom or the traditional face-to-face mode of delivery

“B efore coronavirus hit, lots of teachers were dipping their toes into EdTech. Then everything closed and they were thrown in the deep end,” says Peter Kilcoyne, co-founder of educational technology consultancy Transform Education, who describes the frenetic weeks that followed school and college closures in late March 2020. While some institutions were already well versed in using technology in their teaching, for others it was a steep learning curve as they got to grips with delivering lessons over video and working out ways to receive and assess assignments remotely.

Groups such as the Blended Learning Consortium, to which Kilcoyne is a consultant, pulled together a series of webinars to help college staff get the best out of virtual learning environments (VLEs) or platforms, such as Microsoft 365 and Google Classroom. The Education and Training Foundation’s (ETF’s) own professional development tool, the Enhance Digital

BY JO FARAGHER

Teaching Platform, continues to off er its short digital courses in areas such as blended learning and the ‘fl ipped classroom’. “It’s been a good opportunity to move the whole of the workforce to think more digitally and make more use of these tools,” says Sally Betts, a digital learning specialist from ideas4learning. “If colleges were reticent before, or didn’t see the benefi ts, they will now.”

Vikki Liogier, national head of EdTech and digital skills at the ETF, believes the pandemic has removed practitioners from their comfort zone. “It has forced them to rethink their pedagogic approaches and explore new ways of delivering teaching and engaging learners in learning activities,” she says. “Research by the ETF between October 2019 and February showed that VLEs, followed by search and collaboration tools, were the most used, and we can only assume their use in remote learning and collaborative activities has broadened since the lockdown.”

Suddenly having to deliver education remotely – with little time to trial systems – meant teachers had to quickly fi gure out what worked and what didn’t. Simply replicating the daily class schedule over video conferencing systems was not always the best approach.

“It’s about really understanding the problem you’re trying to solve,” explains Paul McKean, head of further education and skills at digital education body Jisc. “You

CASE STUDY CITY OF WESTMINSTER COLLEGE

City of Westminster College was the fi rst institution in London to be named a Microsoft Showcase College. Blended learning and using platforms such as Microsoft Teams are business as usual for its students, but have been life-transforming for one student who is hearing-impaired. “He had never communicated with his classmates and then he found his voice,” says Esam Baboukhan, e-learning manager at the college, who has been recognised in the EdTech 50 as a leader in this fi eld.

The student, Kabir, was used to being accompanied by a sign language interpreter in class. But neither Baboukhan nor Kabir’s classmates were able to communicate in British Sign Language themselves. Microsoft Teams allows Kabir to converse with other students or ask questions about what’s being taught. “The fi rst time I introduced Teams into the class was a special moment… it has given Kabir a voice,” says Baboukhan.

The college also makes use of other tools in Microsoft 365, such as immersive reader options in the Edge browser (which can read webpages or PDFs aloud), and Stream, where teachers can upload videos and create transcripts using in-built artifi cial intelligence. Microsoft 365 is not in itself a virtual learning environment (VLE), so Baboukhan and his team are looking into LMS 365, a learning management platform that enables teachers to create and store courses as they would with a VLE.

have to think about how you replicate the structure you would normally have, such as aims and learning outcomes, how you’ll show that at the end of the lesson, and set assessments so you can see students have understood.” And with all students at home, there have been accessibility considerations. “You have to think about the ability of the learner to participate,” adds McKean. “So make sure teaching is not just synchronous [ joining a ‘live’ class] but can also be done offl ine or reviewed later.”

Accessibility issues should be a central aspect of EdTech investment anyway – the coronavirus situation has simply sharpened that focus, argues Alistair McNaught, an e-learning accessibility consultant. “Simple things such as students knowing how to follow up after the lesson helps those with disabilities or mental health issues who may not be able to do the work until they feel up to it,” he says. “Programmes that allow students to ‘build’ a good essay or critique a bad one, rather than setting everyone 1,000 words to write in a certain time, means people can work at their own pace.”

Existing capability

The good news is that there is already a host of familiar accessibility technology: Google Translate can help with language barriers, Microsoft PowerPoint can create closed captions in a slideshow and read them aloud, and Word has changeable text and background colours that can help students with dyslexia. Esam Baboukhan, e-learning manager at City of Westminster College, says that existing tools can “satisfy 95 per cent of our needs, we just need to learn to use what we have eff ectively” (see panel, right).

With numerous EdTech providers off ering free trials of their products as learning moved remotely, this reinforced the need to take an objective and critical approach to digital investment. “In the absence of evidence, educators may jump on solutions that look fl ashy and clever, when they might be fi ne with what they’re already doing,” explains Dan Sandhu, CEO of maths platform Sparx, which is part of the EdTech Evidence Group. “The technology that is successful is

TOP TECH FIVE EDTECH APPLICATIONS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT

1EARPOD This allows teachers to import existing lessons in common formats such as PDF and PowerPoint and add rich content such as virtual fi eld trips, quizzes and other activities. They can also create activities from scratch in Google Slides and add extra elements with Nearpod, share live sessions to students’ devices and generate real-time feedback. nearpod.com

2ENHANCE DIGITAL TEACHING PLATFORM The ETF’s own professional development platform came into its own as FE teachers and trainers quickly had to shift learning online due to coronavirus closures. It includes bitesize sessions on how to set up activities in a digital learning environment and personalising teaching to ensure it is accessible. Participants can earn badges aligned to the ETF’s Digital Teaching Professional Framework. enhance.etfoundation.co.uk

3FLIPGRID Teachers can share ‘grids’ with classrooms or groups remotely, uploading videos and setting questions for students to complete. They can record, review and share their own videos in response. It’s great for ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) teachers, for example, who can use it to demonstrate pronunciation and help students improve their own language learning. info.fl ipgrid.com

4PADLET Similar to productivity apps such as Trello, Padlet acts like a digital noticeboard where teachers and students can add text and audio fi les, videos, images and links and group them into topics – “from spreadsheets to selfi es to Spotify”. Colleges and other institutions can create a private network where the content can be shared and viewed, and users can connect with one another. en-gb.padlet.com

5WAKELET Wakelet is a way for educators to bookmark articles, resources, videos and social media posts and curate them. They can use it to share resources with students and colleagues, collaborate on group projects or create newsletters. It can also be used to curate teaching ‘moments’ for professional development purposes, such as conference notes or lesson take-aways. learn.wakelet.com

grounded in pedagogy and evidence and can create a blended experience built around teaching.”

He advises teachers to ask a number of questions of themselves and potential suppliers: What are their priorities – improve behaviour or increase attainment? What types of evidence are available – objective data or just anecdotes? Is the product based on evidence or just following trends? “They need to challenge, challenge, challenge. Ask ‘why should I spend my limited budget on this technology? Prove to me it makes a diff erence.’”

Daisy Christodoulou, author of Teachers vs Tech: The Case for an Ed Tech Revolution, remembers the excitement in the early 2000s when schools and colleges clamoured to buy interactive whiteboards that promised to transform teaching. Instead, thousands simply used them to display pre-prepared slides, meaning an expensive investment went to waste. “There are still lots of fads out there, solutions in search of a problem,” she says. “But there are also lots of solutions that add to teaching or are adaptive.”

She points to systems that have banks of questions, videos or explanations that present the next task or question based on what a student has input already, or those with algorithms that adapt to the learner. “They’re trying to do what a good teacher would do by responding to an individual student – language learning app Duolingo is a famous consumer example,” she adds.

Digital journey

To get real value out of EdTech investments, it’s crucial that teachers are given the opportunity to focus on their own digital professional development. “The Covid-19 situation has made this issue much more acute, but adequate support for teachers in both developing their own digital skills and having a fuller understanding of the digital skills their students will need to enter the job market is important whatever the circumstances,” says Caitlin McMillan, a teaching and learning consultant with the London Connected Learning Centre.

KNOWING HOW TO FOLLOW UP AFTER THE LESSON HELPS THOSE WITH DISABILITIES OR MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES

“Technology itself won’t solve a problem unless the underlying rationale is sound and those using it have adequate training and time to feel confi dent.” Resources such as the Enhance Digital Teaching Platform and the Future Teacher Project, which looks at the skills teachers will need to equip students in a digital employment world, are a good start.

While new EdTech suppliers springing up all the time off ering the latest in artifi cial intelligence, robotics and augmented reality, the education lockdown has shown many teachers just how much they can do with their existing investments in technology, and given them inspiration to take it further.

“What Covid-19 has unlocked is the creativity and readiness of the sector to come together to address remote working challenges and ensure an uninterrupted learning experience where possible,” concludes Liogier. “We must build from this episode by continuing to explore new learning spaces and by further facilitating the embedding of EdTech-enhanced teaching, learning and assessment.”

JO FARAGHER is a freelance journalist and former editor of TES Magazine

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT

For those wanting to develop digital skills and prepare to teach courses for the new digital entitlement, the ETF has a range of online modules mapped to the Essential Digital Skills national standards issued in April 2019. Visit enhance.etfoundation. co.uk/eds for more information.

We have also produced A Guide to EdTech and Essential Digital Skills Training to Support Remote Working. The guide identifi es and provides links to EdTech and essential digital skills training modules on the Enhance Digital Teaching Platform which can contribute to developing the knowledge, skills and understanding required for teaching and learning online.

Our latest series of free online webinars will help you to get the best from use of technology to support your students based at home. Topics include areas such as engaging and supporting learners in virtual learning environments and adapting content quickly for delivery online.

enhance.etfoundation.co.uk/ content/pages/resources-forremote-working

Ensuring all students are able to access EdTech resources is vital. The following can provide support for teachers:

11 modules on accessibility: enhance.etfoundation. co.uk/category/ accessibility

10 modules on dealing with differences and inclusion: enhance.etfoundation. co.uk/category/difference-diversity

Check out our Awarded Practice wall: enhance.etfoundation. co.uk/resourcebank