BETT 2015 ETAG Reflections 3 & 4

Reflection 3: Re-stating a truism is no bad thing

Almost hidden within the ‘Process and Rationale’ section is this statement:
‘A clear story throughout is that simply adding technology to existing practice adds expense and misses the point of what might, and should, be achieved. A worksheet on a tablet is still a worksheet, but more expensively so. An undergraduate timed essay, but typed, still misses the point of the new intellectual tasks that emerge through connected learning. The hardest thing about moving forward is deciding what to leave behind.’

Which is probably at the heart of the issue of digital tools as an aid to learning and has been for over 40 years. Merely moving old ways of learning and teaching onto a digital platform fails everyone.

• It fails pupils because it does not empower them to take own their personal learning progress or reflect the ways in which they will be required to use digital tools within work and society in general.
• It fails educators by not enabling them to take advantage of the power and flexibility that digital tools offer and the ways in which using those tools can change the workload burden to enable more focus on interactions with learners.
• It fails organisations because they do not see the potential benefits coming out of a large cost-centre where expenditure is ever increasing but outcomes are not easily quantifiable.

But here’s the rub…… this is not a new statement and I wonder what there is in the ETAG report that will inspire Head teachers and College Principals to take up the challenge and reach for the future that ETAG espouses?

Reflection 4: Risk – that’s all very well but ….

This section goes through some of the well-trod pathways of why we should risk failure in the hope of ultimate success. It’s all true and I agree with everything the report says here BUT it’s been said before and the vast majority of educational institutions are still crippled by the risk averse culture that is the safety blanket for man a senior leader. Perhaps we should have seen examples of risk taking that ended in failure but which produced successful outcomes based on the lessons learnt?