New OECD Report Slams Computers And Says Why They Can Hurt Learning: It’s all about the pedagogy
October 16, 2015 at 8:06 am 2 comments
My PhD advisor, Elliot Soloway, considers a new report on the value of computers in education, and gets to the bottomline. To swipe a line from Bill Clinton, “It’s the pedagogy, stupid!” Of course, I agree with Elliot, and it’s why Lecia Barker’s findings are so disturbing. We have to be willing to change pedagogy to improve learning.
The findings are the findings, but what is really interesting is a statement that Andreas Schleicher, the director of OECD, made as to why the impact of technology is negative. In the foreword to the OECD report, he writes, “…adding 21st century technologies to 20th century teaching practices will just dilute the effectiveness of teaching.”WOW! In this one sentence, Schleicher names clearly what he sees as the root cause of the lack of technology’s impact on student achievement. While the NYT’s articles danced around the issues, Schleicher doesn’t pull any punches: The reason computers are not having a positive impact lies in the use of outmoded teaching practices that do not truly exploit the opportunities that a 1-to-1 classroom affords.
Source: New OECD Report Slams Computers — and Actually Says Why They Can Hurt Learning — THE Journal
Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: active learning, educational technology, learning science, teachers.
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Computing Ed Research - Guzdial's Take 
1.
mgozaydin | October 16, 2015 at 9:11 am
It seems we talk to 20th century people not the 21st century people .
I had great trust for OECD for more than 40 years, now it is diluting .
2.
gflint | October 18, 2015 at 3:09 pm
Why can’t education keep up with technology? The ability of a practicing teacher to make changes in the classroom are somewhat limited. Locked curriculum, administrative reluctance, and just pure time available to the teacher are going to restrict change. Pre-service? On average the university education departments seem to be farther behind than the K-12 schools. The solution has to be a combination of the two. Teachers have to be given the time to design change and universities have to actively look at where education in the 21st century should go. Does this imply technology integration is required? Not really, technology is not the answer to education’s woes, it is just something that needs to be used to the get students ready for life.