Lifestream summary: week 2
This week took me to the BETT Show where I was demonstrating Office 365 technologies for teachers.
Each year when I go to BETT I am struck by the disjunct between what I see at the show and what I see when I visit schools. The sheen, the shine and the promise of technologies which is on show in the vast arena of ExCeL is, in my experience, rarely successfully transferred into schools. I read Bayne on the train on the way to London and was struck by how much the message of ‘TEL’ was reiterated throughout the show – not only by exhibitors, but also by the teachers I spoke with. They talked of technology as being a ‘tool’ which could facilitate ‘more effective’ learning and teaching. This perception is a key reason why technology adoption fails: questions about how technology and practice are complexly intertwined and how technologies necessarily change, affect, and radically alter processes and behaviours are infrequently considered. Bayne’s assertion that we need to focus on networks, ecologies and sociomaterial contexts is pertinent.
In terms of managing my Lifestream this week, there is much material from the show which I still need to edit and curate; that’s an enjoyable problem to have as the process of finding new ways to collate and present information fascinating. I have made some progress with IFTTT and have ‘cooked’ a number of new recipes. I’ve also started to comment on others’ blogs: it’s brilliant to see the range of approaches, technologies, thoughts and ideas which are on display in our blogs.
2 thoughts on “Lifestream summary: week 2”
Hello Helen.
By coincidence I just commented on Matthews’s blog (where he talks about the BETT show) speculating on whether any of the group who attended the event would have had their experience affected by reading Bayne’s article in advance: and here you are reflecting on the same experience!
‘This perception is a key reason why technology adoption fails: questions about how technology and practice are complexly intertwined and how technologies necessarily change, affect, and radically alter processes and behaviours are infrequently considered.’
This really struck a chord with me and I think emphasises how important it is that we think critically around the digital and education, rather than defaulting to ideas around technologies satisfying educational outcomes.
What your reflections here also remind me is that the relationship between education and technology is subject to a range of interests beyond developing understanding: profit, a culture of performativity and so on. Without having attended the BETT show, I wonder whether the framing of ‘technology as tools for achieving education goals’ reflects the interests or pressures of those attending: the need to show results.
Talking more generally about your weekly review, I’ll be interested to read more about your recipes next week – in fact I think your critical reflection on the BETT show merited a separate blog post in its own right. All the same interesting reading and I’m looking forward to dipping into your blog as the week unfolds.
James
Hi James,
Thanks for mentioning Matthew’s blog post to me: it was fascinating to hear his ‘prediction’ about the impact which Bayne’s paper might have on responses to BETT!
Your observation about results is a pertinent one. As well as the notion of technology being touted as a means of ‘improving outcomes’ (what does that even mean?!), there has been a rise in the use of technology to report on outcomes. Huge stands devoted to ‘data dashboards’ were present at the show. The rich, complex, creative bundle of emotions, ideas and responses that is the learner is channelled through a reductive algorithm and spewed out as a data set.
Thanks for your ideas as to how I might move forward with this space. I’ve spent a chunk of today revisiting my previous posts and adding more ‘metadata’ around them. This returning, reflecting and augmenting is an interesting experience and marks a shift away from the linearity of the blog experience in IDEL: we’re weaving complex fabrics using threads from a range of media, sources and thoughts.
Good to ‘meet’ you in the Hangout btw! And hope you’re having a great weekend.