5 Guiding principles for choosing and implementing digital learning tools

Start with the ‘why?’

“We cannot challenge technology to serve the needs of education until we know what we want from it. We have to articulate what it means to teach well, what principles of designing good teaching are, and how these will enable learners to learn” Laurillard, D, (2012, p.4)

Often, when we consider how to implement digital and technology-enhanced learning (TEL), we focus on the T, in technology. What hardware and software we need, what the best VLE platform is, and what ways we can store our data securely on the cloud. These are ‘What’ questions, but where we should really start is with ‘Why’ and ‘How’ questions. Why are we using digital learning tools with our students and how best should we use these tools with them? (Sinek, 2011)

It is clearly important to recognise that there is no ‘one size fits all’ scenario when it comes to implementing digital learning. Colleges and training providers usually have some core TEL platforms: Moodle/Blackboard and Microsoft Teams for content management and ProMonitor, Smart Assessor or OneFile as a learning management system for instance, but these may not be able to offer all of the functionality some of our teachers may be looking for at any one time. There are implications around training, support costs, and the diffusing of knowledge when we move away from our core digital tools. But, it is important that our teachers should be given the freedom and autonomy to choose the technology they feel supports them in improving the quality of education for their students, and to develop their own teaching repertoire.

When selecting tools (both hardware and software), these decisions should be informed by a guiding set of principles and communicated throughout the organisation. Drawing on multiple sources, the following set of principles could guide us in our choice and use of digital learning technologies:

5 Guiding principles for choosing and implementing digital learning tools

There are a number of models for selecting learning technologies. The following principles are adapted from Bates (2013) SECTIONS model:

Principle 1. Pedagogical Focus

Choices of educational technologies must be based on sound principles of learning first. Questions such as: What should I be teaching? What are the learning intentions? What knowledge and skills do my students need? What do my students need to do to acquire this knowledge and skills? What should I, as a teacher, be doing to support this learning? What resources and technologies would help to support this process? How does the technology support collaboration, individualised learning, assessment of learning and distinction teaching?

Principle 2. Adding Value

The decision to choose any particular technology, including individual tools, platforms or delivery models should be based on the principle that it adds value to what we already offer, and supports the task at hand, not simply ‘old wine in a new bottle’ of replicating existing processes in digital format. This might include improving effectiveness, efficiency, reliability, usability, student engagement, the promotion of cooperative and collaborative learning, flexibility to support individualised learning and ‘distinction teaching’. The questions of ‘How will this technology (including processes) contribute to the improvement of the quality of education we offer, and how is it different to the tools we already utilise?’ need careful consideration and should be explicit and defensible.

Principle 3. Accessibility

Access to learning (both face-to-face and digitally supported) must be accessible to everyone, and be the least restrictive possible. If students cannot access a particular technology in an affordable and convenient way, they cannot learn from it. (Bates, 2019)

There are a number of barriers to implementing digital learning into the curriculum. Factors such as the facilities, technologies and infrastructure to support digital learning; the need for training and support for both teachers and students to implement effective digital learning, and the need to meet the requirements of our partner organisations and awarding bodies.

We need to ensure that students are not disadvantaged by technology supported learning. This includes economic disadvantage as well as making websites, tools and technology accessible to everyone, including for users with inclusion needs.

Principle 4. Scalability

Over recent years, there have been an increasing number teachers and small teams implementing a range of exciting technological innovations in their classrooms. But for the most part, these ‘islands of innovation’ fail to create overall comprehensive innovation. (Avidov-Ungar & Eshet-Alkalay, 2014)

Scalability needs to be taken into consideration when selecting appropriate learning technologies and processes. Is the software, application or platform compatible with our existing systems and technological architecture? Is it reliable and are there any security and privacy concerns with any third party tools?

Safety is a primary concern and is threaded throughout the decision process of choosing digital learning tools, particularly when implementing at scale. School’s, colleges, universities and training providers are directly responsible for their own safeguarding, data protection and security and third-party providers of Edtech should be vetted in regard to these areas of concern.

Consideration should also be given as to how this innovation can be encouraged and enabled across the whole organisation, and what the cost implications (both in acquiring the technology but also in ongoing training and support needs) would be.

Principle 5. Quality

Again, there is no 'one-size-fits all-approach'. It is important to be cautious in introducing arbitrary targets for migrating face-to-face teaching online (such as the Feltag 10%) without a clear purpose, training and infrastructure in place to enable this to be implemented effectively. It would be more beneficial for curriculum teams to work together at the planning stage to identify suitable elements of the course content that would benefit from, and enhance face-to-face delivery.

Digital resources and online tasks should not be a place to simply park content whilst the face-to-face sessions remain the same. Any learning that students are directed to complete online and/or independently (blended and flipped learning for instance) must be planned for and should dovetail into the face-to-face sessions.

The high expectations of the quality of education we have when implementing digital learning should be no less robust than our existing expectations of face-to-face teaching and learning. It is time to move away from learning technologies to support knowledge acquisition and start utilising it to encourage knowledge creation for both our students and our teachers.

References

Avidov-Ungar, O. & Eshet-Alkalay, Y. (2014) Islands of Innovation: A critical analysis of a model for innovation implementation in school systems. Adult Education in Isreal, 13(61), pp.60-90.

Bates, A.W. (2019) Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning [Online]. (2nd Edition) Available at: https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/front-matter/introduction/

Laurillard, D. (2012). Teaching as a design science: Building pedagogical patterns for learning and technology. New York and Oxford: Routledge.

Sinek, S. (2011) Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action. London: Penguin.