Digitalization in Education: The Potential Role of Teachers as Designers in the Netherlands

Following Sweden’s shift away from digitalisation in primary and secondary education, this blog delves into the Dutch perspective on the subject. My initial exploration raised mild concerns about digitalisation, prompting further inquiry into its essence and implementation. In this second installment, I explore the critical role teachers play as educational designers in effectively integrating digital tools so that the use of educational technology may be used to augment learning rather than impair it.

Understanding Digital Pedagogy

Digital pedagogy, as discussed in the previous post, serves as a foundation for today’s discussion; and more specifically the use of digital components supplied by educational publishers within the Dutch market, which are often promoted as a tool for enhanced teaching and student learning but at face value seem little more than digital alternatives to traditional coursebooks. This exploration extends into the realm of educational design thinking, aiming to culminate with actionable recommendations to step away from the present form digitalisation seems to have taken and empower teachers to become designers of technology augmented learning environments tailored to the Dutch educational system.

Assessing Teacher Quality

Approximately 80% of secondary school teachers in the Netherlands meet the Inspectorate for Education’s standards (Inspectie van Onderwijs, 2024). These criteria include creating a stimulating and safe learning environment, setting high expectations, ensuring orderly progression, clearly defining objectives, monitoring and adjusting teaching based on student achievement, providing clear explanations, allowing practice time, tailoring instruction to educational needs, offering targeted feedback, and encouraging self-reflection.

However, these standards lack emphasis on digital technology integration despite its rapid proliferation in education. Furthermore, the standards primarily assess traditional teaching roles without considering the effectiveness of teacher-student interactions or the dynamic interplay between teachers, students, learning materials, and digital tools.

The Necessity for Teacher Expertise in Digital Tools

In order for learning technology to be effective and appropriate, teachers must not only refine traditional methods but also adeptly integrate digital tools to enhance learning and not merely replace conventional teaching or diminish social interactions (Rathenau Instituut, 2022). The institute further highlights the need for a reconsideration of teacher training to incorporate digital tools, reflecting the growing demands of modern education. This calls for a new perspective on teacher training, which takes learning technology for what it has become.

Teaching as a Design Task

Building on the above, teaching should be viewed as a complex design task that arranges contexts conducive to learning. Digital tools, when thoughtfully integrated, may enrich the learning process, empowering teachers to meet increasingly complex demands at the workplace. However, this approach moves beyond using digital tools as simple replacements for traditional resources, tools to promote workplace efficiency, or technology to elicit temporary learner engagement, instead positioning them as valuable components in a cohesive educational strategy (Goodyear, P., & Retalis, S., 2010). Teachers should be at the core of the design of these cohesive, technology-enhanced learning arrangements.

Forward-Looking Steps

Our current quality framework for teaching falls short of positioning teachers as such. What may not help is the lack of a thorough yet practical design model that allows for the consideration of learning technology at the core of the learning process.

Existing frameworks for a cohesive and comprehensive approach to learning design exist but seem deficient in some ways. For example, models like SAMR (Puentedura, R., 2010) and T-PACK (Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J., 2006) provide structure for understanding technology's role in learning but might not fully encapsulate a holistic educational design that encapsulate existing knowledge of pedagogy and learning. Conversely, models such as backward design (Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J., 2005), ADDIE (Molenda, M., 2003), and the Curriculum Web (Van den Akker, J., 2003) offer more comprehensive design stages but appear to overlook the explicit integration of learning technologies at the core of the learning process.

Research into how learning technology impacts the learning in independent core skills like reading or critical thinking is still very much emergent. For example, a recent study suggests that reading from computer screens has the potential to either impair or enhance the learning experience, depending on the nature of a given reading task and the design of it (Bakker, 2024).

As we better understand brain-based learning and the implications of learning technologies, it becomes crucial to determine when and how technology should be incorporated into the educational design process. Technology should enhance learning based on established pedagogical theories rather than being an end in itself.

Conclusions

It is imperative to recognize technology's potential to enrich core educational processes deeply. However, a cautious approach is advisable, ensuring that technology augments both superficial and deep learning levels. Teachers, as designers of learning, must be empowered to integrate technology meaningfully, viewing educational technology through an "iceberg analogy"—what is visible is just a small part of the extensive learning happening beneath the surface.

This perspective encourages a balanced and thoughtful integration of digital tools, fostering an environment where technology enhances educational outcomes by deepening learning rather than simplifying existing learning and teaching processes.

References

Bakker, N. (2024). Digitaal lezen, anders lezen? De technologische lees(r)evolutie in empirisch perspectief (Vol. 37). Academische Uitgeverij Eburon.

Goodyear, P., & Retalis, S. (Eds.). (2010). Technology-enhanced learning. Sense Publishers.

Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054.

Molenda, M. (2003). In search of the elusive ADDIE model. Performance Improvement, 42(5), 34-37.

Puentedura, R. (2010). SAMR and TPCK: Intro to advanced practice. Retrieved from [https://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/]

Rathenau Instituut. (2022). Opportunities and challenges of digitalization in education. Retrieved from [https://www.rathenau.nl]

Van den Akker, J. (2003). Curriculum perspectives: An introduction. In Curriculum landscapes and trends (pp. 1-10). Springer.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. ASCD.