Technology and Learning: Pitfalls Every School Must Avoid

Today, technology has become irresistibly fascinating. It is the gamechanger that is redefining how we live, work, and play. Never before now has the world experienced so much transformations at extremely high speeds. Thus, technology is the rave of the moment. It seems to have won the most coveted tool of the century and is now even claiming the future.

Any sector that wishes to be future-complaint now puts technology at the centre of its agenda. Several high-level summits now focus on the fourth industrial revolution. And education is not an exception. Afterall, it’s meant to prepare the young generation for a fulfilling future. As such, it has become a convention for most academic conferences and workshops to feature talks on “the future of work”, artificial intelligence, robotics, and similar concepts.

Education, especially in developed countries, has witnessed impressive turnarounds driven by technology. Learning is now highly interactive and teachers have access to real-time feedbacks on students’ performances. Similarly, the one-size-fits-all approach has expired and has given way to personalized learning which caters to student’s individual differences. Teachers’ roles are also being redefined in the student-centred learning system, which engages them in active learning while teachers act as learning facilitators. Collaboration, critical thinking, and other 21st century skills are now being taught at early years in schools.

The trend is really exciting and it puts developing countries on their toes. Today, schools are always in search of technology innovations that could boost their efficiencies. While this is a good mission, and even essential for educational development, it is also important that this is pursued with great cautions. Our enthusiasm shouldn’t becloud us from being oblivious of some evident pitfalls that may rip off the promising benefits. If not deployed correctly, education technology could amount to money wastage and still cause hinderance to students’ learning progress.

One major challenge in this regard is the lack of clarity on how technology will impact teaching and learning. Product marketers often sell on assumptions that would later become unrealistic. This partly explains why many school management systems which promise to automate the entire school activities are sometimes being used for payment processing alone. Even more troubling, most vendors do not bother to study the effectiveness of their systems.

Brookings Institution’s Center for Universal Education (CUE) studied top 1,640 education technology innovations selected across the world and reported that only 18 percent were internally evaluated and 11 percent were evaluated externally. This report was released just last month.

Schools should look well before leaping at technology. No matter the global best practices, every school still requires a clear technology strategy and execution roadmap.

Similarly, partial technology deployments could turn promising interventions into white elephant projects. A smart board without necessary software and specially curated multimedia contents will make little difference from a simple projector which is over 600% cheaper. Many ICT laboratories are stocked with computer systems but students usually take turns to play Candy Crush and Solitaire games. School administrators should understand that gadgets alone do not guarantee impacts on learning. Other components such as software and digital contents are equally essential. That is why they are called systems

Another grievous mistake many school administrators make is to leave teachers out of the loop. Technology may be taking away other jobs but not teaching. A 2016 report by McKinsey & Company stated that teaching is one of the least likely professions to be automated. Education technologies work best when they are used to transform teacher-student relationship since that is where the real education takes place. As such, continuous professional technology training is a necessary ingredient for any successful technology integration.

Content suitability could also hinder effective technology adoption in schools. This is especially important for developing countries. In Nigeria for example, many schools are already confused in their bid to blend Nigerian curriculum with both British and American curricula. The introduction of  technology systems may further compound the problem. The learning contents should not only be compatible with the curriculum but also be suitable for the students’ learning conditions. A system designed for Indian audience may do a terrible job at educating young Nigerians.

On a final note, school administrators must know that not every technology is good for schools. The pursuit of the “next new thing” is always a bad move. There are appealing ‘solutions’ that may create more problems for schools. Even the good ones have limitations. And this makes it mandatory to always have a clear roadmap for technology integration. Also, there must be evaluation mechanisms to always check the effectiveness of every technology system deployed.

But all these do not rule out the need for technology integration in schools. In fact, no school can be said to be serious about grooming the future leaders if it ignores the tool that is shaping the future.

Our schools should embrace technology, but should also avoid the pitfalls.

PS: This article has also been published in The Nation Newspaper.