Effective use of education technology

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From learning management systems to data analytics software, online staff meetings to remote teaching platforms, laptops to interactive whiteboards – the world of education (just like anywhere else) is full of technology. So, what does the research say about the benefits of this tech when it comes to teaching and learning? What does effective use of technology look like? And what are the possible challenges facing teachers and school leaders, now and into the future? In episode 93 of The Research Files I’m joined by Edmund Misson, Acting CEO of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. AITSL has recently published 2 Spotlight evidence summaries on the topic of education technology and so in today’s episode we’ll be talking about some of the findings. I hope you enjoy it.

Jo Earp: Hi, Edmund. It’s great to have you on the Teacher podcast today, so thank you for that. We’re going to be discussing education technology, which is a really interesting subject and there’s a lot to talk about. As I mentioned in the intro then AITSL’s recently released 2 Spotlight evidence summaries (part 1, part 2) on tech in schools. I guess I’m interested in the impetus for that. Was that sort of something that was always in the planning cycle in terms of relevant topics or was it something that teachers and leaders have been asking for more support on in particular? I’m also wondering whether the lockdowns really kind of pushed that to the front a little bit.

Edmund Misson: We’re always looking for topics that are going to be of interest to teachers and school leaders in particular, and I think technology’s is always there and it’s always changing. But there were probably 2 things. One, you’re right, is the lockdown. So, suddenly, as you know, everyone was having to use technology in ways they hadn’t before and suddenly getting used to doing a whole lot of things that really hadn’t been a part of mainstream schooling before.

But the other one was, the sudden burst of interest in artificial intelligence and the release of ChatGPT, which was kind of late 2022 – so, just as we were looking at what topics we’d cover in 2023. And I think that just made some work on this topic seem really timely, because I think AI (and ChatGPT specifically) sort of brought up all those issues that always come up around educational technology. So, there was the fear of students using it to cheat, you know. There was this sense that it was going to be in some way, absolutely revolutionary for education, but I’m not sure anyone really had or has figured out how. And then also just the fear around it, you know, and I mean talk that everybody, not just teachers, everybody was going to lose their jobs as a result of AI or that the job of the teacher would somehow be replaced or dumbed down by AI and that you’d sort of be left really just handling students’ access to the technology. So, it just brought up all those issues that always come up with each new technology, except maybe there was a feeling – I think there still is – that AI is really different and really revolutionary.

So, it just seemed really timely to look at what the evidence could tell us about other technologies that have come along, what we know about the use of technology and education in general, and also to try and bring the focus back to teaching and learning and you know to have the discussion not just be about the technology, but about what we want to do with it. And when we sat down and went to write these reports, you know, we actually ended up with a 2-part report rather than one because there is an awful lot of evidence out there.

JE: Yeah. So, you split it into 2 and normally, like you say, you might put out the one report. Just on that point with the pandemic then, it seems that things really sort of sped up in terms of adoption of technology though, didn’t they, in schools, out of necessity, really. There was no kind of, usually you’d have a little bit of trial and error, and somebody take it on board or whatever and see what was working. But this was, like, so full on. And then, like you say, we’ve had ChatGPT and the AI side of things and sort of generative bots, which, yeah, nobody seems to really understand yet what they may or may not be able to do, but we know that there’s potential there, not just the bad side of things, but there’s potential there around work support and productivity. But what I was thinking was, it’s an awful lot for educators to grapple with, isn’t it? And in amongst that you’ve got this kind of mass of products and program and solutions that are being pitched to them constantly. That’s really difficult, isn’t it, to keep up with it all.

EM: I think that’s right. And I think, of course, all of this is happening at a time when schools and the people who work in them are feeling under a lot of pressure anyway. You know, we know that workload is the biggest concern that teachers and school leaders have about their working environment at the moment, so I think it’s understandable that … Well, people are probably on a continuum in how they think about it, you know. There are people who are quite excited, I think. There are people who see that advances in technology might actually really help with some of the issues they’re facing, including workload in schools. I think there are people probably at the other end who are quite frightened, and I mentioned earlier, even this fear that people might end up losing their jobs as a result of this. And there are, I’m sure, a whole lot of people sitting somewhere in the middle.

So, I think in that context it’s understandable that a lot of teachers and leaders in our schools just see this as another thing that’s coming at them, and another thing that they need to deal with at a time when, you know, when the pace of change already feels really fast. So, I think what we need to do in that environment is just maybe take a breath and just come back to what we’re trying to achieve here and how technology can be used to kind of support the type of teaching and learning that we want to see in our schools. And that does require, I think, a bit of a pause, a bit of time to think, a bit of time to experiment, a bit of time to work with the technology, rather than a really rapid pace of roll out. So, I think a lot of what we need to do at the moment is just to get back to being in control, and teachers and leaders feeling like they’re in control of what’s going on in their schools.

JE: And the aim of these evidence summaries is, of course, to help with that. Before we dive in then, a quick note on terminology. When we say ed tech, we’re talking anything that can be used – doesn’t have to be designed for the classroom of course. So that could be phones, computers, could be your learning management platform you’ve got, there might be a student portal you’ve got in school, AI programs, VR, AR – you know, all of that kind of thing. I’ll also pop a link into both Spotlight summaries in the transcript to this podcast, so you can either have them at hand while we’re chatting now, or you can do some further reading after the episode.

So, Edmund, I want to focus on 5 key messages across those 2 publications. First of all, then, let’s talk about the benefits of education technology and the equity aspect of that. I just want to read this quote to you from the Spotlight, it says: ‘Implemented well, edtech has the potential to deliver great benefits to several student cohorts, including those with disabilities, those learning remotely, and students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.’ Can you explain a bit more about that?

EM: Yeah, and this was a finding I was probably a little bit surprised by because I think there’s so much talk about digital divide and the, you know, the inequities in education, and sometimes it feels like everything, every new development in education, tends to make those inequities worse rather than better. But we certainly found, as you said, benefits for a lot of those groups if the technology is appropriate and is used well.

So, students with disabilities. I mean, it probably does make some sense when you think about it, that actually there’s a long, long history of using technology to improve access for different students to the curriculum, and to the curriculum in a way that’s appropriate for them. And that’s, you know, that can be as simple as screen readers and voice recognition software and so on. But you know also other types of technology – simulations of potentially stressful situations, the capacity to get repeated feedback on your work and learn and improve from that. And I think you know, even if we go back to COVID, there was this sort of really interesting strand where there were some students who thrived in that online environment. And I think everyone was so relieved to get back to face-to-face that we just need to not lose the idea that we also learned some things during that time, and we learned some things that might help particular students.

Students learning remotely, I think is similar. You know that, where for whatever reason, students aren’t able to get to or aren’t best suited to a physical classroom. We suddenly do have this, some evidence, but I think more practice where teachers are much better at using online technologies for learning and teaching, and we’re beginning to see what some of the success factors are – so, again, if you can overcome that digital divide around access, I think there’s potential there for a different use of technology in our schools.

And then Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. I thought this was fascinating. But it seems like the technologies that are really working are those that are designed in a very culturally sensitive and responsive way and might actually enable that connection with culture. So, whether it’s, you know, being able to explore country at a distance or connect with elders when you’re not in the community you might have come from or feel some connection to, then there is some evidence that this is really helping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. So, I think, absolutely it has to be done in a way that’s very culturally sensitive and that’s very sensitive to the needs of whichever group we’re trying to help; but if it is done that way, there does seem to be a lot of potential.

JE: So, the benefits are there then. We know, and listeners will have experience of this though, [that] I’m thinking just purchasing a piece of equipment or bringing in an online solution or a program, that’s not a guarantee. There’s an awful lot going on around that, not least the question of ‘is it even the right solution for the outcome that you’re wanting to achieve?’

AITSL’s also highlighted in these evidence summaries a repeated pattern – it’s what it calls a ‘repeated pattern that’s become apparent in education technology’. I’ll just take you through that, really interesting, it’ll strike a chord with some of you listening, I’m sure. So, number 1: there’s hype and enthusiasm for using new technology and education; and then there are early adopters and they achieve promising outcomes in initial trials; that leads to a widespread adoption, which shows mixed results; and then finally, hype for the latest tech and that takes us back to step 1 repeating itself, and that means that interest shifts to the new tech.

I’m sure that we’ll all be familiar with that listening. The question is though, how do you (you kind of hinted at this earlier because you were talking about taking a breath and having a real think), how do teachers and leaders and decision makers actually, in education, prevent this kind of repeat pattern from happening?

EM: And I think this is where we have to come back to a focus on teaching and learning. So, using the technology as a tool that enables us to teach and to have students learn in ways that we know are likely to be effective for those students. And I think too often we start with the technology, and you know we all remember interactive whiteboards and laptops, and you know there have been waves of technology come through schools where maybe the underlying assumption has been that the technology will drive a change in teaching practice and, you know, that I think doesn’t work. I think technology opens up possibilities, but it doesn’t automatically change practice, and why would it.

So, one of the things that we do identify in the Spotlight reports is that just using technology to reproduce the same sorts of teaching will get the same results. So, if I’ve got the interactive whiteboard and I use it in the way I used a traditional whiteboard or a blackboard then, of course, nothing will change in the teaching and learning but it does open up possibilities.

So, I think we need to again, as you said, take a breath, take a step back. Think about what we’re trying to achieve and how the technology can enable that, and then give teachers and leaders some time to work with the technology and to experiment a bit. Because there’s no one way to teach, there’s no one way to teach any content, there’s no one way to teach any students, and there’s no one way to teach with any technology. So, it’s going to have to be contextualised, teachers are going to have to get comfortable with it and they’re going to actually have to develop their own evidence base, if you like, in their own context.

Because, particularly as technology changes more and more quickly we’re not necessarily going to have a really strong evidence base about a particular technology. What I think we do have increasingly is a strong evidence base about what effective teaching and learning looks like. So, I think if teachers can take that, try things in their own context, learn from that, improve and keep that cycle of improvement going, then that’s going to be much more effective than a roll out that focuses on the technology.

JE: There are great pieces of technology. I mean, you know, there are some schools that are using drones in a really fantastic way. But, you know, if you purchase a drone and nobody can use the drone and you haven’t actually thought about whether it’s relevant to what you’re trying to achieve, then obviously it’s not going to work for you, but, okay…

I’m here at AITSL with acting CEO Edmund Misson and we’re talking about evidence-informed practice in schools and our focus for this episode is education technology. Coming up after the break, we’ll be discussing the challenges of using edtech effectively, and some pointers for upskilling teachers and leaders.

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JE: Okay then, the next key message I want to zero in on is effective use and that’s just what we were talking about there. We mentioned just then about making the right choices, getting the tech that’s going to best serve the teaching and learning. Students’ digital literacy skills is something that we cover regularly in Teacher and I’m always really fascinated about this and the stats around this. The AITSL Spotlight reiterates that – just a quote from there: ‘Despite the increase in the availability of educational technology (edtech), Australian students’ digital literacy skills have decreased over time. Students need to be taught the skills relevant to acquiring digital literacy: practising digital safety and wellbeing, investigation, creating and exchanging, and managing and operating content.’

EM: Yeah, so this is fascinating, and I think another maybe slightly surprising finding. Because I think we talk in the Spotlight about this concept of ‘digital natives’ and the idea that young people today have grown up with technology, they’re really good with technology. You know, we sort of have the stereotype that if you want something fixed, you ask a young person. But when you dig beneath that these skills, which are assessed through the National Assessment Program (so it’s quite good national data in year 6 and year 10) but these skills that are in the curriculum about use of technology, online, safety, critical thinking – students are not performing particularly well nationally and particularly in the secondary years seem to be going backwards.

So, there’s something missing there in the development of those digital skills in the curriculum. And they are in the curriculum – the Digital Literacy General Capability in the Australian Curriculum has been updated in the latest revision, I think it was ICT Literacy before that. But I think like a lot of the general capabilities in the curriculum, you know there’s a tendency for them to get a bit lost and I’m not sure how often we’re explicitly teaching those skills in our schools. I’m not sure how confident all teachers are in teaching those skills, especially in that context where they actually feel like their students have a greater facility with technology than the teachers. So, I think it’s, what this reminds us, is that those skills – up to and including critical thinking about, say, information you discover online – are skills that can be learned and skills that need to be learned and skills that need explicit attention in schools. And again, we shouldn’t just assume that rolling out technology in schools is going to mean that students or teachers develop those skills automatically.

JE: Yeah, and it’s the basics as well, isn’t it? You know, when you read those NAP-ICT reports about what year 6 and 10s can do, you know, there’s a huge percentage that aren’t even making that basic proficiency and it’s that basic skill type thing that maybe say we kind of assume they already know because they can pick things up and move things around very, very quickly and you know, navigate things very quickly. But actually, when it comes down to digital literacy things, then that’s a little bit more complex.

The other interesting point is the impact that teachers’ perspectives can have on effective use. Again, here’s a snippet from the report: ‘Teachers’ perspectives, including the value they place on edtech, can influence its effective use. Confidence and the ability to use edtech also have a significant impact on student outcomes.’

EM: And this is I think the same for so many areas of teacher practice, that teacher self-efficacy and confidence are really important to the effectiveness of any teaching. So, teachers, I think like any of us, kind of struggle with confidence in new technology, especially when there’s this sense that technology is changing very quickly. And we’ve talked a few times about artificial intelligence but, you know, I think there are very few people in the world who are sort of highly skilled at the moment at using, say, artificial intelligence.

So, for teachers to really get the most out of technology again, I think they need time to work with it, time to familiarise themselves. Time to first of all get to that basic level of just being able to use the technology. But then that’s only the start and I think that’s maybe where a lot of people got to during the pandemic. You know, we’re all suddenly quite good at using Zoom. … there are always problems, right, but you know, people can kind of do the basics now in terms of using the technology. What you need time to think through and the capacity to really talk to colleagues and learn together about is how to use technology for effective teaching and learning.

So, I’m not sure that during the pandemic we really had time, especially in that pressured situation to figure out what really good online teaching and learning looks like for school-aged students. You know and of course we didn’t. Of course, there just hasn’t been time yet to really figure that out. So, I think it’s about developing that confidence in teachers at more than that basic level of just using the technology, so that they are in a position to do what they do in the classroom – which is to try something, see if it works, adapt, come back, learn, get better, in the same way that we expect of our students.

JE: We’ve talked about the benefits in terms of equity. We’ve talked about making the right choices to try and break that repeat pattern of edtech use in schools and also fostering digital literacy skills that students need. Now, alongside this, there are some weighty questions really, that educators are grappling with regarding technology use. I just want to get your thoughts on a few of those. Let’s take them one by one. Cyber bullying, you know, remains an issue, doesn’t it, for schools, even though you could argue that you know a lot of this is happening outside, but it really is an issue still for schools, isn’t it?

EM: It absolutely is an issue for schools, and I think it’s part of the problems of all of us being online you know, all day, every day if we want to be. And in some ways you’re right, it seems a bit unfair to load this on to schools when it’s happening at home, but it has an impact on learning and therefore schools need to be concerned with it. So, I think we point in the Spotlight to some resources. There’s some great stuff, for example, out of the eSafety Commissioner, but any school wellbeing program needs to look seriously at cyber bullying and preventing and responding to it. It is, it’s unfortunately just a part of modern life, I think.

JE: Another one that’s interesting is screen time. We recently did an infographic on screen time and screen use and there is a bit of a sweet spot. There’s that question of how much is too much.

EM: Yeah, and there’s also the distinction between educational use of technology and screens and other uses. So, I think there’s some evidence that even 2 hours a day of using screens at home starts to have an impact on academic performance, even if it’s only by replacing time that might be used for studying and thinking. And then the recent PISA reports actually said that up to 5 hours a day of educational use of screens – which is quite a lot if you think of the length of a school day – still seems to be positive, or at least okay for performance in maths, but that it kind of declines after that, and the non-educational use particularly during school hours does lead to a decrease in academic performance.

So, it’s a very complex issue. I think, again, it’s about the effective use of technology for learning when we’re talking about the use of technology in schools and also about at least giving students and parents the information about some of the impacts of screen time outside of school. But I also think we have to be realistic about the world that our students are growing up in. So it is, it’s just another difficult one.

JE: And the last one I want to have a chat about, which is really thorny actually, is the ethical and privacy considerations of technology and data and data storage, but also now we’re throwing AI into that mix, and you know, things that have been generated by students. All that kind of idea of privacy and ethics is a lot to get your head around as well if you’re an educator these days.

EM: Absolutely it is. And I think this is where schools and individual leaders and teachers need some guidance. There’s a national Australian framework for the use of generative AI in schools; there are other sources of guidance. But there are some really thorny issues here. So, I think we do need to be protecting students – there are some really interesting trials at the moment of AI in school systems that are limited, that either can only access curriculum materials or the data never goes outside the school system and that’s, you know, obviously a much better approach from that point of view than just kind of plugging into an online tool that could be sending the data anywhere in the world. We also need to teach our students to protect themselves, and that comes back to that digital literacy piece where we just need to make sure that they’re aware of the risks and that they have the skills and the knowledge to try and protect themselves.

JE: And just I’m thinking back to, you know, during the lockdowns when people were connecting online and then suddenly, you know, there was this realisation of the privacy challenges of that where, you know, it’s okay to ask students to turn their cameras on, but then obviously you’ve got to be careful about, you know, things in the background, things that are going on at home, things that they may not want to share. And it’s only really when you find yourself in this situation and then these questions come up and it gives us a chance to reflect then and have a think about how we can tackle those, doesn’t it?

EM: Yeah, I think that’s right. And again, all these things were kind of forced on us very quickly during the pandemic and I think we’re still catching up in a sense, which is hard work, but is also, I think, a great learning opportunity.

JE: Talking of learning opportunities, then, everything we’ve been talking about today leads to, I guess, the continuing need to improve or refresh the skills of teachers and leaders. You’ve got that quick pace of technology development, those unexpected challenges that pop up – again, you know, things like the pandemic out of the blue – and also the exciting opportunities that are arising. But professional learning is vital in this area. What does the evidence say on this point?

EM: So, the evidence really suggests that, like anything, professional learning is critical to the adoption of, or the successful adoption of technology in schools. So, and we know a lot, again, about the characteristics of effective professional learning. And I’m not sure that they’re always the features of how technology is rolled out. So, again, I think it’s natural to have this focus on learning to use the technology – and you need that, although if the technology is good and intuitive, you might not need to spend too much time on that. But the real value is in learning how to use the technology in the service of teaching and learning.

So, teachers, to do this (like making any change in their practice) they need time. They need some external input and evidence base. And they need the ability to learn from each other within and potentially across schools. And, you know, develop a team or a professional learning community inside the school that’s implementing not just the new technology, but the teaching practices that go with it, that’s evaluating as they go and adjusting and learning and coming up with the approach that’s going to work in that context. So, we really need to support teachers to make any change that’s based in technology in the same way that we support them to make any other change to teaching practice.

JE: Yeah, don’t assume that we are going to be digital natives as well with it, as we were saying with the kids. It’s the same with the students, isn’t it sort of – so, that collaboration, sharing of expertise and having a chance to apply what you’ve learned as well; all good teaching methods, so we should be doing that from our professional learning as well.

EM: Absolutely.

JE: Well, we’ve come to the end of our chat today. There’s so much more in those 2 evidence summaries. As we say, there was so much in there that you split them down into 2 parts. So, I’ll pop links for both of those into the transcript of this podcast. But that’s been fascinating, Edmund, it’s been really good to catch up with you today. Best of luck for the rest of the year with AITSL, but thanks very much for sharing your expertise with Teacher.

EM: No, thank you, Jo, it’s been great to talk.

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References and related reading

AITSL: (2023, November). Spotlight. Evaluating the evidence for educational technology: Part 1 – the technologies

AITSL. (2024, March). Spotlight. Evaluating the evidence for educational technology: Part 2 – enabling learning.

Friedman, T., & Osborne, K. (2024, February 19). Expert Q&A: Building students’ ICT skills. Teacher magazine.