tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/educational-technology-10947/articlesEducational technology – The Conversation2023-11-02T14:21:41Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2147862023-11-02T14:21:41Z2023-11-02T14:21:41ZSouth Africa’s literacy crisis: our app could help young readers by using home language and English<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556320/original/file-20231027-21-itwn8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Educational technology, while no silver bullet, can be a tool for learning.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wirestock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Literacy changes lives: in Unesco’s words, it “<a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/literacy/need-know#:%7E:text=Literacy%20empowers%20and%20liberates%20people,on%20health%20and%20sustainable%20development.">empowers and liberates people</a>, … reduces poverty, increases participation in the labour market and has positive effects on health and sustainable development”. </p>
<p>But in South Africa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-10-year-olds-are-struggling-to-read-it-can-be-fixed-206008">8 out of 10 children</a> cannot read for meaning by the end of their third school year.</p>
<p>During the first three years of their education, South African children receive schooling in one of the 11 written official languages. Generally, this means being taught in their <a href="https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00X9JQ.pdf">home language</a>.</p>
<p>Then, at the beginning of grade 4 – when most learners are about 10 years old – English becomes the language of instruction. Learners are expected to be literate in both English and their home language by this time. In reality, they are not literate in any language. </p>
<p>The problem is partly caused by the fact that South Africa is, in many respects, a resource-scarce country, especially as it concerns indigenous languages. Even a language such as isiZulu, with <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/content/census-2022-statistical-release">15 million home language speakers</a>, has a dearth of language education resources. The situation is even worse for smaller languages, such as isiNdebele, with just over 1 million home language speakers.</p>
<p>In such an environment, where it’s not easy to acquire literacy, the innovative and creative use of technology offers new ways of tackling this strategic challenge. This is what our <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3571884.3604303">Ngiyaqonda! project</a> aims to do. “Ngiyaqonda” is an isiZulu word which means “I understand”. </p>
<p>The project centres on a mobile application to support literacy development. The app’s goal is to provide a rich digital environment, involving speech and text technology, in which learners build grammatically correct sentences based on audio prompts generated via synthetic voice technology – a first for isiZulu. </p>
<p>The initial focus is on the learner’s home language (it’s currently being piloted with grade 3 isiZulu-speaking learners at a school in Soweto, Johannesburg). English is introduced gradually as a target language. The language and speech technology has been developed to provide linguistic accuracy and is grounded in teaching principles. </p>
<h2>Large language models</h2>
<p>Technology, especially the employment of language technology in the education domain, is not a silver bullet. Its use must be carefully considered. This means having a clear idea of the expectations and limitations of possible solutions. In other words, what factors should be considered when using technology in support of literacy development for young children?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mobile-app-offers-new-learning-tools-for-anatomy-students-but-tech-isnt-a-silver-bullet-185919">Mobile app offers new learning tools for anatomy students. But tech isn't a silver bullet</a>
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<p>A multimodal approach is an obvious starting point: children can talk long before they can read and write. Employing speech technology along with text technology helps to bridge the gap from oral competency in a language to written competency. Grammatical correctness and the appropriate use of suitable vocabulary are essential, too. </p>
<p><a href="https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt">ChatGPT</a> has changed popular perceptions of what is possible in modelling languages using computers. The program uses large language models, which predict how words occur together in a language. This requires massive amounts of data. But there’s a problem when dealing with a resource-scarce language like isiZulu: there simply isn’t enough data available to train a model that is reliable enough to meet the requirements we’ve mentioned. And isiZulu’s linguistic characteristics, like the complex internal structure of its words, could severely affect the grammatical accuracy of such models if trained on insufficient data.</p>
<h2>Computational grammars</h2>
<p>That’s where <a href="https://www.grammaticalframework.org/">computational grammars</a> come in. These are structured sets of rules that describe how words occur in a language. Instead of making predictions based on previously seen data, computational grammars model the grammar of the language in a more direct way, allowing a larger degree of control over accuracy. </p>
<p>Our approach involves the use of such grammars for isiZulu and English and covers both languages’ major linguistic structures, as well as curriculum-based vocabulary. They have been designed to generate thousands of grammatically correct sentences that meet the teaching and learning requirements of repetition and novelty.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-reading-crisis-5-steps-to-address-childrens-literacy-struggles-205961">South Africa's reading crisis: 5 steps to address children's literacy struggles</a>
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<p>These sentences function as the language content of the speech-enabled mobile application. The application uses synthetic voice technology (also known as text-to-speech) to read aloud the automatically generated sentences in either isiZulu or English. The computational grammars act as a predictive text engine that allows users to recreate the prompt sentences word by word. An area of the screen is dedicated to displaying words as options for building the sentence. Users can select words by dragging them into the sentence itself; with each correct selection, new options are generated.</p>
<h2>Lessons</h2>
<p>In the earlier lessons, the application focuses on the task of decoding. This is a mental process and an essential component of reading in which sequences of letters must be associated with their corresponding sounds to form words. At this stage, lessons are monolingual.</p>
<p>For example, in the first lesson, a learner might encounter the sentence</p>
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<p>UVusi ufuna isikhindi ediloweni (Vusi searches for his pants in the drawer).</p>
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<p>This would be read aloud by the text-to-speech in isiZulu. The learner must fit the words they see to the sounds they hear.</p>
<p>Later lessons are multilingual and focus at the same time on reading for meaning and learning a target language. For most learners, the target language is English. Learners listen to sentences in one language and must reproduce a translation textually. </p>
<p>The app currently includes nine lessons. We plan to significantly expand this soon.</p>
<h2>Pilot project</h2>
<p>The purpose of the pilot study is to establish whether the app makes a measurable difference in learners’ ability to read and compose sentences. It is used during scheduled reading periods and is meant to complement the educator’s existing teaching approach. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/learning-to-read-is-a-journey-a-study-identifies-where-south-african-kids-go-off-track-206242">Learning to read is a journey: a study identifies where South African kids go off track</a>
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<p>We are fortunate to be collaborating with a school and team of educators who have embraced innovation as an aid to improving their learners’ outcomes. The results of the study are expected towards the end of 2023 and will inform subsequent studies in 2024. </p>
<p>Preliminary results indicate that both the teachers and the learners are benefiting from using the app in the classroom. The teachers say they appreciate its multimodal aspect, which allows the children to learn independently; the children are excited to use it during their reading lessons.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214786/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurette Marais works for the CSIR. This work has been funded by the South African Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurette Pretorius consults to the CSIR. </span></em></p>The language and speech technology has been developed to provide linguistic accuracy and is grounded in teaching principles.Laurette Marais, Senior Researcher, Council for Scientific and Industrial ResearchLaurette Pretorius, Professor Extraordinarius, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2075862023-07-31T17:08:54Z2023-07-31T17:08:54Z3 ways higher education can become more hopeful in the post-pandemic, post-AI era<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539356/original/file-20230725-15-mynhma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=81%2C1053%2C4052%2C2544&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The future of education is about more than technology. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pexels/Emily Ranquist)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/3-ways-higher-education-can-become-more-hopeful-in-the-post-pandemic-post-ai-era" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>We live at a time when universities and colleges are facing multiplying crises, pressures and changes. </p>
<p>From the COVID-19 pandemic and budgetary pressures to generative artificial intelligence (AI) and climate catastrophe, the future of higher education seems murky and fragmented — even gloomy. </p>
<p>Student mental health is <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/10/mental-health-campus-care">in crisis</a>. University faculty in our own research from the early days of the pandemic told us that they were “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13065">juggling with a blindfold on</a>.” Since that time, we’ve also heard many echo the sentiment of feeling they’re “<a href="https://theconversation.com/battered-and-broken-i-must-get-out-what-staff-told-us-about-teaching-and-working-in-universities-today-208179">constantly drowning</a>,” something recounted by researchers writing about a sense of precarity in universities in New Zealand, Australia and the western world.</p>
<p>In this context, one outcome of the pandemic has been a rise in discourses about specific, quite narrowly imagined futures of higher education. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2023.2164862">Technology companies</a>, <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/education/our-insights/how-technology-is-shaping-learning-in-higher-education">consultants</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2022.2081587">investors</a>, for example, push visions of the future of education as being saved by new technologies. They suggest more technology is always a good thing and that technology will necessarily make teaching and learning faster, cheaper and better. That’s their utopian vision.</p>
<p>Some education scholars have been less optimistic, often <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262537445/the-charisma-machine/">highlighting the failures of utopian thinking</a>. In many cases, their speculation about the future of education, especially where education technology is concerned, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-022-00348-7">often looks bleak</a>. In these examples, technology often reinforces prejudices and is used to control educators and learners alike. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539327/original/file-20230725-27-y74uym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A picture of a collage showing a Facebook-jammed image that says 'You've been Zucked'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539327/original/file-20230725-27-y74uym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539327/original/file-20230725-27-y74uym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539327/original/file-20230725-27-y74uym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539327/original/file-20230725-27-y74uym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539327/original/file-20230725-27-y74uym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539327/original/file-20230725-27-y74uym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539327/original/file-20230725-27-y74uym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Amid accelerating technology, what kind of future do we imagine for higher education?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Annie Spratt/Unsplash</span></span>
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<p>In contrast to both utopian and grim futures, for a recent study funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, we sought to imagine more hopeful and desirable higher education futures. These are futures emerging out of justice, equity and even joy. In this spirit, we interviewed higher education experts for a podcast entitled <a href="https://www.dpicollective.com/series-3-education-futures/">Speculative Learning Futures</a>. </p>
<p>When asked to imagine more hopeful futures, what do experts propose as alternatives? What themes emerge in their work? Here are three key ideas. </p>
<h2>It’s about more than technology</h2>
<p>First, these experts reiterated that the future of education is about more than technology. When we think about the future of education we can sometimes imagine it as being tied entirely to the internet, computers and other digital tools. Or we believe <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2023/03/22/how-ai-shaping-future-higher-ed-opinion">AI in education is inevitable</a> — or that all learning will be done through screens, maybe with robot teachers! </p>
<p>But as Jen Ross, <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/jen-ross">senior lecturer in digital education</a> observes, technology doesn’t solve all our problems. When we think about education futures, technology alone does not automatically help us create better education or healthier societies. Social or community concerns like social inequities will continue to affect who can access education, our education systems’ values and how we are shaped by technologies. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/digital-platforms-alone-dont-bridge-youth-divides-121222">Digital platforms alone don't bridge youth divides</a>
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<p>As <a href="https://www.pathwaystoeducation.ca/research/impacts-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-on-low-income-communities/">many researchers</a> have <a href="https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/news-blog-and-events/press-and-media/digital-poverty-risks-leaving-students-behind/">argued</a>, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12528-022-09323-4">including us</a>, the pandemic highlighted how differences in access to the internet and computers can reinforce inequities for students. </p>
<p>AI can also reinforce inequities. Depending on the nature of data AI is trained with, the use of AI can <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/ai-is-coming-to-schools-and-if-were-not-careful-so-will-its-biases/">perpetuate harmful biases</a> in classrooms. </p>
<p>Ross notes in her <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Digital-Futures-for-Learning-Speculative-Methods-and-Pedagogies/Ross/p/book/9781032058122">recent book</a> that social or community concerns shape how our societies could imagine education.
Researchers involved <a href="https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/funding-financement/nfrf-fnfr/stories-histoires/2023/inclusive_artificial_intelligence-intelligence_artificielle_inclusive-eng.aspx">with Indigenous-led AI are tackling questions around how Indigenous knowledge systems could push AI</a> to be more inclusive. </p>
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<p>Policymakers and educators should consider technology as one part of a toolkit of responses for making informed decisions about what technologies align with more equitable and just education futures.</p>
<h2>Emphasizing connection and diversity</h2>
<p>In line with thinking about more than technology, the second theme is a reminder that the future of education is about healthy social connection and social justice. Researchers emphasize fostering diversity and celebrating diverse expressions of strengths and needs. </p>
<p>Experts envision and call for education that is more sustainable for everyone, not just a privileged few. Kathrin Otrel-Cass, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7-Eeh-YAAAAJ&hl=th">professor at University of Graz</a>, and Mark Brown, <a href="https://www.dcu.ie/nidl/people/mark-brown">Ireland’s first chair in digital learning and director of the National Institute for Digital Learning at Dublin City University</a>, suggest this means teaching and learning should be at a <a href="https://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1058">slower pace</a> for students and faculty alike. </p>
<p>In this vision, policymakers must support education systems that regard the whole learner as an individual with specific physical, mental, emotional and intellectual needs, and as a member of multiple communities.</p>
<h2>Acknowledge the goodness of the present</h2>
<p>There’s lots to be gained by noting and supporting all the great things related to education that are happening in the present, since possible futures emerge from what now exists.</p>
<p>As two podcast guests, <a href="https://www.veletsianos.com/2023/05/31/speculative-learning-futures-podcast-episode-3-with-dr-eamon-costello-and-lily-girme/">Eamon Costello, professor at Dublin City University and collaborator Lily (Prajakta) Girme, noted</a>, we need to acknowledge the good work of educators and learners in the small wins that happen every day. </p>
<p>In 2019, researchers Justin Reich and José Ruipérez-Valiente wrote: “new education technologies are rarely disruptive <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aav7958">but instead are domesticated by existing cultures and systems</a>. Dramatic expansion of educational opportunities to under-served populations will require political movements that change the focus, funding and purpose of higher education; they will not be achieved through new technologies alone.” </p>
<p>These are words worth repeating.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207586/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shandell Houlden was hired out of a SSHRC grant.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>At the time of writing, George Veletsianos receives funding from the Canada Research Chairs program, SSHRC, and BCCAT. He consults with the Canadian Digital Learning Research Association.</span></em></p>Adapting post-secondary education through technological, social and cultural shifts depends on paying attention to healthy connection, social justice and amplifying what’s now going well.Shandell Houlden, Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Education and Technology, Royal Roads UniversityGeorge Veletsianos, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning and Technology, Royal Roads UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2101782023-07-26T20:43:09Z2023-07-26T20:43:09ZBanning cellphones in classrooms is not a quick fix for student well-being<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538770/original/file-20230721-21-9we7o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C10%2C3600%2C2177&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">UNESCO's new report calls for corporate responsibility and stronger governance to regulate education technology.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/banning-cellphones-in-classrooms-is-not-a-quick-fix-for-student-well-being" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has released <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000385723">a report</a> highlighting the many challenges of the growing presence of technology in education. </p>
<p>This report is groundbreaking in its call for corporate responsibility for education technology and in its recognition for the need for enhanced literacy curriculum. </p>
<p>In a chapter on governance and regulation, the report notes “privacy is routinely violated for private benefit,” “safety risks cannot be dismissed,” “cyberbullying is a growing concern,” “physical and mental well-being are at risk from excessive technology use” and that, globally, “almost one in four countries have introduced [cellphone bans in laws or policies].” </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-smart-is-it-to-allow-students-to-use-mobile-phones-at-school-40621">How smart is it to allow students to use mobile phones at school?</a>
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<p>What “ban” means may vary: In 2019, <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/cellphones-and-other-personal-mobile-devices-schools">Ontario introduced restrictions</a> (sometimes called a “ban”) on using cellphones or personal mobile devices during instructional time. Devices can be used in classrooms “for educational purposes only as directed by the educator in the classroom.” CBC reported in June 2023 <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canadian-schools-cell-phone-bans-1.6869993">Ontario is the only province in Canada with an active ban on cellphones</a> in the classroom.</p>
<p>Despite UNESCO’s many nuanced recommendations, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/26/put-learners-first-unesco-calls-for-global-ban-on-smartphones-in-schools">some media are simply reporting UNESCO is calling for a ban on smartphones in schools</a>. As such, there is a risk that governments will seek the simplest and least effective solution to ban cellphones in schools as a singular, one-size-fits-all approach.</p>
<p>This would be a mistake, since it would fail to acknowledge the complexity of youth online life and ignore the report’s most pressing recommendations for tech regulation and attention to equity. It would also fail to address the need for teaching that helps young people become more literate and make sense of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25871-8">a complex information environment</a>.</p>
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<img alt="A teen's hands seen on a laptop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538771/original/file-20230721-8651-f68tkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538771/original/file-20230721-8651-f68tkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538771/original/file-20230721-8651-f68tkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538771/original/file-20230721-8651-f68tkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538771/original/file-20230721-8651-f68tkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538771/original/file-20230721-8651-f68tkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538771/original/file-20230721-8651-f68tkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Youth both gain benefits and experience challenges from their online lives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Allison Shelley for EDUimages)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<h2>Looking at youth online life</h2>
<p>Young people gain benefits and experience challenges from their online lives. In <a href="https://doi.org/10.20360/langandlit29577">my research</a>, I have interviewed students who talk freely about the positive and negative outcomes of their social media use. </p>
<p>The U.S. Surgeon General’s <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/sg-youth-mental-health-social-media-advisory.pdf">recent <em>Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health</em></a> acknowledged many young people find communities of affinity online and forge connections to new interests that are not available to them geographically. They explore new ways of expressing themselves.</p>
<p>The advisory also noted “while social media may have benefits … there are ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.” Pervasive and unregulated social media use can lead <a href="https://ontario.cmha.ca/documents/addictions-and-problematic-internet-use/">to addictions</a>, facilitate <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000260382">exploitation and radicalization</a> and entrench <a href="https://theconversation.com/mounting-research-documents-the-harmful-effects-of-social-media-use-on-mental-health-including-body-image-and-development-of-eating-disorders-206170">mental health challenges</a>. </p>
<p>Banning cellphones in schools does little as a standalone solution to such a complex relationship between youth online life and education. The solutions proposed to address such problems must not ignore how youth engage with these spaces outside the school and how pervasive online life is for youth identity formation.</p>
<h2>Downloading responsibilities to schools</h2>
<p>The most important finding in both the <a href="https://www.unesco.org/gem-report/sites/default/files/medias/fichiers/2023/07/Summary_v5.pdf">UNESCO report</a> and <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/sg-youth-mental-health-social-media-advisory.pdf">U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory</a> on social media is that technology companies bear the weight of consumer responsibility, and governments must play a role in regulating these companies. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-exactly-is-neoliberalism-84755">today’s neoliberal</a> capitalist environment — where states have shifted to become promoters of markets, and where all aspects of our public and personal lives are influenced by the economy — companies are often permitted to pursue profit for shareholders while “responsible” use is downloaded to individuals or local governments.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/never-ending-pressure-mothers-need-support-managing-kids-technology-use-204315">'Never-ending pressure': Mothers need support managing kids' technology use</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If some social media companies have been permitted to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811912101410">take advantage of the youth market</a> for profit, then framing schools as ultimately responsible for technology use simply obscures the heart of the issue. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538772/original/file-20230721-22713-x06iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538772/original/file-20230721-22713-x06iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538772/original/file-20230721-22713-x06iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538772/original/file-20230721-22713-x06iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538772/original/file-20230721-22713-x06iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538772/original/file-20230721-22713-x06iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538772/original/file-20230721-22713-x06iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Technology is woven into all aspects of education and governments must play a role in regulating technology companies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Allison Shelley for EDUimages)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the UNESCO report authors note, “The commercial sphere and the commons pull in different directions. The growing influence of the education technology industry on education policy at the national and international levels is a cause for concern.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-street-proof-our-kids-why-arent-we-data-proofing-them-123415">We street-proof our kids. Why aren't we data-proofing them?</a>
</strong>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>Our societies must advocate for governments to act in regulating technology companies. This includes enacting and enforcing age limits for social media apps, curtailing access to children’s data and curbing technology companies’ presence as the education technology industry in schools.</p>
<h2>Implications for teaching and learning</h2>
<p>The most relevant takeaway for public education in the <a href="https://www.unesco.org/gem-report/sites/default/files/medias/fichiers/2023/07/Summary_v5.pdf">UNESCO report</a> is not that cellphones should be banned in schools. Instead, I highlight three messages as particularly useful and urgent: </p>
<p><strong>1. Online learning cannot replicate or replace the merits of being together in classrooms in person.</strong></p>
<p>The report acknowledges particular circumstances when technology can be connective or inclusive. But it also notes that the push to individualize learning through digital technologies and online learning environments “may be missing what education is all about.” That is, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1803834">education is largely a social and relational practice</a> that requires us being together in space and time. </p>
<p><strong>2. Educational technology in schools is a business with a profit agenda.</strong> </p>
<p>The authors find that to “understand the discourse around education technology, it is necessary to look behind the language being used to promote it, and the interests it serves,” and that most of the evidence of the value of ed-tech in schools is produced by the companies selling it. </p>
<p>Educational institutions need to know that investing <a href="https://theconversation.com/digital-platforms-alone-dont-bridge-youth-divides-121222">in ed-tech alone won’t solve long-standing inequities or challenges in education</a>. Neither should educational technology be employed as a means <a href="https://theconversation.com/mandatory-e-learning-is-a-problem-in-ontario-high-schools-133041">for cutting in-person learning education budgets</a>. </p>
<p><strong>3. “Education systems need to be <a href="https://gem-report-2023.unesco.org/technology-in-education/">better prepared to teach about and through digital technology</a>.”</strong> </p>
<p>The report’s calls for more responsive curriculum, teacher training and engagement with youth online life echoes recommendations offered by a range of scholars in my edited collection, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25871-8"><em>Education in the Age of Misinformation</em></a>. </p>
<p>Young people are grappling with information abundance, hidden technological manipulation and an onslaught of mis- and disinformation. Banning cellphones in schools won’t address this complexity. Neither are outdated media literacy or narrow <a href="https://theconversation.com/ontarios-choice-of-fully-online-school-would-gamble-on-children-for-profit-158292">digital literacy</a> curricula. </p>
<p>Rather, to complement the urgent call for government regulation of tech companies described above, we need comprehensive <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2014.942836">new literacy teaching</a> that will make space for how students experience the emotional, psychological, cognitive and ethical demands of online and in-person life.</p>
<p>Despite the appeal of simplistic solutions, the way forward requires comprehensive government interventions. These would regulate technology companies, invest in the common good of in-person public education and develop whole-child curriculum that avoids moral panic and instead fosters critical literacy and social responsibility.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210178/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lana Parker receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p>A new report from UNESCO analyzes the many challenges of the growing presence of technology in education and notes 14 per cent of countries have policies that ban mobile phones.Lana Parker, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2040442023-05-08T14:18:16Z2023-05-08T14:18:16ZRemote teaching in Nigeria and South Africa got a COVID wake-up call – how to capitalise on it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522958/original/file-20230426-18-wt22aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lecturers felt unprepared for the shift to remote teaching, saying they had neither received nor sought relevant training.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vadym Pastukh/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Universities had to deal with many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102211">anxieties and uncertainties</a> during the early days of the COVID pandemic. One of these was how to move all of their teaching online. For some, the process was fairly simple as they had already been offering blended online and in-person lessons.</p>
<p>But many were <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2347631120983481">caught on the wrong foot</a>. We wanted to know how the pandemic had affected training and technology adoption by lecturers at open distance learning institutions in Africa. To find out, we <a href="https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.25159/UnisaRxiv/000016.v1">conducted research</a> at two of the continent’s biggest open distance universities – one in Nigeria and one in South Africa.</p>
<p>We found that, as was the case for <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/234763112098348">many higher education institutions</a>, neither institution was ready at the start of the pandemic for the move to entirely online teaching. This is even though both universities in our study were already using some online learning management systems and digital media to facilitate learning and support students. </p>
<p>Most lecturers we spoke to said they were unprepared for the shift to remote teaching. They had not received or sought relevant training and, so, they were also not able to give their students the necessary support. Training units at the institutions were inundated with requests and couldn’t handle the number of requests from lecturers who wanted to get to grips with their institution’s learning management systems.</p>
<p>The findings confirmed that training for academics needs to be timely, specific, relevant and appropriate for the technology being implemented. If not, it leaves lecturers confused and unable to use relevant teaching and student support technologies. We suggest that all university staff – especially those responsible for the professional development of others – receive regular and continued training to keep themselves relevant and effective.</p>
<h2>Unprepared and unsure</h2>
<p>The two universities collectively serve more than half a million active learners. We interviewed 20 participants from the institutions, most of them academics and many in senior management positions.</p>
<p>The pandemic marked the first time that most lecturers were forced to interact with their institutions’ online teaching tools. Previously, most of the participants said, they’d avoid these tools and systems, finding them too time-consuming. They were not mandated to use these tools, neither institution had comprehensive e-learning policies to effectively regulate and enforce the transition to online teaching.</p>
<p>This meant that, when the pandemic started, many had no idea how to use online learning tools.</p>
<p>One interviewee, who works in the South African institution’s Centre of Professional Development and is responsible for training, told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>During the lockdown in March 2020, we got many training requests for Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams was introduced in 2018; we used to train two, three, less than ten people, but came March 2020 … we were overwhelmed with training requests, especially from academics.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The universities’ Information and Communication Technology departments were also inundated with requests for basic training like changing the computer password, backing up files and using programs like Microsoft Teams. These skills should, ideally, have been mastered way before the pandemic.</p>
<h2>Some green shoots</h2>
<p>Some positive trends emerged from our research, too. Lecturers had no choice but to “adapt or die” – they had to learn about the technology needed for teaching online. Not only did formal requests for training rise, but many academics also turned to more digitally savvy colleagues for training and advice. Participants at both universities told us their institutions’ general level of computer and digital skills had improved significantly since the onset of the pandemic.</p>
<p>Those lecturers who already regularly used the universities’ learning management systems and other available digital tools effectively before the pandemic became champions of digital innovation. One interviewee said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We had champions and ‘flowers’ that were flourishing that suddenly came out and helped through training, mentoring and helping other colleagues how to do certain things. </p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/online-learning-platforms-arent-enough-lecturers-need-the-right-technical-skills-199310">Online learning platforms aren't enough -- lecturers need the right technical skills</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We also found that all the research participants from both universities were enthusiastic about the opportunities, benefits and future of e-learning in Africa. They realised how technology could help to increase access to higher education by reaching learners even in remote areas.</p>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>Based on our findings we recommend that education institutions design evaluation and monitoring strategies to continuously audit and assess their teaching staffs’ digital skills. Training and development must be relevant to teaching and learning through technologies for lecturers and students. </p>
<p>Higher education institutions also need comprehensive e-learning policies to regulate and enforce the transition and proper implementation of online teaching and learning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204044/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mpho-Entle Puleng Modise works for the University of South Africa. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geesje van den Berg works at the University of South Africa </span></em></p>Training for academics needs to be timely, specific, relevant and appropriate for the technology being implemented.Mpho-Entle Puleng Modise, Lecturer, University of South AfricaGeesje van den Berg, Commonwealth of Learning Chair in ODL for Teacher Education and Full Professor, Department of Curriculum and Instructional Studies, University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1904832023-01-17T19:19:22Z2023-01-17T19:19:22ZVideo gaming can bolster classroom learning, but not without teacher support<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504997/original/file-20230117-11579-iogog8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C107%2C5536%2C2950&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teachers need to be able to connect games used at school to curricula and students' lives. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Allison Shelley/EDUimages)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/video-gaming-can-bolster-classroom-learning--but-not-without-teacher-support" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>One highlight of my Grade 3 life was dying from dysentery at the hands of a video game. I was ahead on schoolwork, and allowed to use the classroom computer to pioneer a family across America in the game <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/11/oregon-trail-game-history-inventor-don-rawitsch.html">The Oregon Trail</a>. </p>
<p>It was odd that I played this in a Canadian school — rather than exploring something like the <a href="https://www.giantbomb.com/crosscountry-canada/3030-28359/">challenges of long-haul trucking in the game Crosscountry Canada</a>. </p>
<p>But with <a href="https://www.died-of-dysentery.com/stories/memes.html">players still joking about Oregon Trail memes today</a>, it’s clear the game made its mark. </p>
<p>When we look at educational video games, many struggle to make a similar impact. The reason is a mix of challenges for teachers and difficulties in game design.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A vintage hand held video game." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504759/original/file-20230116-22-x32b10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504759/original/file-20230116-22-x32b10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504759/original/file-20230116-22-x32b10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504759/original/file-20230116-22-x32b10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504759/original/file-20230116-22-x32b10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504759/original/file-20230116-22-x32b10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504759/original/file-20230116-22-x32b10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many educational video games struggle to make as strong a mark as games like The Oregon Trail.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(James Case/Flickr)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Educational gaming market</h2>
<p>Educational games are a big industry, pulling in an <a href="https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/product/educational-games-market/">US$11.24 billion market in the United States</a>. </p>
<p>While Canada’s market is a bit smaller (<a href="https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/11/09/the-canadian-video-game-industry-esa-canada-2021-report/">the overall video game market contributes 5.5 billion to our GDP</a>), educational games and companies continue to pop up. Now after a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/05/12/video-game-industry-coronavirus/">pandemic boom in industry growth</a>, we can expect more educational games to appear in classrooms. </p>
<p>But more doesn’t mean better. </p>
<p>While the number of <a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-02-07-is-the-educational-games-industry-falling-into-the-same-trap-it-did-20-years-ago">educational games available is growing</a>, according to a 2019 <a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/research/report/2019-educator-census-inside-the-21st-century-classroom_1.pdf">report by Common Sense Media</a>, “the gap between the edtech products teachers use and what they say is effective is real and cuts across subjects.”</p>
<h2>The change in landscape</h2>
<p>From earliest days, games for learning were typically small endeavours built from passion or interest, like Grade 4 teacher <a href="https://www.thegamer.com/mabel-addis-first-video-games-writer-international-women-day/">Mabel Addis’s 1960s creation of one of the first-ever video games to teach economics to her students</a>.</p>
<p>Early games like The Oregon Trail and Crosscountry Canada were products of the time when designers and technology were exploring what was possible. The newness of games garnered attention in and out of the classroom. However, as the industry grew, educational initiatives struggled to keep up. </p>
<p>Games like <a href="https://www.businessofapps.com/data/fortnite-statistics/#">Fortnite boast player bases above 80 million</a> and possess graphics, gameplay and budgets that no educational game can rival.</p>
<h2>Hands-on experiential learning</h2>
<p>Leaving the classroom can be a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/principal-s-perspective-school-fees-extracurriculars-1.4817179">challenging task for school communities</a>, but video games offer <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/003172170508700205">children hands-on moments for experiential learning</a>. However, games will never have perfect representation and the extent to which they align with curricular goals will vary.</p>
<p>But commercial or educational games can offer immersive, powerful tools for learning. Many parents will be familiar with <a href="https://theconversation.com/minecraft-can-increase-problem-solving-collaboration-and-learning-yes-at-school-113335">Minecraft, which has solidified its place in schools with an education edition of the game</a>.</p>
<p>Or they may be familiar with Assassin’s Creed, which has attempted to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/arts/assassins-creed-origins-education.html">recreate historical moments that put students into a particular time</a> (albeit with some valid critiques <a href="https://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/article/view/157">on the realism of the game, and how representation may limit critical perspectives of dominant ideologies</a>). </p>
<p>Such critiques point to the value of these <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1312283">and other</a> games having <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2016.1206523">a trained facilitator — like a teacher — to guide the player in their learning</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A photo showing minecraft figures." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504758/original/file-20230116-12-l2bp6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504758/original/file-20230116-12-l2bp6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504758/original/file-20230116-12-l2bp6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504758/original/file-20230116-12-l2bp6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504758/original/file-20230116-12-l2bp6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504758/original/file-20230116-12-l2bp6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504758/original/file-20230116-12-l2bp6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Minecraft has solidified a place in some schools with an education edition of the game.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Teachers and gaming</h2>
<p>Without an educator to critically engage students about moments designed in the game, or correct and challenge any inaccuracies, the learning can be misinformed or lost.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/machines-cant-personalize-education-only-people-can-154339">Machines can't 'personalize' education, only people can</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Yet, there is a need to make sure teachers know how to implement the game and ask questions around it. </p>
<p>Despite <a href="https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/11/09/the-canadian-video-game-industry-esa-canada-2021-report/">more and more parents playing games with their kids</a>, school systems are slow to adapt to <a href="https://people.potsdam.edu/betrusak/566/Acr3B.tmp.pdf">the agency-focused learning inspired by games</a>. Teacher education and professional development <a href="https://www.learntechlib.org/p/188115/">needs to adjust.</a></p>
<p>Putting games in the classroom doesn’t require mastery. It requires teachers’ ability to connect the game to curricula and students’ lives. </p>
<h2>Teaching students or killing time?</h2>
<p>When facilitating games, a teacher should be able to discuss the games students play at home, identify where a student is interested and struggling in a game, draw connections to the themes in the story, and recognize how students are asked to play (what you click on, how you move). </p>
<p>All of this can produce powerful moments of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230601994">reflection that can be tied to learning goals</a>. </p>
<p>Good facilitation weaves the lesson and game together for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3402942.3403011">reflection before, during and after play</a>.
But currently, in many cases, games are used like other time killers such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.18261/ISSN1891-943X-2006-03-03">worksheets or drills</a>.</p>
<h2>A needed change in design</h2>
<p>Most educational games are designed to be the teacher rather than working with them, <a href="https://doi.org/10.4018/IJWLTT.2017100101">which is why so many focus on storytelling</a>. </p>
<p>Yet successful and popular games are all about choice. Games like <a href="https://twinfinite.net/2022/06/most-played-games-in-ranked-by-peak-concurrent-players/">Fortnite, Roblox or Minecraft tout some of the largest player bases among kids</a> and offer a lot of agency to make decisions that directly impact their play. </p>
<p>Similar to playing in a sandbox, these games <a href="https://tocaboca.com/magazine/sandbox-games">provide a space for players to determine what to build, where to go, what things to use and which to ignore</a>. They have meaningful choice, and choice is engaging.</p>
<p>But this agency is concerning when your product is supposed to have someone understand “X concept,” and this leads some developers to make the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/18377122.2011.9730348">game as an instructor</a>. </p>
<p>This is why so many educational games <a href="https://www.getbadnews.com/books/english">are reduced to multiple choice stories</a>, <a href="https://www.mathgames.com/play/launch-the-llama.html">worksheet questions with a “funny” reward</a>, or arguably not educational at all. </p>
<h2>Beyond simple instruction</h2>
<p>Educational games suffer because both the game and teacher want to be the instructor.</p>
<p>However, some developers and organizations are trying to improve the world of learning games. Organizations like <a href="https://www.gamesforchange.org/games/">Games for Change</a> have some games in their collection that can go beyond simple models of instruction. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1613940194553597977"}"></div></p>
<p><a href="https://fielddaylab.wisc.edu/">Field Day Lab</a> offers interesting products designed alongside teachers. Montréal-based company <a href="https://ululab.com/">Ululab</a> attempts to <a href="https://cmf-fmc.ca/now-next/articles/edtech/">connect the desires of teachers with the abilities of prominent game designers</a>. </p>
<p>But for gaming to genuinely be part of learning, we need to help teachers effectively integrate the barrage of educational games into their classrooms. </p>
<h2>Serious intervention needed</h2>
<p>Some larger commercial game companies are jumping into this process (while making market inroads with young users). <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23374804/dnd-after-school-curriculum-teachers-students-free-content-adventures-k-12">Dungeons and Dragons recently released teaching resources</a>. </p>
<p>But anecdotally, I know passionate teachers have been doing this on their own. </p>
<p>When done well, games offer powerful moments for students, like my pixelated death in Grade 3. We can understand games as serious tools for grounding knowledge — and serious tools require serious intervention in both design, and in learning how to facilitate them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190483/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott DeJong receives funding from Fonds de recherche du Québec. </span></em></p>Without an educator to critically engage students about learning in a game, the learning can be misinformed or lost.Scott DeJong, PhD Candidate and Research Assistant, Communication Studies, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1811482022-06-13T15:03:25Z2022-06-13T15:03:25ZWhy freemium software has no place in our classrooms<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467310/original/file-20220606-13103-l9xwus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C20%2C6669%2C4154&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Freemium software in education exacerbates the digital divide for students who may be economically disadvantaged compared to their peers.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/why-freemium-software-has-no-place-in-our-classrooms" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Digital teaching and communication tools are increasingly present in kindergarten to Grade 12 classrooms. By April 2020, not long after the onset of the pandemic, Google Classroom <a href="https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/google-doubled-numbers-classroom-quarantine-114500325.html#:%7E:text=Google%20Classroom%2C%20a%20free%20service,That%27s%20boosting%20other%20products.">had doubled its users to more than 100 million</a>.</p>
<p>For educational technology companies, the pandemic <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mayrarodriguezvalladares/2020/08/02/the-covid-19-crisis-is-a-boost-to-educational-technology-companies/?sh=ae96a2ace6d9">accelerated opportunities to grow markets and profits</a>.</p>
<p>Whether for facilitating learning, assessing learning or communicating with parents and guardians, digital tools are increasingly part of many children’s and parents’ school experiences. </p>
<p>In our ever-connected classrooms and societies, one notable element is the use of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2021/11/19/should-you-choose-freemium-for-your-software-startup/?sh=fffd69850b7b">freemium software</a> — software that is free for all users to obtain and use, but only with limited features. For a fee or monthly subscription, users can unlock further features. </p>
<p>Educational settings <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/IJILT-05-2018-0059">should focus on equity, especially when it comes to decisions related to the use of technology</a> for teaching and learning. </p>
<p>In educational settings, software — whether for teaching and learning or parent-teacher communication — should not have <a href="https://thejournal.com/articles/2022/04/21/maker-of-prodigy-math-expands-into-literacy-learning-with-new-prodigy-english-game.aspx">tiered offerings where users who have the financial means to pay are privy to a better version of the software</a> with additional features and tools. </p>
<p>School boards and provincial education ministries should focus on implementing <a href="https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/voices-field/how-does-digital-accessibility-and-universal-design-learning-udl-impact-your-districts">universally accessible tools</a> to eliminate two-tier access for learners and families that is enabled with freemium software. This may include licensing commercial software that has been carefully evaluated and assessed for how it supports student learning. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/investing-in-technologies-for-student-learning-4-principles-school-boards-and-parents-should-consider-173211">Investing in technologies for student learning: 4 principles school boards and parents should consider</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Marketing strategy</h2>
<p>Freemium software is an excellent <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/JBS-09-2016-0096">marketing strategy and economic driver</a>, and it’s become popular for multiple applications. <a href="https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2021/10/24/spotify-free-vs-paid-subscribers-report-2021/">Spotify software is one popular example for everyday music</a> listening.</p>
<p>Some examples of educational software that have freemium versions are <a href="https://techtalent.ca/prodigy-game-to-hire-400/">Prodigy Math</a> and <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/as-education-shifts-online-classdojo-serves-51-million-students-worldwide-announces-profitability-and-new-solo-capitalist-funding-301216471.html">ClassDojo</a>. According to these respective software companies, 20 million students a year use the <a href="https://prodigygame.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409750056596-Prodigy-Math-Membership-Packages-">free version of Prodigy</a>. More than <a href="https://www.classdojo.com/about/#:%7E:text=ClassDojo%20is%20a%20global%20community,%2C%20videos%2C%20messages%20%26%20more">50 million teachers and families</a> use ClassDojo and <a href="https://www.classdojo.com/plus">more than one million use the “plus” (premium) version</a>.</p>
<h2>Equity in classrooms</h2>
<p>Freemium software exacerbates the <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11f0019m/11f0019m2021008-eng.htm">digital divide</a> for students who may be economically disadvantaged compared to their peers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Children are seen at desks working on laptops." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467311/original/file-20220606-18-5wk3om.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467311/original/file-20220606-18-5wk3om.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467311/original/file-20220606-18-5wk3om.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467311/original/file-20220606-18-5wk3om.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467311/original/file-20220606-18-5wk3om.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467311/original/file-20220606-18-5wk3om.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467311/original/file-20220606-18-5wk3om.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The free version of freemium software is not suited to educational settings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In turn, it contributes to what’s known as the <a href="https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-now/2014/04/11/new-digital-tools-new-matthew-effects-what-can-teachers-do-">Matthew Effect</a> — where those who have more acquire better, more beneficial experiences compared to those with less who are left behind. </p>
<p>In the cases where schools choose to use software that has a freemium version, boards should license the software to ensure that all learners have equitable access to the tool.</p>
<h2>Hidden costs</h2>
<p>What’s important to understand is freemium software is not actually <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html">free software</a>, all things considered. With the <a href="https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/ftc-coppa-edtech">data being collected</a>, the provider is gaining valuable data from users. </p>
<p>The software provider gains a direct marketing channel to the parent and child through the application. The developer can now target <a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-11-15-classdojo-goes-beyond-school-to-launch-first-monetization-feature-for-parents">the user with advertising for advanced features</a> that are accessible if they pay a fee. </p>
<p>The U.S.-based non-profit organization Fairplay <a href="https://fairplayforkids.org/pf/prodigy/">has called on schools to say no to using Prodigy</a>, noting that the platform’s “push to sell premium memberships is relentless, and aimed at kids. In just 19 minutes of ‘studying,’ we saw 16 ads for membership and only four math problems.” In February 2021, the organizaton’s Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood and advocacy partners <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/child-protection-nonprofit-alleges-manipulative-upselling-math-game-prodigy-n1258294">sent a letter of complaint to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission about Prodigy</a>. </p>
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<h2>A school fee?</h2>
<p>Parents who are able and willing to pay for premium access may do so without giving it much thought, or assume that the school has selected the tool and there is a cost, likening it to a field trip fee. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/school-fees-undermine-public-educations-commitment-to-equity-120058">School fees undermine public education’s commitment to equity</a>
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<p>In addition to offering different forms of student and family access to tools, interactions enabled by premium features of freemium software could affect classroom relationships in inequitable ways.</p>
<p>For example, premium features of Prodigy Math enable <a href="https://www.prodigygame.com/Memberships/math/">parents to compare their child’s progress with their peers</a>: if children are privy to this information about classmates, this could affect how they engage with other children. In ClassDojo, if parents pay <a href="https://www.classdojo.com/plus/">for the plus version</a>, they are able to <a href="https://classdojo.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4411779117197-How-do-Read-Statuses-and-Urgent-Messages-work-on-ClassDojo-">access “read statuses”</a> — notifications about when their messages to teachers have been read. Teachers have the ability to turn this feature off.</p>
<p>This has the potential to strain the parent-teacher relationship or to create privileged or priority communication access to teachers by parents who have paid if the teacher feels pressured to respond or be accessible. </p>
<h2>Universally accessible tools</h2>
<p><a href="http://metaari.com/whitepapers.html">As spending</a> continues to increase on educational technology, it is important that software used for teaching and learning is <a href="https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/62393">evaluated by educational technology specialists</a> and supported across entire school boards. If freemium software is being used, it should be <a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2022-06-03-edtech-should-be-more-evidence-driven">selected based on evidence</a> and licensed for the users. </p>
<p>Communication platforms need to work well and meet the needs of teachers and instructors while bolstering communication between the school and family without any cost to the parent or guardian. </p>
<p>Increasingly, data security <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-online-school-kids-privacy-data/">and student privacy are concerns</a>. Software that is deployed for teaching and learning in classrooms should be carefully selected using standard practices. </p>
<h2>Supports for digital tools</h2>
<p><a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1016573">Proper supports for digital tools</a> are required in order see benefits from tools. It’s important to realize that simply making technology accessible to students isn’t a guarantee of better learning outcomes: For example, research from the United States shows that the <a href="https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/what-research-says-about-11">extent to which educators support training and immersion with devices in schools</a> matters to students’ measurable learning gains.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/digital-platforms-alone-dont-bridge-youth-divides-121222">Digital platforms alone don't bridge youth divides</a>
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<p>In a time when school boards and schools are called upon to implement decisions that address student <a href="https://theconversation.com/ontario-can-close-students-access-and-opportunity-gaps-with-community-led-projects-184301">inequities and narrow the opportunity and access gaps students and families face</a>, the free tier of freemium software is a step in the wrong direction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181148/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucas Johnson receives funding from Canadian Network for Innovation in Education and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship.</span></em></p>Software that advertises premium features for a fee is ill-suited to school environments, where children should experience universal access.Lucas Johnson, PhD Student, Faculty of Education, Lakehead UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1843122022-06-10T03:21:24Z2022-06-10T03:21:24ZEdtech is treating students like products. Here’s how we can protect children’s digital rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467352/original/file-20220607-12-won02o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C57%2C5499%2C3606&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Schools’ use of educational technologies (edtech) grew exponentially at the height of COVID lockdowns. A recent <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2022/05/25/how-dare-they-peep-my-private-life/childrens-rights-violations-governments">Human Rights Watch (HRW) report</a> has exposed children’s rights violations by providers of edtech endorsed by governments in Australia and overseas. </p>
<p>The lockdowns have ended but edtech remains embedded in education. Children will have to navigate issues of data privacy in their learning and other activities.</p>
<p>So what can Australian governments and schools do to protect students? Both can take steps to ensure children’s digital rights are enabled and protected.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/childrens-privacy-is-at-risk-with-rapid-shifts-to-online-schooling-under-coronavirus-135787">Children's privacy is at risk with rapid shifts to online schooling under coronavirus</a>
</strong>
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<h2>What problems did the report expose?</h2>
<p>HRW reviewed 164 edtech products, including ten of the many apps and websites used in Australian schools. According to its report, New South Wales and Victorian education departments endorsed the use of six of these, including Zoom, Minecraft Education and Microsoft Teams. </p>
<p>The review found that, to varying degrees, these apps and websites harvested children’s personal, location or learning data to monitor, track or profile students. These practices ultimately violated children’s digital rights to privacy. </p>
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<p>The use and commodification of data associated with our online activities may not seem particularly alarming. It is, after all, a transaction we routinely make. Yet, for children, rights to privacy and to <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/treaty-bodies/crc/general-comments">protection from corporations</a> that seek to maximise profits rather than act in the best interests of the child are fundamental. </p>
<p>Edtech commodifies children when their personal data is made available to the advertising technology industry, as the HRW report shows. When a child uses an app or website for learning, the resulting data can be collected, monitored, tracked, profiled and traded in data economies. These practices are intentionally opaque and highly profitable for technology corporations. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-proposed-privacy-code-promises-tough-rules-and-10-million-penalties-for-tech-giants-170711">A new proposed privacy code promises tough rules and $10 million penalties for tech giants</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A further complication is that schools choose digital technologies on behalf of children and their families. Students often do not have a genuine choice when required to use apps and websites endorsed by schools or education departments. This means children do not have the agency to make informed decisions about their online learning.</p>
<h2>What can the government do?</h2>
<p>Australian law can be improved to better protect children’s privacy. </p>
<p>In 2019, the then Coalition government announced a <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/integrity/consultations/review-privacy-act-1988">review</a> of the Australian Privacy Act 1988, with submissions closing in January this year. The act predates the development of the world wide web. It needs to be strengthened to account for personal data and data-driven economies. </p>
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<p>The new Labor government should commit to continuing this important work. It should also develop a legislated Australian Children’s Code setting out principles governing the management of children’s data. The code to protect their digital rights must be enforceable and resourced. </p>
<p>Countries such as the UK (<a href="https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/the-children-s-code-what-is-it/">Age-Appropriate Design Code in the UK</a>) and Ireland (<a href="https://www.dataprotection.ie/en/dpc-guidance/fundamentals-child-oriented-approach-data-processing">Fundamentals for a Child-Oriented Approach to Data Processing</a>) have already adopted such codes. These require online services to follow a set of standards when using children’s data.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/apps-that-help-parents-protect-kids-from-cybercrime-may-be-unsafe-too-156583">Apps that help parents protect kids from cybercrime may be unsafe too</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What can the education system do?</h2>
<p>Without legislation to protect children’s privacy, schools and education departments can still enable children’s rights to privacy. They can do so through considered selection of educational technologies and through everyday school practices and curriculum.</p>
<p>Education departments can draw on international standards, such as the UK Children’s Code, to:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>inform technology procurement practices</p></li>
<li><p>better consider privacy risks when assessing educational technologies</p></li>
<li><p>develop policy and guidelines to support schools’ decision-making. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>There will always be a need for schools and teachers to make critical decisions about which apps and websites they bring into the classroom. This is not to promote a “use it” or “do not use it” position. Rather, informed guidelines would support school assessments of risks and help develop practices that uphold children’s digital rights.</p>
<p>Assessing the risks is difficult due to the intentionally opaque designs of digital technologies. The development of assessments, policy and guidelines at a department level is necessary to support teachers to integrate edtech in ways that protect children’s privacy. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, there are some practical steps teachers and families can take. Examples include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>consider the purpose and advantage of using the chosen educational technology</p></li>
<li><p>access privacy reviews through organisations like <a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/">Common Sense Media</a></p></li>
<li><p>review the privacy policy of each app or website, paying attention to what data it collects, for what purpose, and who the data are shared with (although these aren’t always clear or accurate, as the HRW report shows)</p></li>
<li><p>review privacy settings on apps</p></li>
<li><p>check websites using a privacy tool like <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/09/25/privacy-check-blacklight/">Blacklight</a>, used in the HRW review.</p></li>
</ul>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-an-age-of-elsa-spider-man-romantic-mash-ups-how-to-monitor-youtubes-childrens-content-123088">In an age of Elsa/Spider-Man romantic mash ups, how to monitor YouTube's children's content?</a>
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</em>
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<hr>
<p>Education can also empower children to make informed choices about their data and privacy.</p>
<p>Current Australian school programs focus on digital safety and well-being. They aim to help students understand interpersonal online risks and harms. Examples of this approach are the newly revised Australian Curriculum’s <a href="https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/teacher-resources/understand-this-general-capability/digital-literacy">digital literacy capability</a> and the new Labor government’s promise of an <a href="https://www.alp.org.au/policies/safe-kids-are-esmart-kids">eSmart Digital Licence+</a>. </p>
<p>While understanding interpersonal online risks and harms are crucial for children’s well-being, this focus overlooks risks associated with the commodification of personal data. To enable children’s digital rights they must be given opportunities to understand and critically engage with digital economies, datafication and the associated impacts on their lives.</p>
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<h2>We’re still catching up to edtech</h2>
<p>The HRW report has shone a spotlight on children’s right to digital and data privacy in schools. However, its findings may be just the tip of the iceberg in a largely unregulated industry. The report covered only a small proportion of the educational technologies being used in Australian schools. </p>
<p>Children have the right to engage with digital environments for learning and play, and to develop their autonomy and identity, without compromising their privacy. </p>
<p>The Australian government has the power to create laws to protect children’s digital rights. Together with education that empowers teachers and children to make informed decisions, these rights can be much better protected.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184312/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tiffani Apps receives funding from Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karley Beckman receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah K. Howard receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>The fast-growing educational technology industry is poorly regulated and profits from user data. Australian law, education departments and schools can all do more to improve safeguards for children.Tiffani Apps, Senior Lecturer in Digital Technologies for Learning, University of WollongongKarley Beckman, Senior Lecturer in Digital Technologies for Learning, University of WollongongSarah K. Howard, Associate Professor, Digital Technologies in Education, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1732112022-01-03T15:58:38Z2022-01-03T15:58:38ZInvesting in technologies for student learning: 4 principles school boards and parents should consider<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436778/original/file-20211209-172173-1qn0ho5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C312%2C4745%2C3061&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The pandemic fuelled the market for educational technology providers to market hardware and software to Canadian school boards.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Technology, in its many forms, has been present in the classroom <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2042753015579978">since the introduction of the blackboard</a>, followed decades later by the overhead projector. Now, in our digital age, classroom environments can always be connected to the internet, and educators need to make choices about both hardware and software.</p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for students to be digitally fluent and have adequate access to devices and broadband internet at school and at home.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tax-pandemic-profiteering-by-tech-companies-to-help-fund-public-education-155705">The pandemic certainly fuelled the market for educational technology</a> providers to market their hardware and software to Canadian school boards. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="An adult shows a child a device." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438578/original/file-20211220-23072-f8ukgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438578/original/file-20211220-23072-f8ukgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438578/original/file-20211220-23072-f8ukgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438578/original/file-20211220-23072-f8ukgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438578/original/file-20211220-23072-f8ukgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438578/original/file-20211220-23072-f8ukgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438578/original/file-20211220-23072-f8ukgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How school boards allocate funds for technology matters to students’ educations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(UKBlack Tech)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Schools make <a href="https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-schools-spend-big-on-tech-that-doesnt-help">considerable financial investments each year in technology</a>. Each contract has its own terms and conditions which must be accepted for teachers and students to use the devices or services. My research focuses on how educational technologies make their way into classrooms, and the decision-making processes school boards use to select and implement technologies. </p>
<p>For the sake of quality education, student safety and well-being it’s important that school administrators and parents or guardians are in dialogue about basic frameworks and guiding principles related to <a href="https://edtechevidence.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/1.-FINAL-EdTechGenomeProject-FinalReport_July2021-2.pdf">selecting technology</a> for schools. Many of these principles about technology and learning are also applicable for parents who may be considering purchasing technology at home for student learning.</p>
<p>Here, I propose four considerations when selecting technology to support teaching and learning.</p>
<h2>1. Why technology?</h2>
<p>Consumers experience relentless pressures to purchase. Commercial and marketing events like <a href="https://theconversation.com/dark-side-of-black-friday-the-major-drawbacks-with-this-shopping-bonanza-171713">Black Friday</a> <a href="https://www.techradar.com/cyber-monday/cyber-monday-deals-2021">and Cyber Monday</a> contribute to creating an appeal for new hardware. Thoroughly considering why technology should be chosen and how it integrates with learning can help decision-makers choose which technology is most valuable or crucial to teaching and learning. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.edutopia.org/article/powerful-model-understanding-good-tech-integration">One model</a> that can help these decisions is developed by education and technology researcher Ruben Puentedura. His <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26899092">SAMR Model</a> stands for substitution (Does the technology act as a direct substitute?); augmentation (Does it augment existing learning?); modification (Does it modify existing learning?) or redefinition (Does it redefine what happens in classrooms?).</p>
<p>For example, collaboratively working on a cloud-based document in groups that are in different locations could not be done without technology. This example shows modification or redefinition as it shifts how students collaborate. </p>
<p>Identifying if the technology is critical to the learning and how exactly it fits is a good first step in determining if there is a need for it. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A teacher is seen in a classroom on a videoconference." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438573/original/file-20211220-25-jlgeok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438573/original/file-20211220-25-jlgeok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438573/original/file-20211220-25-jlgeok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438573/original/file-20211220-25-jlgeok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438573/original/file-20211220-25-jlgeok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438573/original/file-20211220-25-jlgeok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438573/original/file-20211220-25-jlgeok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s important to ask how a technology augments, changes or redefines forms of learning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Alliance for Excellent Education/Flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Compatibility</h2>
<p>A vast variety of hardware devices run different operating systems. There are also many different software options. These factors, together, increase the potential of incompatibility. </p>
<p>When selecting hardware, one crucial decision is choosing between a hand-held or portable device, such as a tablet or a laptop computer. It’s important to note that tablets and laptops use different operating systems. Not all pieces of software will work equally well on all devices.</p>
<p>In efforts to overcome this potential incompatibly, many tools are now browser based. For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2020.103985">web and video math tutorial systems</a> can be accessed via a web browser rather than downloaded and installed on a device, reducing their dependence on certain types of hardware. This can increase their compatibility but there may still be limitations on some platforms. </p>
<p>Knowing which software and tools educators plan to use use, and investigating their requirements, can help when choosing devices. </p>
<p>Another compatibility factor to consider is the integration with the school’s existing technology infrastructure. For example, a Chromebook running Chrome OS is heavily reliant on the Google Apps ecosystem. It wouldn’t be well-suited to an environment that is already using Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams for the collaborative environment.</p>
<p>Likewise, a school board which is using the <a href="https://edu.google.com/products/workspace-for-education/">Google Workspace for Education</a> (formerly G Suite for Education) will benefit from devices and software designed to work in the Google ecosystem, which include options like signing in with your Google account. </p>
<h2>3. Access</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A child's hands on a keyboard." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438579/original/file-20211220-48178-7784ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438579/original/file-20211220-48178-7784ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438579/original/file-20211220-48178-7784ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438579/original/file-20211220-48178-7784ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438579/original/file-20211220-48178-7784ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438579/original/file-20211220-48178-7784ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438579/original/file-20211220-48178-7784ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the classroom, logging in can be time consuming.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Nenad Stojkovic/Flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are many factors to consider with access. A key one is how people can log in and connect to services and networks whether at school or at home: Will the learners have to create accounts to access a tool that is being used? Can they access the tool using their existing school credentials? </p>
<p>In the classroom, logging in to a tool can be time consuming, especially for younger students. At home, if the student doesn’t know their username or password for a particular tool, this becomes a barrier. </p>
<p>Tools that don’t require users to log in are potentially easier to use and more accessible. But they are much less useful for teachers for tracking individual progress and assessment. </p>
<p>Tools that require credentials to be accessed should ideally use a single set of credentials or <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/single-sign-on">single sign on</a> process. </p>
<p>Not having access to a physical device and broadband internet are also potential impediments. Some school boards have tried to equalize access by <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/11/08/new-tech-attempts-to-level-playing-field-for-student-success-in-sd8.html">providing devices to all students</a>. This can help in the schools but it doesn’t overcome the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/covid-19-highlights-urban-rural-digital-divide-1.5734167">inequitable access to broadband internet across Canadian communities</a>.</p>
<h2>4. Data privacy and security</h2>
<p>Mitigating all potential vulnerabilities and data breaches should certainly be a leading factor for school board administrators. As with all things digital, there are <a href="https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v24i11.10094">concerns over privacy</a>, ownership of and access to data. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/childrens-privacy-is-at-risk-with-rapid-shifts-to-online-schooling-under-coronavirus-135787">Children's privacy is at risk with rapid shifts to online schooling under coronavirus</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Studies suggest that <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/01/28/not-reading-the-small-print-is-privacy-policy-fail/4565274002/">very few of us read the terms and conditions</a> that come with new software or platforms. However, when it comes to consenting for minors and entering minors into relationships with software companies, a more critical eye is required. </p>
<p>It is important to be aware of <a href="https://theconversation.com/classdojo-raises-concerns-about-childrens-rights-111033">who has access to the information learners create</a> and to have a clear understanding of who the students can communicate with and how. Always check if there are any moderation or filtering settings available.
Students shouldn’t be using platforms for education that allow uninhibited communication with other users outside of their classes or schools. </p>
<p>While there are many factors that can influence how educators decide what technology to implement for students, these four key considerations are a place to begin.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173211/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucas Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Technology has infiltrated education, but how do we choose what is best for teaching and learning?Lucas Johnson, PhD Student, Faculty of Education, Lakehead UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1727192022-01-02T12:58:01Z2022-01-02T12:58:01ZAI-powered chatbots, designed ethically, can support high-quality university teaching<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437000/original/file-20211210-142574-10pt675.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=85%2C34%2C5649%2C3336&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chatbots could take over the majority of low-level guidance tasks fielded by staff in teaching and learning centres to free them up for where in-person support is most needed. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>While COVID-19 forced an <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottpulsipher/2020/07/08/covid-19-accelerates-3-disruptive-trends-facing-higher-education/#367ae0f038df">emergency transformation</a> to online learning at universities, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-021-00249-1">learning how to teach efficiently and effectively online using different platforms and tools</a> is a positive addition to education and is here to stay.</p>
<p>To <a href="https://er.educause.edu/articles/2021/5/beyond-covid-19-whats-next-for-online-teaching-and-learning-in-higher-education">sustain this beneficial evolution</a> and ensure quality education, universities should focus on supporting faculty to embrace and lead the change. </p>
<p>The ethical and strategic use of artificial intelligence at centres of teaching and learning, which support faculty in troubleshooting and innovating their online teaching practices, can help with this task. Centres of teaching and learning <a href="https://www.docdroid.com/L0khasC/whitepaper-disruption-in-and-by-centres-for-teaching-and-learning-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-leading-the-future-of-higher-ed-21-08-2020-pdf#page=19">are responsible for</a> educational technology support, teaching and learning support, as well as instructional design.</p>
<h2>Expansive move to online education</h2>
<p>Research conducted at 19 centres of teaching and learning and their equivalents from Canada, the United States, Lebanon, the United Kingdom and France published in August 2020 showed that <a href="https://www.docdroid.com/L0khasC/whitepaper-disruption-in-and-by-centres-for-teaching-and-learning-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-leading-the-future-of-higher-ed-21-08-2020-pdf#page=16">staff in these centres</a> deployed all available resources to support the rapid switch to online education. </p>
<p>Staff had been working 10- to 14-hour workdays during the first phase of the pandemic to meet the increase in faculty and staff needs. These centres also reported difficulty recruiting and training qualified candidates. </p>
<p>Used strategically, chatbots could take over repetitive low-level guidance tasks that teaching and learning centres field and help avoid overload. A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2021.100023">chatbot</a>, also called a conversational or virtual agent, is a software or computer system designed to communicate with humans using <a href="https://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/your-guide-to-natural-language-processing-nlp">natural language processing</a>.</p>
<p>This communication can be via text messages or voice commands.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436996/original/file-20211210-101726-4zeek6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436996/original/file-20211210-101726-4zeek6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436996/original/file-20211210-101726-4zeek6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436996/original/file-20211210-101726-4zeek6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436996/original/file-20211210-101726-4zeek6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436996/original/file-20211210-101726-4zeek6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436996/original/file-20211210-101726-4zeek6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Centres for teaching and learning need to be equipped to support faculty with their teaching.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why a chatbot?</h2>
<p>Chatbots offer a viable, win-win solution to teaching and learning centres and to faculty. <a href="https://venturebeat.com/2016/08/26/3-stats-that-show-chatbots-are-here-to-stay/">They are available 24/7</a>, can respond to thousands of simultaneous requests and provide <a href="https://research.aimultiple.com/chatbot-benefits/">instant and robust service</a> support when needed. </p>
<p>Using chatbots could free teams for complex inquiries that require human interventions, such as transforming teaching approaches and collaborating to innovate solutions to respond to problems like improving equity and access in online teaching. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/online-learning-during-covid-19-8-ways-universities-can-improve-equity-and-access-145286">Online learning during COVID-19: 8 ways universities can improve equity and access</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://hbr.org/2018/07/collaborative-intelligence-humans-and-ai-are-joining-forces">A collaboration between the centres’ experts and technology</a> could provide better services and support for faculty to improve the learning experiences they create for students. Chatbots can guide faculty towards appropriate and effective resources and professional development activities, such as <a href="https://www.concordia.ca/ctl/decolonization.html">how-to articles</a>, tutorials and upcoming workshops. These would be tailored to suit faculties’ individual needs, their varied digital skills levels and backgrounds in designing hybrid learning experiences.</p>
<p>Chatbot systems <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2021.100033">are already used in educational institutions</a> for teaching and learning, to deliver administrative tasks, to advise students and assist them in research. </p>
<h2>How would it work?</h2>
<p>Two options are possible when it comes to chatbots’ AI conversational ability:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><a href="https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2021/05/aiml-a-language-for-chatbots/">Artificial Intelligence Markup Language</a> methodology: Programmers give the AI a library of questions/answers and keyword associations through a database. From there, the chatbot is able to give appropriate answers in a strictly defined frame.</p></li>
<li><p>The <a href="https://www.ultimate.ai/blog/ai-automation/how-nlp-text-based-chatbots-work">Natural Language Processing</a> approach: This allows for more flexibility. Once programmers build an initial dataset, the AI-powered tool will then learn from ongoing exchanges to find the best combination of answers to recurring questions asked by faculty members. The AI will then be able to identify keywords in a sentence and understand the context of a question. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>That programmers would need to add data from the conversation to an ongoing dataset building throughout time is expected. When asked a question, the chatbot will respond based on its current knowledge database. If the conversation introduces a concept that it isn’t programmed to understand, the chatbot can state it doesn’t understand the question — or pass the communication to a human operator.</p>
<p>Either way, the chatbot will also learn from this interaction as well as future interactions. Thus, the chatbot will gradually grow in scope and gain relevance.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Diagram shows a figure sending a message through a natural language processing system; the chatbot launches a query and the query either goes to a machine learning system or an external data source like a person to answer the question or a system to log the query." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434705/original/file-20211130-25-gqcmgv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434705/original/file-20211130-25-gqcmgv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434705/original/file-20211130-25-gqcmgv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434705/original/file-20211130-25-gqcmgv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434705/original/file-20211130-25-gqcmgv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434705/original/file-20211130-25-gqcmgv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434705/original/file-20211130-25-gqcmgv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chatbot implementation scenario for teaching and learning centres to support faculty.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Nadia Naffi)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For chatbots’ <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2018.0057">reliability</a> and trustworthiness to increase, it should be effective in helping these centres supporting their faculty. <a href="https://www.aivo.co/blog/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-chatbots">Implementing and fine tuning</a> chatbots so they are ready for use is important, even if it requires an investment of time and resources.</p>
<h2>Ethical framework for AI in education</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.buckingham.ac.uk/research-the-institute-for-ethical-ai-in-education/">Institute for Ethical AI in Education</a>, based at the University of Buckingham in the United Kingdom, and funded by McGraw Hill, Microsoft Corporation, Nord Anglia Education and Pearson PLC, released <a href="https://www.buckingham.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/The-Institute-for-Ethical-AI-in-Education-The-Ethical-Framework-for-AI-in-Education.pdf">The Ethical Framework for AI in Education</a> in 2020. The framework argues AI systems should increase the capacity of organizations and the autonomy of learners while respecting human relationships and ensuring human control.</p>
<p>Chatbots in university settings should be <a href="https://www.ibm.com/blogs/watson/2017/10/the-code-of-ethics-for-ai-and-chatbots-that-every-brand-should-follow">ethical by design</a>, meaning that they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86790-4_37">should be designed to be sensitive to values like security, safety and accountability and transparency</a>. If used in centres of teaching and learning, users should be protected against all forms of harm or abuse. They also need to feel treated fairly and to always be provided the option to reach a human. Faculty members must know they are exchanging with an AI. </p>
<p>Chatbots <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1781-2_80">can and should be accessible</a>. Tolerating user errors and input variation, being designed for diverse abilities and allowing <a href="http://ibii-us.org/Journals/JMSBI/V4N1/Publish/V4N1_3.pdf">multilingual texting communication</a> are examples of facilitating accessibility.</p>
<h2>Do no harm: privacy</h2>
<p>Chatbots should be designed to “<a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373434">do no harm</a>,” as per the UNESCO’s recent recommendations on <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373434">the ethics of artificial intelligence</a>. When talking about non-maleficence, privacy should be addressed. </p>
<p>AI-powered tools come with data recording issues. Strong barriers in data collection and storage are needed. Following the European approach to <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection_en">data protection</a>, centres should minimize data collection. Only required information should be stored, such as specific parts of conversations, but not the interlocutors’ identity. </p>
<p>The transparency-based approach allows for users to agree on which personal data can be shared or not with the centres. This would help keep trust and usability of the tool high. In case of malfunction, faculty members would provide feedback on the problem, and centres would fix it.</p>
<p>Centres should consider anonymization of users, strong encryption of all data stored, and in-house storage when possible or by a trusted contracted third party following similar data privacy rules. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person holding a phone showing a chat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437002/original/file-20211210-188518-17d58dr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437002/original/file-20211210-188518-17d58dr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437002/original/file-20211210-188518-17d58dr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437002/original/file-20211210-188518-17d58dr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437002/original/file-20211210-188518-17d58dr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437002/original/file-20211210-188518-17d58dr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437002/original/file-20211210-188518-17d58dr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Data collection should be minimized to protect user privacy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<h2>Addressing bias, environmental impact</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.08.002">possible bias</a> in the initial database needs to be addressed. Whether it relates to gender, ethnicity, language or other variables, the initial dataset needs to be cleaned and carefully analyzed prior to being used to train the AI, whether AI markup language or NLP methods are deployed. If the latter is applied, ongoing monitoring should be considered.</p>
<p>A green data storage solution needs to be addressed to reduce the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-020-0219-9">CO2 cost of activity</a> on the environment. For example, universities might investigate if water cooling systems could be used in server rooms instead of air conditioning.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://cdn-contenu.quebec.ca/cdn-contenu/adm/min/education/publications-adm/rapport-reflexion-consultation/Rapport-universite-quebecoise-futur.pdf?1613746721">university of the future</a> as anticipated by many scholars and policy makers has already started. Technology, if used ethically and strategically, can support faculty in their mission to prepare their students for the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIpJr6TXbZ8">needs of our society and the future of work</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172719/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nadia Naffi receives funding from the National Bank to support the work of her Chair in Educational Leadership. The Chair focuses on educational technology and lifelong learning in the era of digital transformation and artificial intelligence. This work has received additional funding from Laval University's Faculty of Education.
Naffi is affiliated with the Centre de recherche et d'intervention sur l'éducation et la vie au travail (CRIEVAT), the Observatoire international sur les impacts sociétaux de l'IA et du numérique (OBVIA), the Centre de recherche et d'intervention sur la réussite scolaire (CRIRES), the Institute Intelligence and Data (IID), the Groupe de recherche interuniversitaire sur l'intégration pédagogique des technologies de l'information et de la communication (GRIIPTIC), and le Centre de recherche interuniversitaire sur la formation et la profession enseignante (CRIFPE-ULaval). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ann-Louise Davidson receives funding from SSHRC and FRQSC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Auxane Boch, Bruno Kesangana Nandaba, and Mehdi Rougui do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Chatbots can be part of a broader approach universities’ teaching and learning centres can take to support faculty in innovating teaching practices.Nadia Naffi, Assistant Professor, Educational Technology, Chair in Educational Leadership in the Innovative Pedagogical Practices in Digital Contexts, Université LavalAnn-Louise Davidson, Concordia University Research Chair, Maker culture; Associate Professor, Educational Technology, Concordia UniversityAuxane Boch, Research Associate and Doctoral Candidate, Technical University of MunichBruno Kesangana Nandaba, PhD Student and Research Assistant, Université LavalMehdi Rougui, Research Assistant, Université LavalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1615712021-08-25T16:22:10Z2021-08-25T16:22:10ZWearable tech for your ears: ‘Hearables’ can teach you a language or music with the help of AI<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414380/original/file-20210803-13-1yb8n4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C24%2C5461%2C3902&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hearables are wearable listening devices that can interact with the wearer and the environment.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hearables are wireless smart micro-computers with artificial intelligence that incorporate both speakers and microphones. They fit in the ears and can connect to the internet and to other devices, and are designed to be worn daily. Some technology companies are now marketing these as “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKtRl4-Gz0s">the future of hearing enhancement</a>,” and focusing on their capacities to disrupt existing hearing aid markets.</p>
<p>But hearables aren’t <a href="https://www.clearliving.com/hearing/technology/hearables/">hearing aids, ear plugs</a>, headphones or headsets, although they could acquire the benefits of these devices. This means that one could rely on hearables as a <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/04/23/306171641/psst-wearable-devices-could-make-big-tech-leaps-into-your-ear">kind of always-worn personal assistant nested in the ear</a>, whether used for whispering scheduling reminders, playing music, amplifying sound or talking with friends.</p>
<p>But with AI, the hearable can also be used to determine the physiological condition of the user, along with their present knowledge or skill level in any content they’re accessing: for instance, when learning a new language.</p>
<p>As an expert in educational technology, I believe hearables have potential for education. <a href="https://oeb.global/programme/speakers/oeb-21/donald-clark">Educational technology entrepreneurs</a> are now discussing how this new reliance on aural technologies can result in greater incorporation of voice into learning, <a href="http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2019/01/listen-up-voice-is-here-online-learning.html">a shift from relying primarily on texts for transferring knowledge</a>.</p>
<h2>Many uses</h2>
<p>To accompany traditional forms of classroom education or online education, hearables can support the delivery of lectures, educational podcasts, notifications and reminders through a wide variety of applications while supporting interactivity. </p>
<p>With hearables, instant replay and recording of words are also possible, so students could check their understanding of a lesson. Intelligent hearables could even determine the context and choose the right time and place to deliver the best content. </p>
<p>Another important feature for education is the ability to <a href="https://www.nickhunn.com/hearables-a-lust-for-translation/">translate between languages</a>. </p>
<p>In music education and language teaching, hearables are poised to play a significant role as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444807004338">listening is at the centre of both music and language comprehension</a>. Music and language students could access relevant content from anywhere and practise their lessons. In addition, the biometric capabilities of the devices allow for measuring health and fitness variables, and so can be useful in health education. </p>
<p>Learners could use hearables almost anywhere with internet connectivity to communicate with teachers and other students. For example, while commuting, students could collaborate on projects and access content with text-to-speech technologies and talk directly with their teacher for advice.</p>
<p>Beyond using hearables in formal and informal educational and learning settings, these devices can also be well-integrated into the normal life and activities and used for more than learning — for instance, using voice commands to control home devices.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412752/original/file-20210722-27-amyn3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A close-up of a person's ear including a listening device" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412752/original/file-20210722-27-amyn3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412752/original/file-20210722-27-amyn3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412752/original/file-20210722-27-amyn3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412752/original/file-20210722-27-amyn3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412752/original/file-20210722-27-amyn3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412752/original/file-20210722-27-amyn3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412752/original/file-20210722-27-amyn3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Smart technology can be applied in classroom settings to enrich the learning experience.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hearables.jpg">(Wikimedia Commons)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<h2>Professional training, independent learning</h2>
<p>Hearables could be used by workers in manufacturing facilities or other professional settings. They could empower users to search for and access instructions while they are hands-on with their tools, without the distraction of a screen. </p>
<p>Outside formal education or the workplace, hearables can also help learners take control of their own learning. A rise in popularity of <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/306174">educational lectures as podcasts</a> may have helped open the door to relying on audio in new ways and using different kinds of audio devices.</p>
<p>Language learning for native speakers could also be improved with hearables, as these devices could be used for improving skills of public speaking, presenting, interviewing or working in teams. With AI, hearables are also well-placed to support adaptive personal learning tailored to individual learner’s personal characteristics and situation. Hearables could become one of the principal ways learners of any age interact in learning. </p>
<h2>Challenges, limitations</h2>
<p>There are, however, significant challenges in using hearable devices. The most important to date are technical limitations. The need to reduce power usage and battery size, increase battery life and for more reliable connectivity, <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/audiovideo/hearables-will-monitor-your-brain-and-body-to-augment-your-life">remain significant obstacles to be addressed by manufacturers</a>.</p>
<p>Battery longevity and high bandwidth connections are essential to support natural language communications, particularly in language translation. In the immediate future, this may only be available in larger cities <a href="https://www.whistleout.ca/CellPhones/Guides/5g-availability">where 5G capability is now being set up</a>. This fifth generation of wireless technology allows for a major reduction in energy consumption, which is needed to support extended battery life and high-speed internet. Fortunately, it is now incorporated in the latest operating systems and could soon become ubiquitous.</p>
<p>There are also major concerns related to social acceptability, in addition to privacy, when it comes to people talking out loud in a public space or office. </p>
<p>The comfort of these new lightweight devices could help to destigmatize their use, related to perceptions of hearing aids. Some hearable companies <a href="https://www.audicus.com/the-most-stylish-hearing-aids">are focusing on stylishness</a> while others promote them as “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsBRKr1jQG8">wearable tech for your ears</a>.”</p>
<p>Perhaps hearables could be the earrings of the future?</p>
<h2>Rise of ubiquitous devices?</h2>
<p>Smart mobile devices are now ubiquitous among students. This cannot be said for hearable devices yet, and it could take some time before they achieve a similar level of ubiquity, if ever. </p>
<p>On the other hand, lessons designed for hearable device use can be easily accessed by students on their mobile devices or other computers.</p>
<p>Hearables will soon be here to stay both in wider society and the educational community. As <a href="https://businessofhome.com/articles/this-trend-forecaster-is-predicting-the-next-wave-of-retail">trend forecaster and marketer</a> Piers Fawkes has commented: “<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/04/23/306171641/psst-wearable-devices-could-make-big-tech-leaps-into-your-ear">Maybe instead of people staring at their screens, they are going to be staring off into the distance. What’s it called? The thousand-yard stare</a>.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161571/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rory McGreal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hearing technologies combined with artificial intelligence can be used to enrich the learning environment.Rory McGreal, Professor and UNESCO/ICDE Chair in Open Educational Resources, Athabasca UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1611452021-06-06T12:15:52Z2021-06-06T12:15:52ZEnd of topsy-turvy school year: 5 education issues exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic<p>Concern for kids’ pandemic well-being prevails as the school year winds down for the second year in a row.</p>
<p>In Ontario, after parents spent the end of May wondering <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/covid-19-ontario-may-27-2021-update-1.6042352">if and when children could be sent to in-person learning</a>, they finally heard <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-lecce-school-announcement-1.6049729">schools won’t re-open this school year</a>. </p>
<p>After announcing home learning would continue to the end of the year, Nova Scotia <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7907374/ns-covid-update-may-31-2021/">reversed direction</a>, so as of June 3, all students found themselves back in school. </p>
<p>These are the latest signs of how, over the past 15 pandemic months, Canada’s kindergarten to Grade 12 education system has been turned upside down.</p>
<p>School disruptions have exposed the fragility of the modern, centralized, bureaucratic education state, which I analyzed in my 2020 book, <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/state-of-the-system--the-products-9780228000846.php"><em>The State of the System</em></a>.</p>
<p>Parents, learning experts and pediatricians report that “<a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-the-kids-are-not-all-right-educators-worry-about-absences-as-covid-19/">the kids are not all right</a>.” There are real concerns about the “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/literacy-young-learners-lag-1.6014533">snowball effect</a>” of losses in literacy, skill development and the preparation of graduating students.</p>
<p>The pandemic education shock has raised five critical issues that demonstrate how student achievement and social well-being are far from mutually exclusive. </p>
<h2>1. Myth of “21st century” learning</h2>
<p>The heavily promoted <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/publications/21st-century-readers-a83d84cb-en.htm">and much-anticipated age</a> of “<a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/memos/feb2014/WhatWeHeard.pdf">21st century learning</a>,” characterized by curricula touting broad, <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811042409">holistic</a> learning and a emphasis on
technological skills rang hollow when students and teachers were struggling to master technology for continuous learning.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-are-on-the-front-lines-with-students-in-the-coronavirus-pandemic-149896">Teachers are on the front lines with students in the coronavirus pandemic</a>
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<p>Thrust into the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, what emerged was emergency triage learning <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/july-2020/the-educational-experience-has-been-substandard-for-students-during-covid-19">slapped together on the fly</a>.</p>
<p>The educational technology giants, exemplified by Microsoft, Pearson International and Google, achieved dominance through the spread of their educational technology. Some scholars, teachers and parents are <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674089044&amp;content=reviews">critically scrutinizing</a> their <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-distance-learning-education-covid-1.5547062">incursion into education</a>.</p>
<p>Sitting around their kitchen tables helping their children with home learning has also opened the eyes of thousands of parents to the everyday realities of technology-driven 21st-century learning, and laid bare student skill deficits in mathematics and literacy.</p>
<h2>2. Student learning loss</h2>
<p>Since September of 2020, the full extent of the “<a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/february-2021/how-will-the-education-system-help-students-overcome-covid-learning-loss/">learning slide</a>” affecting all students, and particularly the most disadvantaged, became more visible.</p>
<p>Much like earlier studies generated in the <a href="https://osf.io/xnh9c/">Netherlands</a>, <a href="https://blog.nomoremarking.com/baseline-secondary-writing-have-year-7-pupils-gone-backwards-5497ac10b894">United Kingdom</a> and the <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/lost-learning-lost-students-covid-slide-not-as-steep-as-predicted-nwea-study-finds-but-1-in-4-kids-was-missing-from-fall-exams/">United States</a>, the first wave of Canadian <a href="https://troymedia.com/education/online-learners-falling-behind-in-their-reading-skills/">research reports</a> and <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-631-x/11-631-x2020003-eng.htm">surveys</a> testify to the combined academic and psycho-social impacts on children and families.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/strong-relationships-help-kids-catch-up-after-6-months-of-covid-19-school-closures-145085">Strong relationships help kids catch up after 6 months of COVID-19 school closures</a>
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<p>A more recent <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/teacher-questionnaire-pandemic-yearend-1.6025149">May 2021 CBC investigation</a>, based on responses from nearly 9,500 teachers in eight provinces, revealed that three out of four respondents were behind schedule with their curriculum, and more than half reported students were not meeting the expected learning outcomes.</p>
<p>The Canadian public has been left in the dark about the impact of pandemic learning loss, particularly on the development of Canada’s youngest learners. One of the few Canadian literacy impact studies, conducted by <a href="https://thegatewayonline.ca/2021/02/u-of-a-professor-finds-covid-19-is-impairing-young-readers-learning-proficiency/">University of Alberta education researcher George Georgiou</a> is alarming. He found that readers in grades 1 to 3 were lagging six to eight months behind. </p>
<h2>3. Student absenteeism and disengagement</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/education-pandemic-missing-students-1.5971911">Both teachers</a> and educational experts have sounded alarm bells about students disengaging from remote schooling.</p>
<p><em>The Globe and Mail</em> reports that about 360 students in the <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-the-kids-are-not-all-right-educators-worry-about-absences-as-covid-19">Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board have been “persistently absent,”</a> and missed 16 or more days — the benchmark of chronic absenteeism. Record numbers of students are missing attendance checks or not reporting in at all.</p>
<p>Research in the U.S. suggests there is a significant cohort of students worried about <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/high-school-students-face-a-new-reality-due-to-coronavirus.html">parents or guardians having enough money to pay the bills and who have decided to work to earn money</a> after high school.</p>
<h2>4. Blurring of parent and teacher roles</h2>
<p>Conventional school-home boundaries have blurred as home learning becomes more common. There are signs of what human relations expert Pauline Boss termed “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1545-5300.1984.00535.x">family boundary ambiguity</a>.”</p>
<p>Under stressful conditions, parents have been expected to establish regular routines and take on the instructor role. Teachers face new challenges adapting to radically different, mostly unfamiliar tech-enabled teaching.</p>
<p>In Alberta, education professor Bonnie Stelmach’s research for the Alberta Schools Councils’ Association <a href="https://www.albertaschoolcouncils.ca/education-in-alberta/education-and-covid-19/it-takes-a-virus-research-report">unearthed unreported problems</a> associated with the incredible burden home learnng shifts to parents. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Bonnie Stelmach discusses research about parent-teacher relations during COVID-19 at-home learning.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Based upon a survey of 1,067 parents and 566 teachers, plus 10 in-depth interviews with parents, and 10 with teachers, the study demonstrated the profound effects of the pandemic on parent-teacher relations.</p>
<p>The study documented widespread confusion in how to interpret “ministry directives” when it came to expected time on task (hours per week), real-time online instruction and student outcomes. Diploma exams for Grade 12 were suspended, as were provincial achievement tests for students in grades 6 and 9. The Minister of Education that announced that all students would progress to the next grade. Parents and teachers reported that especially for older students, this removed any motivation <a href="https://www.albertaschoolcouncils.ca/education-in-alberta/education-and-covid-19/it-takes-a-virus-research-report">to work through to the end of the year</a>. Those issues cry out for further research in other provinces.</p>
<h2>5. Need for “future-proof learning”</h2>
<p>We are in the midst of what comparative social researcher <a href="http://cosmos.sns.it/person/loris-caruso/">Loris Caruso</a> termed “<a href="https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/digital-innovation-and-the-fourth-industrial-revolution-epochal-/12466856">epochal social change</a>.” Schooling<a href="https://www.oecd.org/education/The-economic-impacts-of-coronavirus-covid-19-learning-losses.pdf"> may never be the same again</a>.</p>
<p>Students and families will increasingly be offered <a href="https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/05/07/tdsb-releases-plan-for-2021-22-school-year/">a choice between in-person and virtual learning</a> for their children.</p>
<p>What students, teachers and families really need is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904818802086">“future-proof” learning</a>. That term, coined by <a href="https://www.the-learning-agency-lab.com/the-learning-curve/how-learning-happens">educational psychologist Paul A. Kirschner</a>, provides a viable and much-needed alternative to pursuing holistic, ill-defined 21st-century skills or embracing competency-based student graduation standards. According to Kirschner, the best way forward in pandemic times is focussing on “the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to continue to learn in a stable and enduring way in a rapidly changing world.”</p>
<p>Overcoming the pandemic education shock will call for decidedly new strategies. Months ago, UNESCO warned that we were facing a “<a href="https://en.unesco.org/news/secretary-general-warns-education-catastrophe-pointing-unesco-estimate-24-million-learners-risk">generational catastrophe</a>.” A recent university study demonstrates the <a href="https://scholars.wlu.ca/laso_faculty/1/">significant educational effects in Ontario</a> of mass and localized school closures and gaps in support for students with disabilities.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-distance-learning-poses-challenges-for-some-families-of-children-with-disabilities-136696">Coronavirus: Distance learning poses challenges for some families of children with disabilities</a>
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<p>International education expert Prachi Srivastava notes the time has come to <a href="https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/edupub/173/">to reframe the challenges facing K–12 education</a> by addressing learning loss and “extend[ing] cross-sectoral approaches prioritizing the vulnerable and at-risk.”</p>
<p>Post-pandemic education is looking more like a rescue mission — one that needs to begin by putting the pandemic generation back on the path to sound education. That way, <a href="https://www.edcan.ca/articles/shore-up-the-foundations-for-future-proof-education">today’s schoolchildren will be better prepared to lead meaningful, productive lives</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161145/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul W Bennett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The pandemic education shock has raised five critical issues that demonstrate how student learning and achievement and social well-being are far from mutually exclusive.Paul W Bennett, Adjunct Professor of Education, Saint Mary’s UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1543392021-05-17T21:19:37Z2021-05-17T21:19:37ZMachines can’t ‘personalize’ education, only people can<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400572/original/file-20210513-16-1h6flwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=834%2C46%2C2989%2C1804&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Schools are facing accelerated COVID-19 pressures to integrate technology into children's education, and how they do has far-reaching implications. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the past year, COVID-19 abruptly disrupted schooling, and forced the question of <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7726753/covid-19-online-in-person-school-choice-2021-2022/">how much kindergarten to Grade 12 education should or will rely on online teaching in the near and distant future</a>. Education has taken a decided technological turn in its massive adaptation to online learning. This is precipitating a critical debate in education right now, with a most uncertain future and much depending on its outcome. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ontarios-choice-of-fully-online-school-would-gamble-on-children-for-profit-158292">Ontario's ‘choice’ of fully online school would gamble on children for profit</a>
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<p>One key concern when considering both online learning and the tech platforms teachers may rely on in classrooms is a long-standing issue of how education should accommodate student individuality. For at least 150 years, education in the western world has been <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/The_Underground_History_of_American_Educ.html?id=p55tQgAACAAJ">conflicted over this issue</a>. </p>
<p>Education advocates like homeschooling champion <a href="https://simplycharlottemason.com/what-is-the-charlotte-mason-method/">Charlotte Mason</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Dewey">education reformer John Dewey</a> advocated for recognition of students as unique persons whose interests and backgrounds shaped them in particular ways. Writing in 1897, Dewey argued it was <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=EgwVAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">critical for educators to note and consider students’ unique qualities when designing curriculum</a>. </p>
<p>Mason’s and Dewey’s philosophies and the schooling approaches they advocated helped spur <a href="https://journal.jctonline.org/index.php/jct/article/view/807">educational debates about the meaning of “personalized learning.”</a> These also pitted them against others like scientific management guru <a href="https://www.bl.uk/people/frederick-winslow-taylor">Frederick Taylor</a> who argued for mass standardization in education. </p>
<p>This conflict remains central to education debates unfolding today. For example, while some proponents of remote learning argue <a href="https://www.d2l.com/en-apac/blog/personalize-learning-digital-classroom/">teachers can still offer personalized learning online</a>, there are also industries focused on the notion that <a href="https://www.edweek.org/technology/q-a-the-promise-and-pitfalls-of-artificial-intelligence-and-personalized-learning/2019/11">AI can also “personalize” student experiences</a>. But machines aren’t persons.</p>
<p>Emerging research <a href="https://edsource.org/2020/disappointing-grades-technology-glitches-and-glimpses-of-learning-fun/641615">shows wide variability in student experiences</a> across technology-based approaches and platforms. Even when particular teachers are successful in delivering remote learning with students’ personal <a href="https://www.transformativelearningfoundation.org/faculty/michael-maser-v2/">and holistic interests</a> in mind, they are working in an educational context with <a href="https://theconversation.com/tax-pandemic-profiteering-by-tech-companies-to-help-fund-public-education-155705">increased marketing, uptake and profiting from educational technologies</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-have-been-let-down-by-a-decade-of-inaction-on-digital-technologies-142938">Teachers have been let down by a decade of inaction on digital technologies</a>
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<p>Specific tech “solutions” like buying particular software for schools are often “Taylorist” insofar as the school or classroom is now committed to particular way of interacting and learning. In some cases <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/21/technology/silicon-valley-kansas-schools.html">school communities come to complain that personal contact has been replaced with computerization</a>. </p>
<p>Technology surely has a role in education, but determining what it will be, and whose interests it will really serve, is a critical public debate. To this end, here are three thinkers who can help guide parents, educators and administrators in considering how education can adapt to changing technological circumstances while centering students as people and fostering caring human communities. </p>
<h2>1. Nel Noddings</h2>
<p>In her <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520275706/caring">ground-breaking book, <em>Caring</em></a>, educational ethicist Nel Noddings describes the importance of seeing and “confirming” students as persons. Noddings says such “confirmation” elicits a practice of dialogue in which educators “see and receive the other” as they really are, as a teaching and moral responsibility. </p>
<p>I believe that truly “seeing” and acknowledging students is a feasible response in videoconferencing environments like Zoom and should be recognized as a best practice. The same is also true for how educators direct students to apps that enable students to pursue learning activities reflecting personal choices: for example, platforms like DIY.org, Khan Academy, YouTube and others. Teachers can can and should validate students’ particular interests as they engage these sources.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vkmYzbwrufg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Interview with Ian McGilchrist on the divided brain and the search for meaning.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>2. Iain McGilchrist</h2>
<p>In a recent text, <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/ways-attending-iain-mcgilchrist/e/10.4324/9781003049876-2">“Ways of attending: How our divided brain constructs the world</a>,” Scottish neuroscientist Iain McGilchrist asserts that technological thinking and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFs9WO2B8uI">compartmentalization have come to dominate human thinking</a>. </p>
<p>This is thinking rooted in the brain’s left hemisphere and exemplified by mathematical reasoning and rationalization. He says the brain’s right hemisphere, responsible for whole-person, big-picture thinking, and moral decision-making, plays a secondary role. McGilchrist contends that new digital technologies driven by machine logic are effectively hijacking human attention, forcing us to become more machine-like. </p>
<p>McGilchrist advises everyone to study how we are interacting with technology to better understand how technology is influencing behaviours, including how it distracts us and channels our attention. If we don’t better perceive this, he warns, we risk becoming increasingly alienated from the feelings and moral decision-making that define our humanity. </p>
<h2>3. Ursula Franklin</h2>
<p>Scientist, <a href="https://alchetron.com/Ursula-Franklin">acclaimed humanitarian</a> and pacifist Ursula Franklin described in her <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-humane-world-of-ursula-franklin-a-scientist-who-wanted-us-to-question-technology-1.5825485">1989 Massey Lecture series and book</a>, <a href="https://houseofanansi.com/products/the-real-world-of-technology-digital"><em>The Real World of Technology</em></a> how the Industrial Revolution set in motion technological processes, like assembly lines, that ushered in sweeping societal changes.</p>
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<span class="caption">Ursula Franklin speaks in Ottawa in July 1970. Franklin argued that money spent by Canada on warfare research could be better spent on environmental research.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CP PHOTO/Chuck Mitchell</span></span>
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<p>She characterized such processes as “prescriptive” in how they engineered human behaviour through compliance and conditioning, resulting in an “enormous social mortgage.” Franklin contrasts prescriptive technologies with “holistic” technologies that are controlled by an individual user, like personal craftsmanship. </p>
<p>To Franklin, holistic technologies enable people to enact caring gestures, and are spontaneous and flexible, where prescriptive technologies are rigid and mechanistic. Franklin’s philosophy points to the idea that we should recognize the limits and power of technology. </p>
<p>Franklin’s insights should lead us to remember that while <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-030-13743-4_9">collaboration amongst students can be enhanced in technological environments</a>, some education researchers also caution that technological tools themselves don’t create holistic, inclusive or creative communities. Only humans can do this. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/digital-platforms-alone-dont-bridge-youth-divides-121222">Digital platforms alone don't bridge youth divides</a>
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<h2>Serving people</h2>
<p>The insights of Noddings, McGilchrist, Franklin and others urge us to deeply consider the technologies we choose to use in our schools and what role they play. This does not mean that we reject the integration of technology into education. I believe many educators have demonstrated it is possible to strike a healthy balance when integrating technology with educational goals. </p>
<p>But future educational paths will reflect choices we make now. In facing today’s unprecedented challenges, educators and school administrators must continue to support education as an endeavour that holds at its core the mission of serving all people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154339/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>michael maser has previously received funding from mitacs. </span></em></p>Insights of neuroscientist Ian McGilchrist, philosopher Nel Noddings and physicist Ursula Franklin help centre students and our collective future in debates about education and technology.Michael Maser, PhD candidate - Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1557052021-03-10T18:38:48Z2021-03-10T18:38:48ZTax ‘pandemic profiteering’ by tech companies to help fund public education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388376/original/file-20210308-18-1rg9hu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C77%2C5184%2C3352&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thomas Reevely, 10, takes part in a class meeting in Ottawa, April 3, 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Reevely</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the one year anniversary of the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/03/09/coronavirus-updates-covid-19-canada-ontario-toronto-gta-march-9-2021.html">World Health Organization declaring a pandemic arrives</a>, it is increasingly apparent that not everyone is having a hard time: Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/10/30/21541699/big-tech-google-facebook-amazon-apple-coronavirus-profits">earned US$38 billion in profits</a> in the second quarter of 2020 alone. <em>The Guardian</em> reports that Amazon’s share price is up <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/06/is-big-tech-now-just-too-big-to-stomach">62 per cent over the past year, and Apple’s 70 per cent</a>.</p>
<p>While the coronavirus has infected more than three-quarters of a million Canadians and taken more than <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/canada/">22,000 lives</a>, the Canadian economy has also been devastated. </p>
<p>Statistics Canada reports “<a href="https://hillnotes.ca/2020/10/20/biannual-update-on-the-canadian-economy-first-and-second-quarters-of-2020/#:%7E:text=Real%20Gross%20Domestic%20Product%20Growth,the%20spread%20of%20COVID%2D19.">GDP growth rate declined by 2.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2020 and 11.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2020,”</a> for an overall annual <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/gdp-canada-2020_ca_601421dec5b653f644d32191">decline of 5.1</a> per cent. The federal debt alone is expected to be <a href="https://ipolitics.ca/2020/11/30/ottawa-to-run-historic-381b-deficit-and-spend-up-to-100b-on-recovery/">$380 billion for 2020–21.</a></p>
<p>Governments at all levels have taken on tremendous debt in order to provide economic stability and prevent a more dramatic collapse. We will be dealing with the financial consequences for generations. Ontario tabled a deficit of over $35 billion; its debt-to-GDP ratio is <a href="https://www.fao-on.org/en/Blog/Publications/EBO-WI2021">almost 50 per cent</a> and is forecast to remain at historic highs for several more years.</p>
<p>While media attention has turned towards some Canadian politicians’ <a href="https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/02/04/legislation-coming-this-year-to-force-google-facebook-to-pay-for-news-content-2/">plans to remedy the fact</a> that tech profits have ballooned while Canadian news media organizations are struggling to pay the bills, there has been comparably little attention on the future of funding our schools in Canada. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12489">researcher who has</a> studied <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/consuming-schools-4">some of the high educational and social costs of diminished public investment in schools</a>, I am concerned we will soon hear the argument that mounting government debt requires either cuts to education or greater privatization. Even before the pandemic, a refusal to invest in public education on the basis of debt <a href="https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2020/02/07/kevin-elson-province-s-debt-is-an-issue-but-this-isn-t-the-way-to-solve-it.html">was a common refrain</a> <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/ucp-budget-freezes-k-12-education-funding-cuts-post-secondaries">across provinces</a>. </p>
<h2>Pandemic profits</h2>
<p>I believe it is it morally unjustifiable for tech companies to walk away from the pandemic with massive profits while schools are burdened with debt. This is doubly important considering the massive rise of online learning this year and schools’ increased reliance on tech platforms. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-profits-from-canadian-media-content-but-gives-little-in-return-146385">Facebook profits from Canadian media content, but gives little in return</a>
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<p>For example, at the beginning of April last year, Bloomberg reported that Google Classroom had “<a href="https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/google-widens-lead-in-education-market-as-students-rush-online">doubled active users to more than 100 million since the beginning of March</a>.”</p>
<p>While a total picture of the precise profits derived from the huge expansion of tech into education this past year through a <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-global-covid19-online-digital-learning/">mass global rise of online learning</a> is not yet clear, the many <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-street-proof-our-kids-why-arent-we-data-proofing-them-123415">unknowns related to data privacy and how data could be used in years to come</a> was flagged before the pandemic.</p>
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<img alt="A family working at a table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388373/original/file-20210308-23-pc31yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388373/original/file-20210308-23-pc31yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388373/original/file-20210308-23-pc31yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388373/original/file-20210308-23-pc31yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388373/original/file-20210308-23-pc31yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388373/original/file-20210308-23-pc31yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388373/original/file-20210308-23-pc31yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Kristy Denette, back left, tries to work from home as her two children Maverick, left, five, and Peyton, seven, do online schooling at the kitchen table in their home during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mississauga, Ont., Jan. 5, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
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<h2>The importance of public funding for schools</h2>
<p>Instead of burdening our schools with debt, we need to ensure they have the funding they need. Canadians should push for the political will to invest public funds in education. </p>
<p>Public funding for education is an important way to promote democracy. As University of Ottawa researcher Joel Westheimer notes, “<a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2021/01/25/the-virus-of-disinformation-threatens-democracy-and-education-is-the-cure.html">A well-functioning democracy needs schools that … embrace debate and deliberation as a cornerstone of democracy</a>.” </p>
<p>Pandemic or not, countries around the world are facing what researchers have called a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2020.1807517">democratic recession</a> — even those democratic countries that have long been seen as stable. As we re-emerge from the pandemic, we need to recognize threats to democracy and do everything possible to ensure its survival.</p>
<h2>Expanded toolbox of solutions</h2>
<p>In addition to the profits outlined above by the tech giants, American start-up education tech companies raised <a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2021-01-13-a-record-year-amid-a-pandemic-us-edtech-raises-2-2-billion-in-2020">US$2 billion in 2020, 30 per cent more than in 2019</a>. Education tech is expected to grow at a rate of <a href="https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/education-technology-market">20 per cent for the next five years</a>. However, it remains an ominous unknown given the massive shift to online learning.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-street-proof-our-kids-why-arent-we-data-proofing-them-123415">We street-proof our kids. Why aren't we data-proofing them?</a>
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<p>Even before COVID-19, data had been dubbed the “new oil” by the likes of <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2017/05/06/the-worlds-most-valuable-resource-is-no-longer-oil-but-data"><em>The Economist</em></a>, and it’s this resource that we will see lining pockets into the future.</p>
<p>It’s important to note that educational technology is a part of the bigger <a href="https://theconversation.com/childrens-privacy-is-at-risk-with-rapid-shifts-to-online-schooling-under-coronavirus-135787">expansion into the commercialization of education</a>. The textbook company Pearson has become more of a digital media company that specializes in “<a href="https://www.pearson.com/uk/pearson-privacy-and-you/privacy-policy/digital-learning-services-privacy-policy.html">digital learning services</a>.” To prepare for this role, the company recently <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/24/pearson-appoints-former-disney-exec-bird-as-new-chief.html">hired a former Disney executive as its CEO</a> and spent US$25 million <a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-01-22-pearson-bets-on-adaptive-learning-again-with-25m-acquisition-of-smart-sparrow">buying a company that offers course-authoring tools</a>.</p>
<p>As one former CEO of a non-profit tech company notes, tech companies’ investments in kindergarten to Grade 12 educational tech “<a href="https://www.edweek.org/technology/what-does-big-tech-want-from-schools-spoiler-alert-its-not-money/2020/01">is not a big moneymaker but it’s a big branding opportunity</a>.” Tech companies profit in the long run when students and parents develop lifelong brand loyalty after particular platforms become entwined with students’ lives. </p>
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<img alt="Students in a class." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388622/original/file-20210309-23-9y23fh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388622/original/file-20210309-23-9y23fh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388622/original/file-20210309-23-9y23fh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388622/original/file-20210309-23-9y23fh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388622/original/file-20210309-23-9y23fh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388622/original/file-20210309-23-9y23fh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388622/original/file-20210309-23-9y23fh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Burdening children with short-changed public funding for education while tech companies profit from their massive expansion into education during the pandemic is unjustifiable. Here, Grade 1 students at at Honore Mercier elementary school Tuesday, March 9, 2021 in Montréal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span>
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<h2>Pandemic profiteering education tax</h2>
<p>The consequences of COVID-19 will be compounded if one of its lasting impacts is a boon for tech companies and a financial apocalypse for education. Teachers have already been bearing a significant COVID-19 burden in terms of their own physical safety and mental health. </p>
<p>Their pleas for resources <a href="https://www.sickkids.ca/en/news/archive/2021/covid19-updated-guidance-school-operation-during-pandemic/#considerations">that medical experts have said are significant</a> for COVID-19 safety such as consistent social distancing <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/air-quality-in-quebec-schools-secret-tests-show-ventilation-issues-that-favour-covid-19-spread-1.5203862">and quality ventilation</a> <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/ontario-teachers-call-for-lower-class-sizes">have often been ignored</a>. Concerns about teacher burnout and the ensuing impact on children are significant.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-are-on-the-front-lines-with-students-in-the-coronavirus-pandemic-149896">Teachers are on the front lines with students in the coronavirus pandemic</a>
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<p>Those still teaching in the classroom face the threat of COVID-19; some have even <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/canada-teachers-back-to-school-covid_ca_5f480e21c5b697186e33091a">updated their wills</a>.</p>
<p>Just as big tech companies have seen massive profits this past year, individual wealth has also grown. <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/inequality-gender-gap-canada-oxfam_ca_6010843dc5b61cb9534f3ade">The Canadian super rich added $63.5 billion to the bank in the last year</a>. </p>
<p>The spectre of burdening the children of today with short-changed public funding for education while extreme wealth grows and tech companies profit from their massive expansion into education during the pandemic is simply unjustifiable.</p>
<p>So when Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault brings some concrete proposals forward <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7621449/steven-guilbealt-tech-news-bill">to ensure big tech companies like Google and Facebook</a> pay for news content created by Canadian news media organizations, how about considering how taxing tech companies could benefit our schools?</p>
<p>It’s important that education help to shape the “new normal” we emerge into, rather than be burdened with debt.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155705/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Trevor Norris receives funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p>It is morally unjustifiable for tech companies to walk away from the pandemic with massive profits while schools are burdened with debt.Trevor Norris, Associate Professor, Department of Eductional Studies, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1493662021-01-21T13:34:50Z2021-01-21T13:34:50ZHow South Africa can prepare for a data-driven education system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377186/original/file-20210105-17-1b9b09a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As technology - and the data that drives it - becomes more integral in education, policies will need to shift.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stock image/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/saje/article/view/143683">significant disparities</a> in South Africa’s education system. Schools are divided into quintiles, from one to five; the poorest, in quintile one, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-south-africa-can-disrupt-its-deeply-rooted-educational-inequality-48531">struggle enormously</a> with a lack of resources and support. They also tend to have <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-south-africa-can-disrupt-its-deeply-rooted-educational-inequality-48531">poorer educational outcomes</a>. That has a direct effect on university admission and outcomes.</p>
<p>One of the government’s attempts to address these inequalities is through technology. This began as early as 2003 with the <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/white-paper-e-education-transforming-learning-and-teaching-through-information-and">Draft White Paper on e-Education</a>. These and similar policies aim to resource more marginalised schools, universities and colleges with digital tools. This, in a bid to “leapfrog” access to interactive learning content and improved administrative capabilities. COVID-19 lockdowns have made this approach “imperative … now the only thing we can do”, <a href="https://www.jacarandafm.com/news/news/basic-education-technology-classrooms-no-longer-option/">according to</a> the country’s Ministry of Basic Education.</p>
<p>More and more, data and data-driven tools are emerging as a central feature of this digital response. Developers of these technologies promise a new level of insight and automation that mimics human intelligence. They argue this will bring greater efficiency and effectiveness to both teaching and learning as well as to administrative processes. They suggest that <a href="https://dbedashboard.co.za/Home/">performance dashboards</a>, <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2147833/chinas-schools-are-quietly-using-ai-mark-students-essays-do">automated assessments</a>, <a href="https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2019/10/universities-use-ai-chatbots-improve-student-services">chat bots</a> and <a href="https://jungroo.com/">adaptive learning technologies</a> can mitigate many of the challenges faced by the country’s teachers, lecturers, district managers and university administrators. </p>
<p>There’s a growing global <a href="http://publications.jrc.ec.Europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC113226/jrc113226_jrcb4_the_impact_of_artificial_intelligence_on_learning_final_2.pdf">evidence base</a> to support these sorts of approaches. For instance, teachers in under-resourced schools with large classes could use technology to gather individualised data. With this they could develop more personalised learning experiences for pupils based on their strengths and weaknesses.</p>
<p>Data is the backbone of these tools. The growth of machine learning and other intelligent applications has been spurred by the increased collection and availability of data. Such data underlies the kinds of adaptive applications and emerging technologies that are proposed for use in the education system.</p>
<p>We collaborated on <a href="https://policyaction.org.za/sites/default/files/PAN_TopicalGuide_AIData3_Education_Elec.pdf">a guide</a> that examines how South Africa can ensure its data policy and governance takes some of the lessons and concerns from previous education technology implementations into account. It also considers the practical steps needed for this to happen. The guide is part of a series curated by the <a href="https://policyaction.org.za/">Policy Action Network</a> (PAN), a project by South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). </p>
<p>Here are some of the things a data policy for South Africa’s education system should consider.</p>
<h2>Technology impact</h2>
<p>Experience shows that simply providing technology to teachers or students has a limited effect on educational outcomes. The benefits of online, assisted learning and behavioural interventions also vary depending on how technology is used, and in what context. This is highlighted in working papers that review the effectiveness of educational technology <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w23744">globally</a> and in <a href="http://curry.virginia.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/epw/72_Edtech_in_Developing_Countries_1.pdf">developing countries</a>. </p>
<p>In South Africa, questions about effectiveness are amplified. That’s because of concerns about <a href="https://www.thespacestation.co.za/the-latest-sa-internet-connection-stats/">unequal Internet access</a>. <a href="https://nicspaull.com/2019/01/19/priorities-for-education-reform-background-note-for-minister-of-finance-19-01-2019/">Cost-effectiveness</a> and <a href="https://www.itweb.co.za/content/8RgeVDqPegQvKJN3">teacher perceptions</a> are also issues.</p>
<h2>Data management</h2>
<p>A key issue centres on how data is collected, shared and used. It’s crucial that personal information should be kept private. Education institutions need to comply with the <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/protection-personal-information-act">Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA)</a>, which comes into force effect later in 2021. </p>
<p>Another question concerns sharing and reuse across the wider spectrum of education data. This ranges from the content of books and journal articles to administrative data, such as student enrolments and graduations. Sharing or publishing this data in a responsible way can <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2557342">stimulate the development</a> of many creative and useful applications. But data sharing intersects with evolving <a href="http://infojustice.org/archives/42570">copyright laws</a> and debates around ownership and reuse. These will have implications for data-driven innovation in the sector.</p>
<p>A third point is to reckon with well-documented concerns about <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90342596/schools-are-quietly-turning-to-ai-to-help-pick-who-gets-in-what-could-go-wrong">bias</a> embedded in existing data which is being used in decision-support applications. If this isn’t dealt with, data-driven applications may reinforce historical prejudices and practices related to education.</p>
<h2>A holistic policy response</h2>
<p>South Africa doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel to deal with these issues. Other countries are exploring policy approaches that could guide or inform its approach. For instance, a governmental think tank in India developed a national <a href="https://niti.gov.in/national-strategy-artificial-intelligence">artificial intelligence (AI) strategy</a>. This points to various examples of how the country can use AI technologies to support education. Importantly, however, it also suggests replicating the UK’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/centre-for-data-ethics-and-innovation">Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation</a> to ensure ethical and safe use of data.</p>
<p>Echoing this approach, <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/aiet_final_report_august_2019.pdf">a report</a> commissioned by the Australian National Department of Education, outlines how critical it is that the application of AI should accord with human rights. </p>
<p>There are also existing resources in South Africa. These include the recently released 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) <a href="https://search.opengazettes.org.za/text/37734?page=121">report</a> and <a href="https://www.dhet.gov.za/SiteAssets/Planing,Policy%20and%20Strategy/The%206th%20Annual%20DHET%20Research%20Colloquium%20on%20the%204IR_Implications%20for%20PSET.pdf">recommendations</a> from a 2019 Department of Higher Education and Training discussion on 4IR implications. POPIA and related legislation provide guidance on how data should be published, used and handled, including for <a href="https://popia.co.za/section-71-automated-decision-making/">automated decision-making</a>.</p>
<p>These resources recognise that a variety of underlying issues need to be addressed to benefit from data-driven innovation, such as connectivity and processing capacity. AI-powered systems are resource-intensive. Any introduction of data services will require a supportive digital infrastructure plan which addresses performance, security <em>and</em> inclusion. </p>
<p>Another priority is skills. There are <a href="https://www.education.gov.za/Portals/0/Documents/Publications/Digital%20Learning%20Framework.pdf?ver=2018-07-09-101748-95">existing guidelines</a> to support teachers using digital technologies. These guidelines recognise the interdependent nature of content, ways of teaching, and technology. Additional training and updated guidelines will be needed to address the role and use of data, probably starting with a broad data literacy programme.</p>
<p>But more will be needed. Technology policy, adoption and spending in education often involves more than one ministry. This makes early engagement and communication important.</p>
<p>Specific policies will have to be updated or developed to guide the use and implementation of data, machine learning and the wider spectrum of automated decision-making tools. These should govern how data is collected, handled and shared to balance relevant transparency, privacy and ethics principles and laws. Educators, policymakers, researchers and innovators in the sector all need to get involved.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149366/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mmaki Jantjies receives funding from the South African National Research Foundation </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Plantinga receives funding from DSI and HSRC through a Parliamentary Grant and works with the Open Data South Africa initiative.</span></em></p>Data underlies the kinds of applications that are proposed for use in the country’s education system.Mmaki Jantjies, Associate Professor in Information Systems, University of the Western CapePaul Plantinga, Research Specialist: Digital Strategies and Engagement, Human Sciences Research CouncilLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1515732020-12-17T19:07:31Z2020-12-17T19:07:31ZIt’s not production quality that counts in educational videos – here’s what students value most<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374729/original/file-20201214-19-dtt9f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C9%2C6182%2C4106&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rido/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The use of educational videos in schools and universities was <a href="https://ajet.org.au/index.php/AJET/article/view/5930">on the rise</a> before COVID-19. Now, with continuing disruption by the pandemic, more educators are developing educational videos to support student learning. Similarly, students are increasingly looking to places like YouTube for educational content. </p>
<p>Intuitively, we might think a video’s production quality is what matters – fancy recording equipment, a professional studio environment and flawless editing. While these “bells and whistles” can be attractive, some of the most successful educational YouTube channels actually use very simple production styles. For example, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy">Khan Academy</a> records handwriting on a tablet screen. Eddie Woo of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/misterwootube">WooTube</a> often films his high school classroom teaching.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A Khan Academy video covering adding and subtracting fractions.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Research confirms production quality isn’t as critical as we might at first think. Production quality ranks behind perceived learning gains, educators’ delivery style and video length as <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563218301419">reasons for liking educational videos</a>. <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2556325.2566239">Research even shows</a> we are more inclined to watch educational videos filmed in an informal setting than big-budget studio productions!</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/videos-wont-kill-the-uni-lecture-but-they-will-improve-student-learning-and-their-marks-142282">Videos won't kill the uni lecture, but they will improve student learning and their marks</a>
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<h2>So what makes an educational video effective?</h2>
<p>Our perceptions of how easy a technology is to use and its usefulness determine whether we will engage. If we think a video is too hard to use or unhelpful, we won’t bother with it! This is known as the “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/technology-acceptance-model">Technology Acceptance Model</a>”.</p>
<p>I was interested in using this model to understand what specific factors made educational videos effective. I developed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJF3FxTyHxcVqlM2EXKskug">videos that demonstrated solutions to maths-based problems</a> for university engineering subjects. These videos were designed as an optional supplement to lectures and tutorials.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Solving for a ‘resultant couple’ – a first-year engineering concept.</span></figcaption>
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<p>To understand what influenced engagement, I asked students what they liked about the videos. I also asked what could be improved. </p>
<p>I then isolated <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/202678/">recurring themes to identify the most important factors</a>. This is what I found.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-creative-use-of-technology-may-have-helped-save-schooling-during-the-pandemic-146488">How creative use of technology may have helped save schooling during the pandemic</a>
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<h2>Influences on ease of use</h2>
<p><strong>Accessibility</strong></p>
<p>A key advantage of videos over face-to-face learning is access – students can watch videos at a time and place of their choice. This has been especially critical during the COVID-19 lockdowns. </p>
<p>The platform used to distribute videos (such as YouTube) plays a role through system reliability and user-friendliness. Features like playlists and push notifications can also be considered for enhancing ease of access.</p>
<p><strong>Personal agency</strong></p>
<p>Videos enable students to personalise and self-pace their learning through content selection and video controls. Unlike face-to-face classes, students can conveniently pause a video to consider posed questions. Students can then restart when ready to get feedback on their responses. Students can also rewatch challenging sections while skipping over easy parts.</p>
<p>I found these learning strategies were extremely popular. In my research, <a href="https://advances.asee.org/worked-example-videos-for-blended-learning-in-undergraduate-engineering/">90% of students</a> independently solved the problems I presented. </p>
<p><strong>Findability</strong> </p>
<p>Students appreciate being able to find information easily. Concise and well-labelled videos support navigation to relevant content in a timely manner. Time stamps can also be used to communicate where in a video specific aspects are covered.</p>
<p><strong>Instructional design and production</strong></p>
<p>When educators use a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3482">conversational delivery style</a> it creates a social partnership, which encourages learners to try harder to understand their educator. This improves learning through videos. As this personal approach aligns well with an informal environment, it can explain why students <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2556325.2566239">embrace simple production styles</a>.</p>
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<img alt="young woman smiles at her teacher during an online lecture" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374736/original/file-20201214-15-7jywl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374736/original/file-20201214-15-7jywl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374736/original/file-20201214-15-7jywl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374736/original/file-20201214-15-7jywl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374736/original/file-20201214-15-7jywl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374736/original/file-20201214-15-7jywl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374736/original/file-20201214-15-7jywl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A conversational delivery style can encourage learners to try harder to understand their educator because they feel engaged in a social partnership.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">fizkes/Shutterstock</span></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-tips-on-how-unis-can-do-more-to-design-online-learning-that-works-for-all-students-144803">5 tips on how unis can do more to design online learning that works for all students</a>
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<h2>Influences on usefulness</h2>
<p><strong>Narration</strong> </p>
<p>Verbal explanations can efficiently communicate thinking processes, highlight misconceptions and relate ideas together. This enables students to readily develop understanding, which is strongly tied to their academic performance. </p>
<p>For these reasons, students like narration in videos, which goes well beyond what static documents like textbooks offer. In my research, students found videos particularly useful when they felt the narration explicitly and thoroughly communicated the logic behind solution processes.</p>
<p><strong>Content scaffolding</strong></p>
<p>Providing video content that gradually increases in difficulty supports students to develop skills without becoming overwhelmed. This is important because students who feel out of their depth are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2017.1344197">at risk of disengaging</a>. </p>
<p>In my research, many students wanted to be extended by increasingly challenging problems. Students also varied the “degree of difficulty” when attempting questions by only watching video segments to prompt when stuck or to verify their solution.</p>
<p><strong>Assessment alignment</strong> </p>
<p>As <a href="http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/3607">assessment is a core driver of learning</a>, content needs to be closely aligned with assessment for students to consider videos useful. Consistent with this, my research shows students are most <a href="https://advances.asee.org/worked-example-videos-for-blended-learning-in-undergraduate-engineering/">likely to engage with videos to support their assessment attempts</a>.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-world-of-digital-bystanders-the-challenge-is-for-all-of-us-to-design-engaging-online-education-147195">In a world of digital bystanders the challenge is for all of us to design engaging online education</a>
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<h2>Final thoughts</h2>
<p>COVID-19 has meant educators have produced a lot of videos this year. Given the time pressures, these often weren’t high-quality productions, but students were still able to learn a great deal. </p>
<p>As we return to a new “normal”, educators looking to enhance their video resources should remember what students value most – easy-to-use informal videos with clear explanations aligned to their needs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151573/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Dart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Students prefer videos that are simply produced, convenient to watch and with a narrative that’s delivered in an informal conversational way.Sarah Dart, Lecturer in Learning & Teaching Development, Impact and Recognition, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1357872020-04-21T14:08:20Z2020-04-21T14:08:20ZChildren’s privacy is at risk with rapid shifts to online schooling under coronavirus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329136/original/file-20200420-152571-w4dwcg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=80%2C13%2C2914%2C1666&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Grade 6 student takes part in a virtual school session with her teacher and classmates via Zoom from her home in Vancouver, April 2, 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/apr/06/uk-councils-face-lawsuits-over-access-to-education-in-lockdown">Schools</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/20/coronavirus-impossible-mother-tirade-remote-schooling">globally</a> have scrambled to adopt or <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ontario-school-closures-extended-to-may-online-learning-to-bridge-gap/">expand use of technology</a> to minimize learning disruptions related to COVID-19. Educational technology has long posed serious <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1477878518805308">privacy</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-018-9492-2cb">equality problems</a>, and these problems are now reaching a boiling point. Hasty choices now could have long-term impacts.</p>
<p>We are part of a seven-year research initiative, <a href="http://www.equalityproject.ca/">The eQuality Project</a>, which examines young people’s experiences with privacy and equality in digitally networked environments. We are focused on how technology companies gather and use data about young people in ways that affect their well-being and relationships.</p>
<p>We have documented a number of significant issues that are <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5210/fm.v24i11.10094">possible byproducts of the data practices of educational technology (edtech) companies</a>. These include corporate <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/2/21/21146998/google-new-mexico-children-privacy-school-chromebook-lawsuit">tracking of student activities both inside and outside of the classroom</a>, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2019/09/26/ai-is-coming-to-schools-and-if-were-not-careful-so-will-its-biases/">discrimination against young people from marginalized communities</a>, student loss of autonomy due to ongoing monitoring of their activities and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/08/20/legislators-ask-plus-firms-explain-how-they-use-vast-amount-data-they-collect-students-which-ones-facebook-google-blackboard-etc/">sale of student data to third parties</a> often for purposes of advertising to them.</p>
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<p>We also find that <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3501191">schools are not always aware of or attuned to the range of online privacy and security implications</a>. This is perhaps compounded by the fact that privacy notices and terms of service agreements are rife with vagueness, legalese and double-speak.</p>
<p>The large amounts of personal and transactional information some companies collect can also open students up to privacy invasions by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/barbarakurshan/2017/06/22/the-elephant-in-the-room-with-edtech-data-privacy/#4140b8c157a5">future employers</a>. Such collection vastly increases the potential for educational surveillance of students through students’ <a href="http://childdatacitizen.com/datafied-children-research/">datafication</a>.</p>
<h2>Continuity in education</h2>
<p>Schools have been exploring and using technological solutions to ensure continuity in students’ educational experiences. These solutions include <a href="https://www.theprogress.com/news/b-c-schools-zoom-to-online-education-amid-covid-19/">taking classes online</a> and engaging with (or deepening engagement with) <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6782511/ontario-online-learning-covid19-coronavirus/">online learning tools</a>. </p>
<p>They also include expanding the use of <a href="https://cdt.org/insights/protecting-students-in-virtual-classrooms-considerations-for-educators/">videoconferencing technologies</a> for virtual meetings involving teachers, administrators, students and parents. </p>
<p>Given the substantial time and money being invested, it is likely that today’s choices will affect privacy and equality in education long after this pandemic ends. Making choices now that respect students’ privacy is an investment in their futures and the future of our educational systems.</p>
<h2>K-12 schools rapidly moving online</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.distancelearningportal.com/search/#q=ci-56%7Clv-short%7Cmh-blended,online">Universities</a> have had existing online education platforms integrated into the institution’s existing information and communication infrastructure, with established privacy and security protections for student and faculty data. </p>
<p>But in K-12 systems in Canada, when schools closed due to COVID-19 <a href="https://k12sotn.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/StateNation19.pdf">there was significant variation between regions</a> with respect to how systems use distance learning or edtech. </p>
<p>This means school boards and educators have faced choices about how to rapidly <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/zoom-bc-students-app-teachers-classroom-1.5517615">move into online platforms and services</a> that are quick to implement, can accommodate lots of students and are user-friendly. In some cases, decisions are being <a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/am-i-on-mute-how-classroom-video-conferences-are-succeeding-and-failing-in-ontario/">made in a piecemeal way</a>.</p>
<p>Platforms can be used for education even if they aren’t designed for it. But they don’t necessarily have adequate privacy and security protections, particularly if educators use free as opposed to paid versions. </p>
<p>Educators should carefully consider the surveillance and privacy risks associated with use of these platforms, and should understand the privacy policies and terms and conditions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329132/original/file-20200420-152558-jk2j36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329132/original/file-20200420-152558-jk2j36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329132/original/file-20200420-152558-jk2j36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329132/original/file-20200420-152558-jk2j36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329132/original/file-20200420-152558-jk2j36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329132/original/file-20200420-152558-jk2j36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329132/original/file-20200420-152558-jk2j36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Grade 4 student Miriam Amacker of Sunnyside Elementary School works at her family’s home in San Francisco, on April 9, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Zoom, Skype</h2>
<p>Zoom and Skype are two of the most familiar and user-friendly videoconferencing platforms for communicating with a number of people at once — and are versatile enough to accommodate educational instruction and discussion. </p>
<p>It’s not surprising that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-teachers-hosting-virtual-lessons-as-covid-19-keeps-students-out-of-class-1.5508428">some educators</a> <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6762447/zoom-classrooms-coronavirus/">are using</a> these familiar platforms. But they should be aware that the platforms collect a great deal of personal information about students. This leads to potential long-term risks to student privacy and autonomy.</p>
<p>For example, the March 18, 2020, version of Zoom’s <a href="https://zoom.us/docs/en-us/childrens-privacy.html">K-12 Privacy and Security policy stated that data collected from K-12 students includes</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>a user’s name and other similar identifiers;</p></li>
<li><p>a student’s school;</p></li>
<li><p>the student’s device, network and internet connection; and</p></li>
<li><p>the student’s use of the Zoom platform, including actions taken, date and time, frequency, duration, quantity, quality, network connectivity, and performance information related to logins, clicks, messages, contacts, content viewed and shared, calls, use of video and screen sharing, meetings and cloud recording.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Consent for Zoom’s information collection is given by the “School Subscriber” — typically the students’ school, school district or teacher — on behalf of parents and students. </p>
<h2>Children’s rights to consent</h2>
<p>This fails to recognize the rights that students have under the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx">UN Convention for the Rights of the Child</a>, most particularly their right to participate in decisions affecting them. It also leaves open the possibility that educators, in their own well-intentioned efforts to bring quality, interactive lessons to their students are “consenting” beyond what they’re authorized to do.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://education.skype.com/">Skype in the Classroom</a> website advertises that one can sign up for free — and the only discernible privacy- or security-related <a href="https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement">link is to Microsoft’s general privacy policy (updated February 2020)</a>.</p>
<p>But it’s not the job of individual educators to dig through legal terms and decide what kinds of protections students will or will not have with respect to their data. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329135/original/file-20200420-152607-ub92ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329135/original/file-20200420-152607-ub92ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329135/original/file-20200420-152607-ub92ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329135/original/file-20200420-152607-ub92ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329135/original/file-20200420-152607-ub92ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329135/original/file-20200420-152607-ub92ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329135/original/file-20200420-152607-ub92ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teachers need clear direction and guidance from policymakers in deciding how to use edtech. Kelly Dighero, a Grade 3 teacher at Phoebe Hearst Elementary School, holds an online meeting with students and parents, on April 13, 2020, in Sacramento, Calif.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Instead, ministries, departments of education and school districts need to offer clear guidance to help educators navigate decisions about educational technology. In some instances, <a href="https://cbe.ab.ca/programs/technology-for-learning/Pages/default.aspx">school districts may have or adopt a list of approved products or platforms</a>. </p>
<p>Ministries, departments of education and school districts should also begin to think carefully about how edtech allows <a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-03-05-edtech-s-blurred-lines-between-security-surveillance-and-privacy">new forms of student surveillance</a> by the school itself. This can happen by allowing for, among other things, <a href="https://www.teachers.ab.ca/News%20Room/ata%20news/Volume-51-2016-17/Number-10/Pages/Digital-surveillance-detrimental-to-learning,-expert-says.aspx">monitoring the websites students access, the words they type and their online conversations</a>. </p>
<h2>The ‘coronopticon’</h2>
<p>To start, they can look to third parties — such as <a href="https://mediasmarts.ca/">Media Smarts</a>, <a href="https://www.commonsense.org/education/">Common Sense Media</a>, <a href="https://www.cosn.org/">Consortium for School Networking</a> and <a href="https://studentprivacypledge.org/">Future of Privacy Forum</a> — that have updated information on privacy and data protection practices of edtech products and services.</p>
<p>Policymakers should be supporting teachers, administrators and school boards to insist that ed tech companies default in favour of privacy-respecting practices.</p>
<p>We stand on the precipice of magnifying existing problems exponentially unless those responsible for education pause. We are already dangerously close to what <em>The Economist</em> has dubbed “the coronopticon” — <a href="https://www.economist.com/briefing/2020/03/26/countries-are-using-apps-and-data-networks-to-keep-tabs-on-the-pandemic">a brave new age of surveillance and data control catalyzed by hasty tech decisions under COVID-19</a>. Decisions about technology in the classroom need not move us even closer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135787/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Bailey receives funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacquelyn Burkell receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span><a href="mailto:pregan@gmu.edu">pregan@gmu.edu</a> receives funding from Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Valerie Steeves receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada. </span></em></p>Children in our schools are the latest at risk in a brave new age of surveillance and data control that is being catalyzed by hasty educational technology decisions under COVID-19.Jane Bailey, Professor of Law and Co-Leader of The eQuality Project, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaJacquelyn Burkell, Associate Vice-President, Research, Western UniversityPriscilla Regan, Professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason UniversityValerie Steeves, Full Professor, Department of Criminology, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1350042020-04-16T20:38:16Z2020-04-16T20:38:16ZWhat’s next for schools after coronavirus? Here are 5 big issues and opportunities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328212/original/file-20200415-153326-o22ary.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=259%2C1076%2C4218%2C2220&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We're in a tunnel at the moment, and when the pandemic ends what kids and our society needs will look different. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>No schools, no exams, more online learning and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/24/nearly-20-of-global-population-under-coronavirus-lockdown">parents in COVID-19 lockdown</a> with their kids. What a mess! </p>
<p>People are responding heroically. Some parents are working from home, others have lost their jobs and teachers are creating an entire new way of doing their jobs — not to mention the kids themselves, stuck inside without their friends. Somehow, we will get through this. When we do, how will things look when school starts again? </p>
<p>One of my university projects connects and supports the education leaders of six countries and two Canadian provinces <a href="http://atrico.org/">to advance humanitarian values, including in their responses to COVID-19</a>. </p>
<p>From communication with these leaders, and drawing on my <a href="https://us.corwin.com/en-us/nam/the-global-fourth-way/book235155">project team’s expertise in educational leadership and large-scale change</a>, here are five big and lasting issues and opportunities that we anticipate will surface once school starts again. </p>
<h2>Extra student support needed</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328221/original/file-20200415-153351-2la3rq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328221/original/file-20200415-153351-2la3rq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=665&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328221/original/file-20200415-153351-2la3rq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=665&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328221/original/file-20200415-153351-2la3rq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=665&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328221/original/file-20200415-153351-2la3rq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328221/original/file-20200415-153351-2la3rq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328221/original/file-20200415-153351-2la3rq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Support will be needed for our weakest learners and most vulnerable children to settle down and catch up.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After weeks or months at home, students will have lost their teachers’ <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0742-051X(98)00025-0">face-to-face support</a>. Many young people will have experienced poverty and stress. They may have seen family members become ill, or worse. They might have had little chance to play outside. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/world/coronavirus-domestic-violence.html">Rates of domestic abuse</a> and fights over <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-coronavirus-pandemic-adds-complexity-to-parental-access-battles/">custody arrangements</a> have been on the rise during the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p>Many children will have lost the habits that schools teach them — sitting in a circle, waiting your turn, knowing how to listen and co-operate. More than a few will exhibit <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24618142">the signs of post-traumatic stress</a>. </p>
<p>A lot will have spent hours <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/iGen/Jean-M-Twenge/9781501152016">looking at smartphones or playing video games</a>.</p>
<p>And the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2528798/">learning gaps will undoubtedly widen between children from poorer and better-off homes</a>.</p>
<p>Although governments may be anticipating upcoming austerity, we’ll actually need additional resources. We’ll need counsellors, mental heath specialists and learning support teachers to help our weakest learners and most vulnerable children settle down and catch up.</p>
<h2>Prioritizing well-being</h2>
<p>Well-being will no longer be dismissed as a fad. Before this crisis, there were murmurings that <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429401039">student well-being was a distraction</a> from proper learning basics. No more. </p>
<p>It’s now clear that without their teachers’ care and support it’s hard for many young people to stay well and focused. Being well, we’ll appreciate, isn’t an alternative to being successful. It’s an essential precondition for achievement, especially among our most vulnerable children.</p>
<h2>More gratitude for teachers</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328083/original/file-20200415-153326-k8t3bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328083/original/file-20200415-153326-k8t3bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328083/original/file-20200415-153326-k8t3bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328083/original/file-20200415-153326-k8t3bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328083/original/file-20200415-153326-k8t3bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328083/original/file-20200415-153326-k8t3bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328083/original/file-20200415-153326-k8t3bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teacher Angie Stringer, with a ‘Stringer loves her students,’ at a car parade in March 2020, in Suwanee, Ga.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Teachers are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/04/08/veteran-teacher-has-mini-covid-19-educator-meltdown-realizes-that-less-is-more-with-online-learning/">among the unsung heroes of COVID-19</a>: preparing resources and guidance for remote learning, dropping off school supplies in plastic boxes, connecting with kids and their parents to make sure they’re OK — even while many have kids of their own at home. </p>
<p><a href="https://dianeravitch.net/2020/04/14/the-coronavirus-just-might-end-school-privatization-nonsense/">Parents are fast coming</a> to appreciate <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Professional_Capital.html?id=2sRWQxBBsj4C">everything their teachers do</a>. </p>
<p>It’s hard enough when parents have two or three kids at home all day now. Many will surely realize just how hard it must be to have 25 to 30 or more in a class. Once the working world regains a degree of normality, we won’t take our essential workers for granted so much. Teachers will be among these.</p>
<h2>Vocational skills and training</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328175/original/file-20200415-153334-iii7cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328175/original/file-20200415-153334-iii7cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328175/original/file-20200415-153334-iii7cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328175/original/file-20200415-153334-iii7cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328175/original/file-20200415-153334-iii7cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328175/original/file-20200415-153334-iii7cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328175/original/file-20200415-153334-iii7cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328175/original/file-20200415-153334-iii7cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trades before social distancing: Instructor Jeff Mitchell, left, guides students with the construction trades program at Berrien Springs High School, in Benton Harbor, Mich., in November 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The dignity and importance of <a href="https://unevoc.unesco.org/wtdb/worldtvetdatabase_can_en.pdf">vocational education, skills and training</a> will be reflected in what we teach.</p>
<p>The pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of the global economy to collapses in essential supplies. So Canada will look to <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-five-lasting-implications-of-covid-19-for-canada-and-the-world/">bring some of its essential manufacturing back home</a>. </p>
<p>There will therefore have to be a related push for vocational skills and training, and higher status for schools and programs that provide it.</p>
<p>It’s now obvious how much we depend on and need to value all our essential workers like care home workers, construction workers and retail staff who serve us from behind plexi-glass. My widowed Mum raised three boys while she <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51135272-moving">cleaned people’s homes, worked in local stores, and cared for other people’s children</a>. There was nothing unskilled about what she did.</p>
<p>While no one quite agrees on <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/society/what-does-it-mean-to-be-working-class-in-canada">what it means to be “working class,”</a> what’s clear is it involves sectors of work, pay levels <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0038040713498777">and a generational accumulation of cultural and social capital, dispositions and tastes</a>. </p>
<p>When the regular economy starts up again, some people will feel proud to call themselves working class once more and insist on the financial and broader recognition that goes with it.</p>
<p>This also implies rethinking <a href="https://www.glomhi.org/gigs.html">the gig economy</a> and its impact on people’s lives, as well as what kinds of learning positions people to survive tumultuous changes, experience mobility and build meaningful lives. </p>
<h2>More and less tech for education</h2>
<p>During COVID-19, there’s been a mad scramble to find technology to support learning at home. But in our ARC Education project network, the deputy minister of education in one provinces informed us that upwards of 30 per cent of students don’t have internet access or digital devices at home. </p>
<p>As money gets tighter, families on the edge of poverty may also have to choose between maintaining <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/technology/article-anti-poverty-group-calls-for-cheaper-internet-access-for-low-and/">internet services or putting food on the table</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327869/original/file-20200414-117553-1wom91z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327869/original/file-20200414-117553-1wom91z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327869/original/file-20200414-117553-1wom91z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327869/original/file-20200414-117553-1wom91z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327869/original/file-20200414-117553-1wom91z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327869/original/file-20200414-117553-1wom91z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327869/original/file-20200414-117553-1wom91z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Student Jillian Reid, 9, works at a laptop in Cremona, Alta., in March 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Uruguay, one of the countries in our project, <a href="http://atrico.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Plan-Ceibal-contingency-plan-coronavirus-MFR-V-0.6.pdf">set up an arms’ length government innovation agency in 2007</a>. Every child was given a personal device and an internet connection. This stimulated more than a third of the country’s schools to develop projects in which innovation and deeper learning, not just technology, are in the foreground. </p>
<p>In this pandemic, technology has supplemented teaching and teachers; not replaced them. During the first week of school closures in Uruguay, use of the agency’s platform increased by 1,100 per cent. Canada needs to develop a coherent and comprehensive national approach to tech connectivity and learning that will support all schools.</p>
<p>Conversely, there will also be less technology. We certainly need better digital resources. But anyone who thought that online learning can replace teachers will be rapidly disabused of the idea — especially parents stuck inside with children when kids can’t concentrate or self-regulate. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mandatory-e-learning-is-a-problem-in-ontario-high-schools-133041">Mandatory e-learning is a problem in Ontario high schools</a>
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<p>We’re in a long, dark tunnel at the moment. When we emerge, our challenge will be to not proceed exactly as before, but to reflect deeply on what we have experienced, and take a sharp turn in education and society for the better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135004/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andy Hargreaves receives funding from - Contributions of $30,000Cn each from the eight educational ministries that comprise the ARC Education Project based at the University of Ottawa - they are Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Iceland, Finland, Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Uruguay.</span></em></p>An expert predicts a rethink on technology access, reconnecting with the working class, and more.Andy Hargreaves, Research Professor in Education, Boston CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1348792020-04-01T12:08:26Z2020-04-01T12:08:26Z4 weird things that happen when you videoconference<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324219/original/file-20200331-65499-90i2n4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Eye contact gets warped in the virtual world.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/reflection-of-video-conference-on-computer-in-eye-royalty-free-image/102678771?adppopup=true">Caroline Purser/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the COVID-19 pandemic forces many U.S. colleges and universities to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/03/11/coronavirus-college-closings-list-online-classes/5022256002/">move their courses online</a>, connecting online via video is now <a href="https://time.com/5805510/covid-19-coronavirus-video-chat/">having its moment</a>.</p>
<p>Family, friends, neighbors and even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypHOzsW7mLg">TV talk-show hosts</a> are now meeting and broadcasting from home. Meanwhile, Microsoft, Google and Zoom are struggling to <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/3/11/21173449/microsoft-google-zoom-slack-increased-demand-free-work-from-home-software">meet the demand for their videoconferencing services</a>.</p>
<p>People have long noticed, however, that some peculiar things happen in videoconferencing. A magazine mentioned its “<a href="https://www.thecut.com/2020/03/video-chat-intimacy-coronavirus.html">bizarre intimacy</a>.” Jaron Lanier, who is considered the “<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jaron-lanier-interview-on-silicon-valley-culture-metoo-backlash-ai-and-the-future-2017-12">father of virtual reality</a>,” once remarked that it “<a href="http://cogweb.ucla.edu/crp/Media/2001-04-06_VirtualPresence.html">seems precisely configured to confound</a>” nonverbal communication.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vjGTaG4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">educational technology</a> researcher, I have <a href="https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/pandpr/index.php/pandpr/article/view/22143">explored</a> these and other subtle but strange elements of videoconferencing. I do this through <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/21444">phenomenology</a>, the study of lived and embodied experience.</p>
<p>I seek to understand why certain issues arise when technology is introduced to educational settings and to suggest ways to deal with them.</p>
<p>Here are four odd things that happen when you’re engaged in a videoconference.</p>
<h2>1. Eye contact is lacking</h2>
<p>First, and probably most obviously, meeting by video interferes with eye contact. This is due to a simple technical limitation: There’s no way to put the camera and the display screen <a href="http://cogweb.ucla.edu/crp/Media/2001-04-06_VirtualPresence.html">in the same spot</a>. When you look at the camera on your device, you give the impression you’re looking someone in the eye. However, when you look at their eyes on screen, you appear to be looking away.</p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-90-481-2646-0_15">Phenomenology and psychology</a> both emphasize the importance and complexity of eye contact. </p>
<p>“In eye contact you not only observe the eyes of the other person,” observes author and philosophy professor Beata Stawarska, but this other person is also “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-005-9009-4">attending to your attention while you are attending to hers</a>.”</p>
<p>This extends to multiple levels of awareness, as philosopher <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/merleau-ponty/">Maurice Merleau-Ponty</a> observes: “<a href="https://nupress.northwestern.edu/content/signs">I look at him. He sees that I look at him. I see that he sees it. He sees that I see that he sees it.</a>” Merleau-Ponty adds that as a result, “there are no longer two consciousnesses” in a moment of locked eye contact, “<a href="https://nupress.northwestern.edu/content/signs">but two mutually enfolding glances</a>.”</p>
<p>For Merleau-Ponty, these kinds of experiences are a part of what he calls our embodied <a href="https://nupress.northwestern.edu/content/signs">reversibility</a>: I see, hear and experience others as they see, hear and experience me.</p>
<h2>2. Looking awry</h2>
<p>Here’s a warning a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15411796.2012.630635">pair of researchers</a> gave about making a video guest presentation in a classroom: “Even if… you are not ‘on,’ you are on-screen, and probably larger than life-size. If you surreptitiously pick your nose, chances are that everyone can see you doing it.”</p>
<p>Sitting in front of a webcam and computer, the guest-presenter sees a room full of students. But the students see a talking head on a projection screen, showing every blemish or imperfection. Instead of sitting or facing one another reciprocally, “face to face,” we find ourselves looking up, down or sideways at the sometimes much-larger-than-life image of those we see and speak with online.</p>
<h2>3. Feeling watched</h2>
<p>Without overt eye contact and embodied reciprocity, people who videoconference can sometimes feel silently scrutinized or surveilled. A person may worry: Exactly how does the unblinking camera eye show me to others?</p>
<p>“Though we may pretend to be looking at another person when we FaceTime or Zoom,” <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2020/03/video-chat-intimacy-coronavirus.html">journalist Madeleine Aggeler observes</a>, “really we’re just looking at ourselves – fussing with our hair, subtly adjusting our facial expressions, trying to find the most flattering angle at which to hold our phones.” Videoconferencing can be a bit like the distracting or enervating experience of talking while constantly glancing ourselves in a mirror.</p>
<h2>4. Squelching voices</h2>
<p>The long-lived tagline of the Verizon network, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo0xsZCRp4g">Can you hear me now?</a>” is a question associated with technology. Face to face, we are able to monitor our speaking as a result of our own vocal projection and the acoustic environment. And we do this based on the assumption of acoustic reversibility: that others hear the world as we do.</p>
<p>Online, this is <a href="https://smallbusiness.chron.com/fix-not-being-able-hear-people-skype-68170.html">not necessarily the case</a>. Our voices might break up as they are compressed and transmitted, a noise in the background might overtake us or our mic might simply be set to “mute.” By its very nature, sound, <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?redir_esc=y&id=AjYNAQAAIAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=locational+differentials">unlike vision, is relatively undirected</a>. Face to face, it is enveloping and shared. Its disruption and interruption online can be as jarring as speaking with someone who refuses to make eye contact.</p>
<h2>A new normal</h2>
<p>Despite the odd ways that communication takes place in a videoconference, as a society, we’re about to get more accustomed to this mode of communication. There are <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238902">many</a> <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/tips-for-using-zoom/">websites</a> full of tips on how to make the most of our videoconferencing experience.</p>
<p>Among other things, these tips advise us to place the camera at eye level to appear naturally positioned, to use a clean, well-lit space to be clearly visible and to wear a headset to maximize audio quality. But no matter what we do to have a smooth videoconference experience, video will lack the “mutual enfolding” of the senses that, as Merleau-Ponty knew, comes with <a href="http://timothyquigley.net/cont/mp-chiasm.pdf">meeting in the flesh</a>. </p>
<p>[<em>Get facts about coronavirus and the latest research.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-facts">Sign up for our newsletter.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134879/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Norm Friesen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An educational technology scholar illuminates some of odd feelings people experience when they communicate through cameras on the web.Norm Friesen, Professor of Educational Technology, Boise State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1344342020-03-26T14:32:22Z2020-03-26T14:32:22ZKids can keep learning even during a lockdown. Here’s how<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322528/original/file-20200324-155652-1v1x2rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">With a mix of online resources and creativity, you can keep your kids learning and entertained.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa, like most countries in the world, has ordered <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/south-africa-orders-schools-closed-as-covid-19-spreads/1767271">all schools to close</a> to try and stop the spread of COVID-19. </p>
<p>Many schools have also asked parents to ensure that learning continues at home. Online learning is an obvious way to keep lessons going; however, only a few schools have well-established online learning systems. Additional challenges for parents can include connectivity problems, limited data access and <a href="https://www.news24.com/Tags/Topics/load_shedding">power blackouts</a>.</p>
<p>For many parents, taking on their children’s education is a daunting prospect. But there are resources online that can make home learning a bit easier and more fun. For those with limited data and connectivity, I am highlighting sites that are zero-rated for data – so, free to use. Parents could also consider buying night time bulk data options for off-peak downloads, which is often cheaper. </p>
<p>This is an unprecedented situation and no one really knows how long it will be before schools reopen. As an educator, mother and tech-sector professional, I don’t have all the answers. But I do recommend that parents try different approaches and websites and see what works for you. Be prepared to learn along with your kids, take a break when you need to – and have fun.</p>
<h2>Digital options</h2>
<p><em><strong>Online libraries</strong></em></p>
<p>Sadly, the good old physical library won’t be available because of the country’s strict lockdown, <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/coronavirus-national-lockdown-101-what-you-need-to-know-20200324">announced</a> by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 24 March.</p>
<p>There are some online alternatives, though. Amazon allows book rental as part of a premium monthly payment service. You can also access <a href="https://stories.audible.com/start-listen">free audio books</a> for children <a href="https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/03/21/us/audible-for-kids-coronavirus-trnd/index.html">through Audible</a>. The Kindle (with the Kindle unlimited option) application can also be used to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/hz/subscribe/ku?*entries*=0&_encoding=UTF8&*Version*=1&shoppingPortalEnabled=true">download books to a phone</a>. Parents can use the trial version of the app to access books for at least a month, enabling children to keep reading. </p>
<p><em><strong>Online learning platforms and websites</strong></em></p>
<p>South African telecommunication networks have zero-rated many learning sites, which means materials can be downloaded for free. This makes a huge difference to parents who may have limited data plans and are worried about running up online bills.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.telkom.co.za/about_us/mediacentre/currentreleases/article1749.shtml">Telkom</a> has zero-rated the websites of universities, technical and vocational training Colleges, and provides links to maths and science learning pages. The <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/">Khan Academy</a> site is also zero-rated, providing massive online learning resources to a global audience.</p>
<p>MTN and <a href="https://vodacom-cleverly.vodacom.mytopdog.co.za/">Vodacom</a> have also zero-rated many learning sites. Vodacom provides a comprehensive zero-rated <a href="https://vodacom-cleverly.vodacom.mytopdog.co.za/">e-school portal</a> with extensive learning content for grades R to 12, running the gamut from very young children to those about to finish their secondary schooling. Vodacom has also zero-rated the <a href="https://learn.mindset.africa/">Mindset</a> learning platform of creative and inspiring videos to support learning in a range of subjects. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.siyavula.com/">Siyavula</a> is an education technology organisation providing high school maths and science practice questions and free online books for students. The site is further zero rated for MTN and Vodacom users.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.unesco.org/themes/education-emergencies/coronavirus-school-closures/solutions">UNESCO</a> has a useful list of platforms that can provide online learning materials, free books, websites and learning applications for different subject areas.</p>
<p>If you want to assess your child in a fun way, applications such as <a href="https://socrative.com/">Socrative</a> and <a href="https://kahoot.com/">Kahoot</a> are easy to use. Kahoot has opened up premium resources for free for teachers in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.</p>
<p><a href="https://wiki.kidzsearch.com/">Kidzearch</a> or “Wiki for kids” is a great source for children to research subjects such as History, Geography, Maths and Science. And for parents keen on free coding lessons, South Africa’s own <a href="https://www.codespace.co.za/about">Code Space</a> will be running virtual classes in coding, though this is subject to a pre-application process.</p>
<p><em><strong>Learning apps</strong></em></p>
<p>The Android and iOs app stores have numerous learning applications that allow one-off downloads to support learning. South African examples include <a href="https://sisanda.com/pages/sisanda">Sisanda Techs</a> which supports science learning using augmented reality for children whose schools lack science labs. Parents can type the subject area to find a range of learning platforms.</p>
<p><em><strong>Sharing materials with other parents</strong></em></p>
<p>Parents who have access to open source school learning materials can exchange and share with others using Google Drive with Google suits applications on the free service. Zoom, Google Hangouts, Skype, and Google Meets are also great platforms for live group learning or tutoring. </p>
<p>Both Microsoft and Google have announced free access to conferencing services which normally have an enterprise subscription rate during the coronavirus crisis. Parents can take advantage of this for individual or group learning as well.</p>
<h2>Variety and flexibility</h2>
<p>Finally, and importantly, you should look to mix it up with physical and creative learning. Home learning can be challenging and parents do need to take a holistic approach. Don’t rely on the computer for everything, and make sure to include lots of play and physical exercises as part of the learning day to help stimulate your childrens’ minds and keep them interested. </p>
<p>While parents may think they need to run a set timetable, you will need to be flexible to deal with things like blackouts, slow data speeds or a child who is simply not interested in learning today.</p>
<p>The process of home learning can also feel isolating, especially with children who are not usually home schooled and are used to being surrounded by other children. Be prepared to play traditional physical games, outside if you can, or play board games as alternatives to online activities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134434/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mmaki Jantjies does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Be prepared to learn along with your kids, take a break when you need to – and have fun.Mmaki Jantjies, Associate professor in Information Systems, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1344452020-03-26T13:59:37Z2020-03-26T13:59:37ZCoronavirus: 5 tips for navigating children’s screen time during social distancing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322840/original/file-20200325-168903-5jruxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=31%2C51%2C1816%2C1221&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Screen time can benefit children over age two if it's the right kinds of programming.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/photos/children-tv-child-television-home-403582/">(Vidmir Raic/Pixabay)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During this pandemic, it is fair to say that pre-COVID-19 family routines may shift, or even completely fall apart! In our new COVID-19 reality, daycare and school are cancelled, parents are working from home and families are engaging in social distancing, leaving no peers for kids to play with. </p>
<p>It’s understandable that children and adults may be using screens (television, devices, tablets and video games) more than they typically would, or exceeding the <a href="https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/Pages/American-Academy-of-Pediatrics-Announces-New-Recommendations-for-Childrens-Media-Use.aspx">recommended limits</a> of one hour per day for kids ages two to five, and no screen time for kids under 18 months of age (with the exception of video chatting).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322846/original/file-20200325-168918-bonwut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322846/original/file-20200325-168918-bonwut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322846/original/file-20200325-168918-bonwut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322846/original/file-20200325-168918-bonwut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322846/original/file-20200325-168918-bonwut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322846/original/file-20200325-168918-bonwut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322846/original/file-20200325-168918-bonwut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Children under 18 months do not benefit from screen time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Kaku Nguyen/Pexels)</span></span>
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<p>As child psychologists and screen time researchers, we are receiving questions from parents about how to manage children’s screen time during these unprecedented times. Those questions include: “How much is too much screen time?” and “Can screen time be beneficial in some cases?” Below we provide research evidence and recommendations for best practice screen use for young children during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<h2>1. Select high quality, educational programming</h2>
<p>Screen time can benefit kids over the age of two, when it’s the right type of content. In our research, we find that programming developed with education in mind, such as <em>Sesame Street</em>, can have some small but beneficial effects on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.0327">children’s language skills</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/educational-tv-shows-for-kids">Higher quality programs</a> are more likely to gear their content to the needs of young children by having a coherent story line and by pacing the program to the developmental level of children. Educational programs often label objects and speak directly to children, which can be helpful for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13043">learning new words and sounds</a>.</p>
<p>In children under the age of two, research suggests <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00079">very little learning occurs from screens</a>, even if the content is educational. Thus, limiting screen use in very young children to video-chatting with family and friends or short bouts of screen viewing (10 to 15 minutes) may be the best approach.</p>
<h2>2. Watch or engage in screens together</h2>
<p>There is evidence to suggest that when children and caregivers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.0327">watch screens together</a> children are more likely to learn new words. Past research has shown that parents can help their children when using media together by <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0032463">directing their child’s attention to specific content, discussing what is being viewed</a> and reinforcing what they have learned by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2014.01.002">making it relatable</a> to the child’s day-to-day activities (e.g., “That’s a blue truck!”).</p>
<p>This means that when possible, sit down with your child and enjoy media together. Talk about what you are seeing on the screen and get children thinking about what they are watching by asking them engaging, open-ended questions (e.g., “What happened to character X today?”, “Character X is sad, why do you think that is?”), or by describing or labelling what’s on the screen (“Dora has a backpack on and Boots is purple!”).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322845/original/file-20200325-168903-dda3ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322845/original/file-20200325-168903-dda3ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322845/original/file-20200325-168903-dda3ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322845/original/file-20200325-168903-dda3ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322845/original/file-20200325-168903-dda3ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322845/original/file-20200325-168903-dda3ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322845/original/file-20200325-168903-dda3ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Video chat with loved ones is a healthy way for children to use devices.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Alexander Dummer/Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Use screens for human connection</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/Pages/American-Academy-of-Pediatrics-Announces-New-Recommendations-for-Childrens-Media-Use.aspx">Pediatric guidelines</a> encourage using video chats with family, friends and loved ones, even for young infants and children. Social connection is important for children and is seen as a healthy way to use devices.</p>
<p>During the COVID-19 pandemic, consider reaching out to family members, as well as neighbours in your community, school mates and friends to stay socially connected. Ask the individual on the video chat to interact with your child by singing, dancing and/or reading them a story. </p>
<p>You can also join the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51915723">caremongering</a> movement and engage your child in social activities that are safe at a distance within your neighbourhood (for example, a <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/window-scavenger-hunts-canada_ca_5e738edcc5b6eab77943a9f1">neighbourhood window scavenger hunt</a>).</p>
<h2>4. Balance screen time with other activities</h2>
<p>We know that children learn best when they are engaging in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2018-3556">interactions</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1921653117">conversations</a> with their parents, siblings or grandparents. These “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=KNrnZag17Ek&feature=emb_logo">serve and return</a>” or back-and-forth exchanges between parents and children, are the building blocks of children’s brain development. During COVID-19, try to offset screen-time activities with ample <a href="https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/serve-and-return/">serve-and-return</a> interactions that build children’s brain and bodies.</p>
<p>While parents may loosen up screen time limits during COVID-19, we don’t want them to throw out all the rules! That’s because there is evidence, especially early in child development, that too much screen use is associated with poor <a href="http://www.doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.3869">brain development</a>, as well as delays in children meeting their <a href="http://jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jamapediatrics.2018.5056">developmental milestones</a> (like walking, talking, writing). However, these results are based on children who have patterns of screen use that lasted longer than a few weeks of social distancing.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322847/original/file-20200325-168922-1eza9x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322847/original/file-20200325-168922-1eza9x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322847/original/file-20200325-168922-1eza9x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322847/original/file-20200325-168922-1eza9x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322847/original/file-20200325-168922-1eza9x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322847/original/file-20200325-168922-1eza9x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322847/original/file-20200325-168922-1eza9x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Create a schedule that balances screen time with device-free family time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(National Cancer Institute/Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A good idea might be to <a href="https://www.healthychildren.org/English/media/Pages/default.aspx">create a schedule</a> for online as well as offline activities, such as physical activity, sleep, healthy eating, reading, learning activities and <a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/devicefreedinner-attention-funny-or-die">device-free family time</a>. Together, these activities can help children maintain mental and physical health. Also, screen use before bedtime can impact kids’ <a href="http://www.doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2016.2341">quality and duration of sleep</a>, so when planning your schedule, try to reserve the last 60 minutes of the day for device-free time (a board game or reading time, for example).</p>
<h2>5. Model healthy device habits</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323016/original/file-20200325-168918-qssji2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323016/original/file-20200325-168918-qssji2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323016/original/file-20200325-168918-qssji2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323016/original/file-20200325-168918-qssji2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323016/original/file-20200325-168918-qssji2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323016/original/file-20200325-168918-qssji2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323016/original/file-20200325-168918-qssji2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Try to avoid exposing children to media reports about COVID-19.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pixabay)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We have all been bombarded by the news and social media feeds related to COVID-19, and it’s easy to get sucked into a digital vortex without noticing how much time we are spending on devices. Despite the desire to consume the most recent updates, it’s important to monitor our own media consumption because <a href="http://www.doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.4495">it can have an impact on levels of child use</a> and interrupt those crucial serve-and-return interactions.</p>
<p>We can be media mentors to children by modelling healthy device habits. We can do this by taking media breaks and modelling device-free priorities (such as reading, cooking, eating, walking) ourselves. </p>
<p>Finally, although parents should talk to their kids about COVID-19, try to avoid exposing children to television and media reports regarding the pandemic since viewing disturbing news reports has been shown to elevate children’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0002764203254619">stress levels</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-qandas-answers-to-7-questions-your-kids-may-have-about-the-pandemic-133576">Coronavirus Q&As: Answers to 7 questions your kids may have about the pandemic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic will come to a conclusion at some point, but it’s important that we help our children navigate screen use in the best possible way during this uncertain time.</p>
<h2>Online resources</h2>
<p>Parents can visit <a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/">Common Sense Media</a>, <a href="https://mediasmarts.ca/parents">Media Smarts</a> and <a href="https://www.pbs.org/parents">PBS for Parents</a>, trusted sources for finding educational and age-appropriate screen time content and <a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/resources-for-families-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic">resources</a> for kids. </p>
<p>Common sense media has also compiled a list of free <a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/free-online-events-activities-kids-at-home-coronavirus">educationally based online activities</a> that kids can do at home during COVID-19.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134445/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brae Anne McArthur receives funding from Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sheri Madigan receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Canada Research Chairs program.</span></em></p>With parents trying to work from home while schools and daycare services are closed, some children may get more screen time than usual during COVID-19 social distancing.Brae Anne McArthur, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Determinants of Child Development Lab, University of CalgarySheri Madigan, Associate Professor, Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development, Owerko Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of CalgaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1327282020-03-12T18:57:02Z2020-03-12T18:57:02ZCoronavirus pushes universities to switch to online classes — but are they ready?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319639/original/file-20200310-61107-w7d9tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=473%2C353%2C4878%2C2944&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Universities and colleges cancelling in-person classes will need more than technology to have the capacity to offer flexible education.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In light of rising concerns about the spread of COVID-19 and calls to contain the virus, a growing number of post-secondary institutions have shut down in-person classes. The virus has revealed vulnerabilities in post-secondary systems around the world. It is now clear that society needs flexible and resilient education systems as we face unpredictable futures. </p>
<p>People in the educational technology industry, which produces everything from online learning software to tools that track the productivity of students, believe <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/edtech-strategy-marks-new-era-for-schools">they’re poised to help tackle challenges</a>. </p>
<p>But many educators have doubts given what some see as problems evolving from the use of technology in teaching and learning — <a href="http://hackeducation.com/2019/12/31/what-a-shitshow">everything from using technology for student surveillance to the impact of using it to bundle pricey textbooks with software</a>. Ethical concerns are especially <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Ed-Tech-Is-Exploiting/243020">troublesome</a>.</p>
<h2>Saving higher education?</h2>
<p>As our scholarship has documented, technologies meant to make <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2019.1681893">education, and especially teaching, more flexible</a> or more <a href="https://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/4/the-rise-of-educational-technology-as-a-sociocultural-and-ideological-phenomenon">responsive</a> don’t always deliver in a straightforward way. This is because educational technology is not simply a tool that does a wholly predictable or singular job like a hammer or a screwdriver. </p>
<p>Even so, the educational technology industry, backed by huge companies like <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/03/11/helping-teachers-students-switch-remote-learning/">Microsoft</a> and <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/education/edstart/">Amazon</a>, continues to position itself as a solution to today’s education problems. Some people even go so far as to suggest technology can <a href="https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2019/11/data-analytics-can-save-higher-education-say-top-college-bodies">save higher education</a>.</p>
<p>In this back and forth between proponents and skeptics, the impacts of COVID-19 on educational institutions and students offers a chance to carefully examine educational technology in acute, crisis-driven contexts. </p>
<h2>Positive experiences</h2>
<p>While the work to transition face-to-face instruction to online environments would mean an initial massive increase in working hours, the results for some educators and some students so far are promising. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1236604100076134401"}"></div></p>
<p>In the emerging and ever-changing COVID-19 context, <a href="https://shanghai.nyu.edu/news/so-far-so-good-nyu-shanghai-completes-first-week-distance-learning">New York University Shanghai</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/chinas-coronavirus-crisis-forces-duke-kunshan-university-to-teach-online/2020/02/22/311349aa-5333-11ea-929a-64efa7482a77_story.html">Duke Kunshan University</a> offer examples of <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/02/25/coronavirus-forces-us-universities-online-china#.XlUykUnk18k.twitter">successful adaptation</a> and rapid deployment of educational technology products, like the video-conferencing platform Zoom and online course provider Coursera. </p>
<p>Significantly, these universities had existing experience with these technologies that they were able to expand; they weren’t starting from scratch with new and untested tech solutions.</p>
<h2>Negative experiences</h2>
<p>Some schools in Australia have struggled with accommodating the rapid switch to online learning, especially in light of China’s “<a href="https://www.itnews.com.au/news/coronavirus-forces-universities-to-rapid-scale-online-education-capabilities-538849">Great Firewall</a>,” which denies people located in China access to a host of online tools and sites such as YouTube. </p>
<p>Some instructors and school leaders are facing <a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-03-02-students-are-lonely-what-happens-when-coronavirus-forces-schools-online">pains in transitioning to online learning</a>. Many more share concerns for students who don’t have easy <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/6/21168463/coronavirus-covid19-seattle-public-schools-networks-broadband">access to wifi or computers</a>.</p>
<p>The alternative, however, isn’t appealing. COVID-19 or any other widely disruptive virus poses high risks for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/23/queensland-university-casual-teachers-lose-17-weeks-work-over-coronavirus-ban">job losses</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/19/casual-university-staff-struggle-to-cope-as-coronavirus-travel-ban-locks-out-international-students">decreased tuition revenue</a>. There is also the increasing possibility of <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/03/12/coronavirus-could-have-long-term-impact-state-funding-universities-opinion">long-term impacts</a> related to future budget constraints.</p>
<h2>Established familiarity</h2>
<p>Some institutions have rapidly innovated and implemented online learning, due in part to established familiarity with the necessary tools, teaching approaches and considerations with online learning. This has resulted in less disruption for many students unable to return to in-person classes. </p>
<p>We identified four valuable takeaways here: effective adaptation to rapidly shifting circumstances is contingent on skill, preparedness, a willingness to collaborate and offer care and support, and a cautious attitude towards untested educational technology. </p>
<p>In case of crises, the ability to offer effective online post-secondary learning is going to come down to both professors and staff at centres for teaching and learning. </p>
<p>Teaching online isn’t a solo sport. Professors need training in how to involve students in online discussions and facilitate their deeper understanding of taught material. Instructional designers or educational technologists can help professors figure out how to best teach with technology and make the most of online learning. </p>
<p>If institutions now lack such preparation and planning measures, these need to be put in place now — yesterday — in order to avoid the excessive demands and tensions that come from adopting things quickly. </p>
<p>The clear need for post-secondary online learning expertise in this crisis should serve as a reminder that institutions need to cultivate this competency.
Institutions’ outsourcing of online learning <a href="https://philonedtech.com/opm-updated-2019-market-landscape/">in recent years</a> may enable them to benefit from the expertise of other professionals. In choosing this path, however, they run the risk of losing their in-house expertise and becoming <a href="https://www.thetechedvocate.org/why-your-college-shouldnt-outsource-its-online-programs/">dependent</a> on the stability, success and future directions of <a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-04-22-for-colleges-outsourcing-the-virtual-future-is-a-bad-idea">private companies</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319406/original/file-20200309-118885-1fsnj5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319406/original/file-20200309-118885-1fsnj5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319406/original/file-20200309-118885-1fsnj5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319406/original/file-20200309-118885-1fsnj5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319406/original/file-20200309-118885-1fsnj5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319406/original/file-20200309-118885-1fsnj5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319406/original/file-20200309-118885-1fsnj5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rapid transition to remote teaching won’t be representative of the best that online learning has to offer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sharing resources, strategies</h2>
<p>Sharing resources and strategies will be integral to instructors’ success with teaching online. A <a href="http://bit.ly/rtresourcelist">crowdsourced document</a> listing resources from U.S. universities related to planning for COVID-19 is already circulating in the higher education community. </p>
<p>In this context, it’s important to remind ourselves that good online education isn’t just about providing information to students and asking them to learn the material. Good online education requires planning and thoughtful design for it to not be a second-tier option. We don’t anticipate that rapid transition to remote teaching would be representative of the best that online learning has to offer. </p>
<p>Online learning can be an effective, rich and fulfilling experience but it requires us to pay <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/learning-online">careful attention to student experiences</a>, as well as to take on a critical view of the claims of educational technology companies. </p>
<h2>Kindergarten to Grade 12 closures</h2>
<p>Notably, these lessons will apply beyond higher education. Many kindergarten to Grade 12 schools faced <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3039590/">closures in 2009 in response to the H1N1 pandemic</a>, and this is now becoming a growing global reality. Caregivers will need to negotiate work and children, a struggle which many people may not be ready for. </p>
<p>In this increasingly unstable world, crises potentially impact our education systems. This will be true whether the crisis is caused by the circulation of a new pathogen, or something else entirely: hurricanes, flooding or wildfire, now more common due to climate change.</p>
<p>We have before us a stark reminder that we should approach the promises of technological solutions with caution. Flexible and resilient educational systems require more than tools. They demand collaboration, care, preparation, expertise, resources and learning lessons from the past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132728/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Veletsianos receives funding from SSHRC, CIHR, and the Canada Research Chairs program.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shandell Houlden does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Online learning can help universities quickly adapt to COVID-19, but policy makers must pay careful attention to student experiences and take a critical view of technology companies’ claims.Shandell Houlden, Researcher and Post-doctoral Fellow, Royal Roads UniversityGeorge Veletsianos, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Royal Roads UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1301432020-01-21T14:15:03Z2020-01-21T14:15:03ZSchool tech: teachers explain what they need to make it work better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310880/original/file-20200120-69539-1fo3ved.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Technologies like Virtual Reality can play a role in schools, but teachers must be properly empowered and involved.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rushay/Shutterstock/For editorial use only</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>At the start of each new year there’s a global flurry of excitement and attention around education’s new directions. Technology has become a key part of the discussion. Increased pressure on educators to improve student performance, combined with <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-04/tuod-aoi041119.php">increasingly disconnected, inattentive students</a>, means that schools and universities are desperate for solutions. So they look to technology for change. </p>
<p>As 2020 started, for instance, pundits <a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/722/199523.html">predicted</a> that schools will buy ever more educational software. These writers believe that educational technology - enhancing teaching and learning with technology - will continue to take centre stage both at schools and universities.</p>
<p>This is happening despite numerous <a href="http://ftp.iza.org/dp8939.pdf">studies</a> which <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w22237.pdf">suggest</a> technology is <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2019-10-11-00-technology-not-the-elixir-of-education/">not bringing about</a> the learning gains that were expected.</p>
<p>One of the reasons this technology may not be delivering on its promise is that educators – teachers and lecturers – don’t get much say in decisions about what, when and how to use technology. Research has identified several factors that must be in place before educational technology is effectively used: these include <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318734977_Modelling_the_complexity_of_technology_adoption_in_higher_education_teaching_practice">leadership and vision</a>, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321246745_The_role_of_value_on_teachers'_internalization_of_external_barriers_and_externalization_of_personal_beliefs_for_classroom_technology_integration">positive attitudes</a> among teachers and <a href="https://www.infona.pl/resource/bwmeta1.element.elsevier-72f13ea2-d239-372f-abd6-15f2af6a5022">proper training</a>.</p>
<p>But, as researcher and academic Irena White <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318734977_Modelling_the_complexity_of_technology_adoption_in_higher_education_teaching_practice">has argued</a>, the key factors that affect how teachers use and adopt educational technology are “dynamic, non-linear, (and) complex”. A clearer understanding of teachers’ needs is required if schools and universities are to be better prepared for a future where technology is key to teaching and learning.</p>
<p>This is what prompted me, just more than five years ago, to start asking educators <a href="http://allourideas.org/teaching">the fundamental question</a>: “What do you think is most important for successful technology-based teaching?” I’ve done this using an innovative, dynamic wiki survey tool called All Our Ideas. It allows respondents to add items they feel should be included, which are then voted on by future respondents. It’s a powerful correcting approach, which I’ve explored in my <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-6300-896-9_16">other research</a>, and has resulted in rich data and insights into teachers’ needs. </p>
<p>Three of the top 10 items or “needs” were user generated. This shows why it’s so crucial to listen to stakeholders, such as educators – as we may not even be asking the right questions or identifying the right issues when it comes to their concerns.</p>
<p>What’s emerged is a sort of hierarchy of needs that can help schools and universities make informed decisions about how best to implement effective technology-based teaching.</p>
<h2>Hierarchy of needs</h2>
<p>In the five years since I launched <a href="http://allourideas.org/teaching">the survey</a>, approximately 900 votes have been cast by educators from all over the world.</p>
<p>Analysing the results shows that <a href="https://www.act.click/uploads/1/1/1/2/1112016/maslows-hierarchy-of-teachers-top-10-teaching-with-tech-needs_orig.png">a range of needs</a> are important for a successful approach to teaching with technology. Many of these echo what’s <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318734977_Modelling_the_complexity_of_technology_adoption_in_higher_education_teaching_practice">already been reported</a> in <a href="https://www.infona.pl/resource/bwmeta1.element.elsevier-72f13ea2-d239-372f-abd6-15f2af6a5022">previous research</a>, including <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-6300-896-9_16">my own</a>: having the basic technological platform in place, effective training, support, and social aspects like school support communities for idea sharing. </p>
<p>However, what is is particularly interesting is that the top 10 factors align closely with psychologist Abraham Maslow’s <a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html">hierarchy of human needs</a>. This model helps to explain human motivations.</p>
<p>Needs lower in Maslow’s pyramid, such as food, sleep and clothing (what he calls physiological needs) must be satisfied before higher needs such as respect, self-esteem and freedom (esteem needs) can be tackled. When considering the top 10 needs for effective teaching with technology, it becomes apparent that a similar hierarchy exists.</p>
<p>At the most fundamental “physiological” level are needs associated with working technology and appropriate training. The second “safety” layer sees the need for supportive leadership and access to experts. The third set of “love and belonging” needs is associated with teachers experiencing a sense of buy-in and having networking opportunities. The fourth level of “esteem” needs relates to the freedom of teachers and students to try new things. The fifth and highest layer of “self-actualisation” is the need for ultimate seamless integration of content and digital-age teaching approaches.</p>
<p>Addressing all of these needs, beginning with the most “physiological” basic needs is, in the view of teachers, key to a successful move towards effective technology-based teaching and learning. </p>
<h2>Solutions</h2>
<p>So how can this be done?</p>
<p>Firstly, teachers’ most fundamental needs must be addressed. They want working technology, along with appropriate training in technology and in how it can be applied to teaching. In most developing countries, including South Africa where I conduct my research and teach, while working technology is improving, the basic needs around training are woefully lacking.</p>
<p>Once these needs have been addressed the second level – support needs – can be tackled. Here, structures must be put in place to provide support to the teachers both internally from school leadership and externally from experts in technology and teaching methods. </p>
<p>With a supportive environment in place, the third level of social needs should be addressed. A positive active social space where teachers can connect with other teachers and share successes and failures, needs to be developed and facilitated within and between schools.</p>
<p>Then, what I’ve grouped as “space needs” must be addressed. Teachers and students need space: to make mistakes, to experiment, and to try new approaches. Teachers need space to try new things without fear of sanction. Students need space to experiment with new ways of engaging with content. </p>
<p>Finally, once all of the other needs have been addressed, the need for seamless integration of technology and approaches to teaching and learning in schools can be addressed. This would see teaching enhanced by technology in such a way that education is foregrounded while technology becomes invisible. This should be the educational technology’s ultimate goal.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130143/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr. Craig Blewett is the author of the book "Wake Up Class!: 5 Activating Digital-Age Pedagogies that will Revolutionize your Classroom" and runs the website <a href="https://www.act.click/">https://www.act.click/</a> that trains educators to teach effectively with technology.</span></em></p>A clearer understanding of teachers’ needs is required if schools and universities are to be better prepared for a future where technology is key to teaching and learning.Craig Blewett, Senior Lecturer in Education & Technology, University of KwaZulu-NatalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1228262019-10-17T22:54:43Z2019-10-17T22:54:43ZIn Doug Ford’s e-learning gamble, high school students will lose<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297247/original/file-20191015-98648-uhkc29.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C101%2C983%2C497&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If Ontario rolls out mandatory high school e-learning with no in-person class hours, each student will lose 440 hours of face-to-face class time.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Next school year, Ontario plans to launch a massive learning experiment with high school students that seems set to increase inequality and compound failure for students already struggling in face-to-face classes.</p>
<p>The Ministry of Education, under Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative Party, plans to require <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/education-changes-windsor-reaction-1.5061208">students to take a minimum of four e-learning credits to graduate</a>. This announcement came this past March. The province also plans to “<a href="https://news.ontario.ca/edu/en/2019/03/education-that-works-for-you-2.html">centralize the delivery of all e-learning courses</a>.” This means school boards will have less control over how e-learning is administered locally. </p>
<p>There’s been little detail about how the province will oversee or run e-learning, beyond a 2020-21 phase-in. If Ontario indeed introduces e-learning with no in-person class hours — what’s called “supplemental e-learning” — each student will lose 440 hours of face-to-face class time.</p>
<p>Questioned <a href="http://hansardindex.ontla.on.ca/hansardeissue/42-1/l081.htm">in the legislature about the plan</a>, Lisa Thompson, then the minister of education, asked:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“<a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2019/03/25/mandatory-e-learning-announced-by-ford-government-comes-under-fire-from-ndp.html">What is wrong with making sure that our students, at minimum, once a year, embrace technology for good?</a>”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2729.2011.00406.x">fantasy of progress</a> reflected in this statement — that technology can determine educational outcomes — suggests that technology offers simple solutions to complex problems. </p>
<p>I am part of a chorus of voices critical of Ontario’s proposal. My perspective is informed by my doctoral research in the department of geography at the University of Toronto on e-learning in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), and my extensive background teaching e-learning as a secondary school teacher in the same board. </p>
<h2>Bad policy</h2>
<p>Forcing high school students to take e-learning courses when they get more support in face-to-face classes is bad policy. Advancing mandatory e-learning risks diverting resources and energy away from young people who have a right to a robust and culturally responsive education right where they live. In this way, advocating mandatory e-learning for high school students risks contributing to <a href="https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/%7Egwallace/Papers/Durlauf%20(2011).pdf">inequitable public policy</a>. </p>
<p>Research by education researcher Carl James at York University has shown that inequitable public policy impacts <a href="https://edu.yorku.ca/files/2017/04/Towards-Race-Equity-in-Education-April-2017.pdf">Black</a> students disproportionately; scholars Anita Olsen Harper and Shirley Thompson at the University of Manitoba highlight that the lower graduation rate for Indigenous students is due to the <a href="https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=655021915836359;res=IELIND">many structural oppressions that Indigenous people experience</a> including schooling that doesn’t address the realities of racism or provide support for students to enhance their traditional practices. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297270/original/file-20191016-98670-qarnpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297270/original/file-20191016-98670-qarnpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297270/original/file-20191016-98670-qarnpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297270/original/file-20191016-98670-qarnpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297270/original/file-20191016-98670-qarnpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297270/original/file-20191016-98670-qarnpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297270/original/file-20191016-98670-qarnpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Investing in technology shouldn’t mean ignoring the significant role teachers and in-person classrooms play in fostering learning experiences.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since the announcement, <a href="https://www.dpcdsb.org/Documents/Community%20Information%20Letter%20Ministry%20Announcement_DPCDSB%20Impact%20April%202019%20FINAL%20v2.pdf">schools</a> and <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2019/09/09/ontario-students-overwhelmingly-reject-provinces-e-learning-plans-survey-finds.html">students</a> have criticized Ontario’s plan: an Ontario Student Trustees’ Association survey found that almost 95 per cent of 6,087 student respondents said they “<a href="https://www.osta-aeco.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/OSTA-AECO-eLearning-the-Students-Perspective.pdf">disapprove of the new e-learning mandate</a>.” </p>
<p>Educational experts have <a href="https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/doug-fords-classroom-part-1-digital-jolt-looms-large-in-big-changes">spoken out</a> against the scale, speed and lack of detail. </p>
<p>The previous provincial government also <a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/funding/1415/SchBdModernization.pdf">rejected mandatory e-learning</a> because it was “not appropriate to address the learning needs of every student.”</p>
<h2>Corporations in classrooms?</h2>
<p>According to a People for Education 2019 survey of Ontario schools, currently “an <a href="https://peopleforeducation.ca/our-work/ontario-e-learning-plan-unique-in-north-america/">average of five per cent of students per high school participate” in earning credits through e-learning. </a> </p>
<p>The Ford government’s plan will increase the number of e-learners by 95 per cent. That will drive students towards a model of education that is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2018.1553566">still developing</a> and has been criticized for its negative impact on student outcomes south of the border.</p>
<p>In the United States, <a href="https://www.digitallearningcollab.com/online-learning-graduation-requirements">five states</a> mandate one credit in e-learning to graduate. If the U.S. <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED526345.pdf">offers a lesson</a>, it’s that e-learning will expand the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2015.1132774">influence of corporations</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2013.820354">private interests</a>.</p>
<p>In Canada, British Columbia leads in e-learning activity, but the majority of students are <a href="https://bctf.ca/publications.aspx?id=48940">concentrated in independent (private) schools</a>.</p>
<h2>E-learning in Toronto</h2>
<p>In 2016, I conducted a <a href="https://beyhanfarhadi.com/2019/04/08/summary-of-findings/">year-long study</a> to examine how students understood the role of e-learning as part of their schooling experience in the TDSB, the largest and one of the most diverse school boards in Canada. </p>
<p>I interviewed 20 students multiple times each semester in seven e-learning classrooms across all disciplines, such as health education, math and science and core English courses. I also interviewed 30 stakeholders, including parents, administrators, e-learning teachers and guidance counsellors.</p>
<p>I also observed more than 3,000 discussion threads and 60 hours of virtual classes. </p>
<p>Virtual classes are video conferences where students can meet the teacher and peers in real time to ask questions and review content. The teacher records the class and posts it on the homepage so students can access the sessions. Virtual classes are poorly attended in real time, and students I interviewed inconsistently watched the recording after it was posted. Since flexibility is one benefit of e-learning, teachers can’t force students to attend a live virtual class.</p>
<h2>High achievers and inequality</h2>
<p>The reality of supplementary e-learning in Toronto right now is that course offerings target already high-achieving, university-bound students. </p>
<p>I found that 52 per cent of students taking e-learning were concentrated in 12.5 per cent of schools that the board classifies as having higher <a href="https://www.tdsb.on.ca/Portals/research/docs/reports/LOI2017.pdf">learning opportunities</a>. Students were more likely to be concentrated in the most privileged schools in the city.</p>
<p>These schools are in <a href="https://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/rcis/documents/Segregation_Trends_in_Toronto_Hulchanski_at_Ryerson_14_Feb_2019_w_Appendix.pdf">communities that are richer and whiter</a> than those facing greater external challenges. This was true not only of the year I conducted my study but reflects data I collected on student enrolment spanning almost a decade. </p>
<p>The typical e-learning student in my study was already successful in a face-to-face class. They often enrolled in e-learning because it was an efficient way to earn a credit. They spent significantly less time online than they would face-to-face, which expanded their schedule to participate in extra-curricular activities needed for university admissions or to prioritize other classes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297444/original/file-20191017-98670-6fvzs3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297444/original/file-20191017-98670-6fvzs3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297444/original/file-20191017-98670-6fvzs3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297444/original/file-20191017-98670-6fvzs3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297444/original/file-20191017-98670-6fvzs3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297444/original/file-20191017-98670-6fvzs3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297444/original/file-20191017-98670-6fvzs3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For students struggling with mental health or on a competitive performance schedule in athletics or the arts, e-learning was necessary and valuable.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Students also took e-learning to boost their “top six” average for applications to competitive programs. More uncommon were students who needed e-learning because they were unable to regularly attend school face-to-face. For students struggling with mental health or on a competitive performance schedule in athletics or the arts, e-learning was necessary and valuable. </p>
<p>Overall, e-learners were an exclusive group of students who possessed the soft skills and institutional knowledge to succeed; this is typical of <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-40317-5_43">programs of choice</a>. </p>
<p>One should not deduce that based on this group of students’ success, all students will succeed with e-learning.</p>
<p>And, overall high student achievement in e-learning cannot be conflated with the meaning of student e-learning or school experience: For example, I interviewed three Black students enrolled in e-learning who described how racism in school negatively impacted their lives and feelings toward education. </p>
<p>Administrators, teachers and guidance counsellors I interviewed said students struggling face-to-face often struggle further online, especially if they are easily distracted and need support with organization, time management and independent learning. This is why the TDSB encourages students to take a <a href="https://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/elearning/e-Learning-Day-School/e-Learning-Quiz">“readiness survey”</a> to determine if they are a good fit for e-learning.</p>
<h2>Blended model is better</h2>
<p>Although I’m critical of mandatory supplementary e-learning directed by the province, I’m optimistic about how e-learning can be integrated into face-to-face classes in what’s called a “blended model” of instruction. </p>
<p>Blended instruction provides teachers a way to meet a greater range of learning needs without abandoning the benefits of face-face supports.</p>
<p>If the province is serious about their commitment to students, they would invest in rather than divest from public education, and learn from the many teachers already integrating e-learning in traditional classrooms.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122826/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beyhan Farhadi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For high school students, e-learning is best introduced in face-to-face classes where teachers can meet a greater range of learning needs – not as a completely online experience.Beyhan Farhadi, PhD, Department of Geography and Planning; Secondary Teacher, Toronto District School Board, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1186122019-06-18T12:27:46Z2019-06-18T12:27:46ZFive things South Africa must get right for tech in schools to work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278898/original/file-20190611-32366-lel0is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Introducing technology into the classroom is important, but teachers need proper support.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rich T Photo/Shutterstock/Editorial use only</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa says it is pushing ahead to grasp the many opportunities presented by the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/what-is-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/">fourth industrial revolution</a>. President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed a <a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/press-statements/president-appoints-commission-fourth-industrial-revolution">commission of experts</a> to explore what this fusing of the physical, digital and biological worlds, driven by technology, will mean for the country. </p>
<p>One of the areas in which technology is already playing a major role is the school system with some South African schools having already embraced it. President Ramaphosa announced in his <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/president-cyril-ramaphosa-2019-state-nation-address-7-feb-2019-0000">2019 state of the nation address</a> that tablets would be rolled out to all South African schools. There’s also been <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/saje/article/view/143683">extensive research</a> in recent years into the potential role of electronic and mobile learning in the country’s schools. </p>
<p>And there have been other initiatives such as introducing <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/292316/tech-overhaul-for-sa-schools-will-put-a-tablet-in-the-hands-of-all-learners-report/">robotics education</a> in primary schools as well as ensuring the provision of <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2018-06-15-00-the-future-of-ict-is-in-gautengs-classrooms">digitising learning resources</a>. </p>
<p>But are all South Africa’s public schools ready for this shift? As an academic <a href="http://www.mmakij.co.za/">whose research</a> focuses <a href="https://theconversation.com/marrying-technology-and-home-language-boosts-maths-and-science-learning-104587">on educational technology</a>, I would suggest that five important factors must be considered before the answer is a resounding yes. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/marrying-technology-and-home-language-boosts-maths-and-science-learning-104587">Marrying technology and home language boosts maths and science learning</a>
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<p>Of course, schools in the country are not <a href="https://www.schoolguide.co.za/for-parents/school-review-guidelines/1036-education-guide/10975-school-fees-quintiles.html">homogeneous</a>. But, broadly speaking, infrastructure, ongoing teacher training and support, appropriate localised content, technical support and safety and security must all be prioritised so that educational technology actually does what it’s supposed to: <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/countries-to-watch-and-learn-from">enhances teaching and learning</a>.</p>
<h2>Focus areas</h2>
<p>The first important area is infrastructure.</p>
<p>Schools need technical infrastructure to support both online and offline access to digital resources. That physical infrastructure needs to managed and properly maintained. For this, proper planning is needed: hardware tends to be the last priority for schools when they have many other financial needs. A sustainable financial plan for hardware maintenance is crucial in the introduction of any technology in schools.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.iol.co.za/weekend-argus/news/data-costs-still-too-high-in-south-africa-19606374">Data costs</a> are another major concern. Software, related applications and learning content need to be available offline so that pupils can keep working beyond the school premises. </p>
<p>The second area that needs attention is teacher training and support. This is not a once off process – it must be continuous. But as it stands, many of the teachers in the education system received <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/saje/article/viewFile/143683/133397">very few or no</a> technology infused learning experiences while they were studying.</p>
<p>And, crucially, introducing more educational technology is about more than the addition of a piece of hardware or some software. It also means introducing novel approaches to teaching and learning. Universities that train teachers need to be cognisant of this. </p>
<p>In my own work with the <a href="https://peoyap.org/">Peo Ya Phetogo</a> Foundation, a non profit organisation aimed at empowering teachers with computer and digital literacy skills, my colleagues and I have learned that teachers need local <a href="https://wiki.lib.sun.ac.za/images/f/f3/Teaching-in-a-digital-age.pdf">communities of practice</a> where people work together and learn from each other. This can support their journey of transition from older teaching materials to modern technology. There is also <a href="https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/42311/Vandeyar_Practice_2013.pdf?sequence=1">extensive South African research</a> which reflects this issue. </p>
<p>Then there’s localised content. There’s already a lot of local learning software in South Africa but a lot of this is in English. Most South African pupils don’t speak English as their first language, and have to battle with <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/saje/article/viewFile/143683/133397">translating difficult concepts</a> into their native language to try and understand what’s being taught. This is made even tougher when they are also learning new platforms and methods, like digital education tools.</p>
<p>Content and education technology developers need to provide adaptable systems which consider the context of use, the culture of use as well as language of use. The design process needs to follow a co-design process which also involves teachers. After all, a potential mobile learning user in South Africa can be some non-English speaker, accessing the mobile learning content in a cattle <a href="https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/kraal">kraal</a> in a village.</p>
<h2>More support and security</h2>
<p>The fourth area is technical support. Technology introduction in schools needs ongoing “help desk” support. This task is often left to <a href="https://www.education.gov.za/Portals/0/CD/National%20Curriculum%20Statements%20and%20Vocational/CAPS%20FET%20_%20COMPUTER%20APPLICATIONS%20TECHNOLOGY%20_%20GR%2010-12%20_%20Web_6AC6.pdf?ver=2015-01-27-154348-193">Computer Applications Technology</a> or Computing subject teachers. These teachers become burdened: they are seen as the the all round computing experts, expected to always be able to handle help desk questions. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I have heard this often in our teacher workshops – these teachers’ colleagues also expect them to keep and remember their passwords on their behalf. Schools in urban, peri-urban and rural schools will need dedicated technical support services which teachers will be able to rely on when facing any technical difficulties.</p>
<p>Finally, there’s safety and security. The use of high-end technology within and beyond schools not only affects teachers and learners but also the affects communities in which the schools are based. In a <a href="https://time.com/longform/south-africa-unequal-country/">highly unequal society</a>, crime becomes a challenge for schools, teachers and learners who have to make use of such technologies. Any introduction of technology must be accompanied by a sustainable security plan.</p>
<h2>Policy review</h2>
<p>This is not to say that technology doesn’t belong in schools. On the contrary, the renewed focus on introducing technology to schools should be celebrated. But it also requires a review of South Africa’s existing technology in education policies and a sustainable plan to ensure that no child is deprived of a skill that is no longer a luxury.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118612/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mmaki Jantjies receives funding from The South African National Research Foundation. She is affiliated with PYP Foundation. </span></em></p>Teacher training and support, appropriate localised content, technical support and safety and security must all be prioritised.Mmaki Jantjies, Senior Lecturer in Information Systems at the University of the Western Cape, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1133352019-04-21T12:46:35Z2019-04-21T12:46:35ZMinecraft can increase problem solving, collaboration and learning - yes, at school<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268633/original/file-20190410-2909-gr0yjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Minecraft and other games, players are highly receptive to learning embedded in the game scenario. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thierry Karsenti</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A video game like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/magazine/the-minecraft-generation.html">Minecraft</a> in schools might trouble some parents. As a <a href="http://www.chairs-chaires.gc.ca/chairholders-titulaires/profile-eng.aspx?profileId=828">Canada research chair in technologies and education</a>, my hope is both parents and educators take the time to learn about how using Minecraft at school could be beneficial. </p>
<p>Firstly, parents and teachers are right to ask questions about video gaming, particularly given sometimes conflicting messages about its impact. Some researchers caution about the possible impacts of child and youth exposure <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563215003088">to violence</a> or problems of gaming addiction or <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/09/27/kids-screen-time-effects_a_23543754/">screen saturation</a>, while others say <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=EaD_DQAAQBAJ&lpg=PT16&ots=kjTlBHrAtw&dq=violence%20video%20games%20parents%20worries&lr&hl=fr&pg=PT4#v=onepage&q=violence%20video%20games%20parents%20worries&f=false">fears may be exaggerated</a> and it’s a matter of balance.</p>
<p>Parents’ potential skepticism of Minecraft is understandable, given its immense appeal among youngsters. It is one of the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2016/07/08/here-are-the-five-best-selling-video-games-of-all-time/#460ce5095926">most popular video games of all time</a>, with more than <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/680124/minecraft-unit-sales-worldwide/">150 million copies sold</a>. </p>
<p>But I’ve learned through my research that many are largely unaware of the enormous educational potential of Minecraft. Many people also don’t know <a href="https://education.minecraft.net/">Minecraft Education Edition</a> was released in the fall of 2016 and this version has been rapidly catching on at schools. </p>
<p>Since 2013, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/minecraft-spawns-classroom-lessons/2013/03/14/717aed66-87b8-11e2-98a3-b3db6b9ac586_story.html">American</a> and <a href="http://www.pcgamer.com/minecraft-becomes-a-compulsory-class-for-swedish-school/">Swedish</a> schools have been systematically integrating Minecraft into their schools, and it is being used around the world to <a href="https://education.minecraft.net/lessons/science-in-minecraft/">teach science</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2017/apr/05/public-appetite-for-new-tech-is-shaking-up-governments">urban planning</a> and <a href="https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2017/11/minecraft-can-transform-your-world-language-classroom">foreign languages</a>. Masses of educational applications and experiences using Minecraft are available on <a href="http://www.recitus.qc.ca/node/644">online sites</a> and forums. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268894/original/file-20190411-44794-3zt6cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268894/original/file-20190411-44794-3zt6cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268894/original/file-20190411-44794-3zt6cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268894/original/file-20190411-44794-3zt6cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268894/original/file-20190411-44794-3zt6cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268894/original/file-20190411-44794-3zt6cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268894/original/file-20190411-44794-3zt6cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Creativity, student engagement and collaboration between users are some of the aptitudes known to be developed through gameplay.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thierry Karsenti</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Montréal, a number of schools joined a contest in which students use Minecraft to reproduce historic sites and events in celebration of the city’s 375th anniversary, called <a href="http://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/d787353b-43e3-4342-b537-8c379d9de0fd%7C_0.html">Mission 375</a>. With my team at the University of Montréal, we felt it important to investigate the educational potential of Minecraft in order to provide a deeper understanding of the impacts on young learners.</p>
<h2>Gaming for learning</h2>
<p>So why all the interest in video games? Compelling research exists about the benefits of gaming for learning. Educational technology researchers have found that video games <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-3797(02)00570-6">capture children’s attention and provide particularly favorable conditions for learning</a> and have shown <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/004005990503700304">positive effects on cognitive, affective and psychomotor functioning</a>. </p>
<p>When players are fully engaged in a gaming task, they enter what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls the <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/CSIFTP">“flow state,” also known as “the zone,”</a> a state highly conducive to learning. </p>
<p>While becoming deeply engrossed in gaming is sometimes depicited in a negative light or only associated with addiction, in fact this state can be harnessed to support or advance learning goals. For example, in this task-focused state, players are highly receptive to learning embedded in the game scenario. Creativity, student engagement and collaboration between users are just some of the aptitudes that are known to be developed through gameplay. </p>
<p>In addition, video games can help today’s youngsters cope with a future world <a href="https://theconversation.com/testing-literacy-today-requires-more-than-a-pencil-and-paper-114154">requiring more and more digital literacy</a>. In other words, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00098650903505415">they will need 21st century skills</a>.</p>
<h2>Minecraft to teach curriculum</h2>
<p>My team and I adopted an exploratory research design to highlight the main uses of Minecraft in a school setting and to identify any benefits of using Minecraft at school. We developed a program called <a href="http://karsenti.ca/Master_Minecraft_Levels.pdf">Minecraft Master</a> where students had to complete more than 40 different tasks. Tasks were closely linked to the school curriculum; for example, students have to create a navigable map, making use of language, mathematics and spatial design, something we asked them to do with Minecraft. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268895/original/file-20190411-44794-1siwf1c.GIF?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268895/original/file-20190411-44794-1siwf1c.GIF?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268895/original/file-20190411-44794-1siwf1c.GIF?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268895/original/file-20190411-44794-1siwf1c.GIF?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268895/original/file-20190411-44794-1siwf1c.GIF?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268895/original/file-20190411-44794-1siwf1c.GIF?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268895/original/file-20190411-44794-1siwf1c.GIF?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students were encouraged to progress through levels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tierry Karsenti</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We formed a partnership with one Montréal school. Participation was open to 118 Grade 3 to 6 students in an after-school program based on computers available. Registration took place during recess, on a first-come-first-served basis and parental consent was compulsory. Most of the students took four blocks of six weeks of Minecraft during the school year (an equivalent of about six months). </p>
<p>With the support of a program facilitator, students worked individually and in teams to digitally build structures such as impressive houses, a soccer stadium, a space ship, a railroad track to the Titanic and the Titanic itself. </p>
<p>Researchers also attended some sessions. We studied the main impacts on learning to investigate how gamified learning interventions may <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10494820.2014.964263">increase student engagement and enhance learning</a>.
We used a combination of data collected from surveys, interviews,
“think aloud” protocols (where students speak their problem-solving strategies out loud), journals, tracking of student progress and digital footprints. Using these various methods allowed substantial data triangulation and validation. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95059-4_12">educational impacts we found were encouraging</a>. The students showed a heightened motivation towards school, stronger computer skills, greater problem-solving skills, expanded reading and writing skills, a development in creativity and autonomy and increased collaboration with classmates. </p>
<p>The results of the studies we conducted confirm that Minecraft has real educational value. Notably, <a href="http://www.karsenti.ca/minecraft/files_files/Minecraft_Research_Reports_Karsenti_2017.pdf">gaming allowed the students to fully engage in activities that were both educational and fun</a>.</p>
<h2>Planned, supported, purposeful</h2>
<p>However, it is important to understand that the use of Minecraft in our context was planned, supported and purposeful. This structure is crucial for a successful educational use of the game. Without such boundaries, students might not want to stop playing and learning advantages could be wasted. </p>
<p>Technologies, games and other “screen-related” activities can be a fun experience for students. But it is important to <a href="https://theconversation.com/too-much-screen-time-linked-to-an-epidemic-of-myopia-among-young-people-111599">balance screen time with other activities</a> that are essential for students’ development such as <a href="https://csepguidelines.ca/children-and-youth-5-17/">physically active play</a>, reading, etc. Both parents and teachers can help students find this balance by working together on some rules about technology use. </p>
<p>Therefore, it is incumbent on both parents and teachers to structure the use of video games such as Minecraft to ensure that they provide students with appropriate support for the use of educational technologies. Such supervision would allow them to fully benefit from the incredible potential of this game.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113335/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thierry Karsenti receives funding from Canada Research Chairs.</span></em></p>The supervised, structured and balanced use of Minecraft could allow students to fully benefit from the potential of this game to build skills and increase motivation.Thierry Karsenti, Professor, Canada Research Chair in Technologies and Education, Université de MontréalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.