Does every pair of hands in your classroom hold a digital device? IE journalist Monica Crouch hears all sides of the debate about technology’s impact on teaching. “Kids and screen time” has long been a go-to topic at dinner parties throughout the nation. Now, thanks to Growing up Digital, a new report by the Gonski Institute for Education at the University of NSW, the discussion has shifted focus to technology in schools – and moved into the public domain. The report, released in midApril 2020, is a groundbreaking exposé of the impact of educational and personal technologies in the classroom. It is based on a survey of 1876 teachers, principals and support staff from government, Catholic and independent schools, from preschool to Year 12, asking what they are observing as technology finds its way ever deeper into classrooms. It was a mission of discovery with some unsettling findings. The Secretary of the NSW Department of Education, Mark Scott, was one of the first to weigh in. “Part of our challenge 10 | independent education | issue 2 | Vol 50 | 2020
as educators is that this a realtime experiment that’s being conducted on us all,” Scott said in a Four Corners episode aired on 20 November 2019 (the program gained exclusive early access to initial survey results). “It’s not as though we’re wise adults who can reflect on how we dealt with smartphones when we were children,” Scott said. “We’re learning to use the technology at the same time as we’re trying to train young people to use the technology.” Professor Pasi Sahlberg, Deputy Director of the Gonski Institute and co-author of the report, says that with technology’s benefits come challenges to students’ wellbeing. “It is clear the problems facing young people today are complex,“ he said. “But simply banning devices will not help students navigate the digital minefield.“ Inevitable and essential Let’s start with the good news. The survey revealed that “43 per cent of Australian teachers and principals believe digital technologies enhance their teaching and learning activities, rather than detract”.
Robyn Ewing AM, Professor Emerita, Teacher Education and the Arts at the University of Sydney (pictured top right), sees technology in the classroom as not just inevitable but essential. “In the age we live in, children need to be literate in a whole range of different ways,” Professor Ewing said. “Today’s children are used to different forms of technology from a young age. All of those things are good and needed and necessary in the context in which we’re living.” A kindergarten teacher from Sydney, Michelle Smith (not her real name, to protect the identity of her students), embraces technology herself and enjoys teaching it to her students. She aims to instil in her students a continual willingness to learn by modelling this herself. Smith’s kindergartners have taken enthusiastically to Sphero and Bee-bots, programmable devices that move according to instructions entered into an iPad – a novel way for young brains to learn basic coding. Students at Smith’s school also get a taste of 3D printing and Micro:bit – pocket-size computers for
