Interview
Edtech UK Magazine interviews Claire Price, on edtech before and after COVID.
Words How would you describe edtech in your setting before COVID? In February 2021 I was in an academy in a small MAT; I had been Principal of this academy since September 2020. MAT decisions had been made about centralised IT, but this was systems-based. Conversations were about products or platforms and not about purpose. Students’ access to devices was poor in school and even worse in the home. Most students’ access to IT was via a smartphone. Most teachers did not use edtech in a systematic way. Positively, all teachers had school laptops issued in the summer term of 2020. During the first lockdown we bought, begged and borrowed as many laptops as we could to give to students to try to overcome digital poverty. We were fortunate, too, to be one of the early beneficiaries of the DfE’s laptop scheme. How do you think this compares to the national picture and why? 38
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Edtech UK
I think the picture across England was a real mixed bag. Many schools had chosen delivery platforms, but not yet exploited the full extent of how this could enhance teaching and learning. In Wales, where I had previously been headteacher, the Digital Competency Framework and the use of Hwb had provided Welsh educators with a completely different framework within which to work. Schools that had addressed the DCF well and were utilising Hwb extensively were probably in a better place to springboard edtech during the pandemic. What did you put in place in the first lockdown? The first lockdown was a perfect incubator for staff development and growing student expertise in digital technologies. We started lockdown having handed, or hand delivered, 3 weeks’ worth of paper-based resources to every student in the school. This gave us time to develop what was to become a digital learning strategy to be proud of! www.edtechuk.org
We developed our online learning cycle based on early research from best practice in China, and squirrelled away as much expertise, information, ideas and tips as we could to support the development of our teaching and learning. One of the real successes of the first lockdown was the professional generosity of teachers across the globe. I think this self-directed and self-sourced CPD will have a massive impact on how we organise professional learning in the future. We amended our learning cycle so that opportunities for collaboration were integral to how we planned learning. This meant that student progress remained strong and it also had the effect of focusing on students’ mental health. By the end of lockdown one we had introduced a number of EdTech tools to support learning, assessment, communication and workload. What is your vision for edtech now based on your experiences?
