Effective use of technology is more important than access to devices and the internet, OECD study shows

Teachers need to be encouraged and incentivised to use technology and integrate it into teaching and learning, an OECD webinar has heard.

The event, organised to present the latest findings from the most recent cycle of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), was told that effective use of technology, such as online learning platforms, was more important in schools than the levels of access to devices.

Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills said the Covid-19 pandemic had provided educators and students with “a reality check” in what was possible with e-learning.

He said the pandemic would throw “deep and long shadows” over the world’s societies, with economies suffering and learning lost for millions of students. “The challenge now is to make education better than it was before,” he said.

This did not necessarily mean spending more time learning but using the time for education more effectively and productively.

He said that in many countries the pandemic had thrown up discrepancies between access to technology to enable online learning. But it also revealed that even among technologically advanced nations the resources were not always there to provide effective online teaching, nor were teachers incentivised to use it.

The OECD found that the UK was one of the best performers when it came to guidelines on the use of digital devices in schools. However, as in many other countries, the challenge was in aligning resources with learner needs.

Professor Rose Luckin, director of EDUCATE Ventures and professor of learner centred design at UCL Knowledge Lab, told the webinar participants: “You can have all the technology in place, but you need the human support and to incentivise teachers to get involved and to use it. Teachers have to be empowered to leverage the technology and to empower learners. Really, it is more about human relationships that the technology.

“We need to get right the validation of doing the learning and using the technology. Teachers in the UK are not provided with as many incentives as elsewhere, and so there is less validation that using technology is important. Individual learners also need social validation from their teachers and peer group that it’s ok to do the learning at home.

“During this time of Covid it can be really problematic. We need to look at how we can provide that social support and validation through online platforms, and we need to improve the CPD and incentives for teachers to integrate digital into their everyday practice.”