Good Practice

Screen Shot 2015-05-11 at 20.35.45‘Building Society: Young People’s Experiences and Outcomes in the Technologies’, from Education Scotland, reviews the impact of technologies in Scottish schools. It highlights good practice observed across all sectors and sets out some key targets for improving learner experiences in preparation for life and work.

The key recommendation for moving forward is to ensure that digital technologies do not merely enhance learning, but should be placed at the ‘heart of learning’. So how does this look?

  • Digital technologies should no longer be viewed as ‘ICT to enhance learning’ but it should have a significant impact upon it
  • A starting point would be for educators to embed technologies at the heart of learning in Numeracy, Literacy and Health & Wellbeing
  • The focus should not be on the technology but how it is used by educators i.e. to exploit the motivation for technology in the workplace and the natural curiosity of young children

How can this be achieved?

The integration of digital technologies, as part of day to day pedagogy (how we teach), is likely to form a significant part of a teacher’s professional development. A good starting point to help teachers evaluate current practice is the use of the SAMR model and this simple ICT skills audit.

What is the SAMR Model?

The use of technology will exist in all four levels of the SAMR model, but great learning can happen when the lesson is designed around the learning objective and not the technology alone.