When it comes to exams, assessments, or just asking learners to show what they have learned, education seems to offer only two options;
1) write an essay / thesis / report / paragraph/ sentence
2) tick the correct answer from a list
Yet there must be hundreds, perhaps a thousand different ways in which a learner can demonstrate what they have learned. If you want evidence of some of the many ways, then take a look at John Davitt’s page here, where over a hundred different ways have been listed (you can add your own new ways too).
Technology, e-learning, ICT (call it what you will) seems to be the worst for offering only limited ways of allowing learners to record what they have learned. You are far more likely to be offered a multiple choice question in an e-learning exercise than be asked to, say, draw a picture or make a video. Learners are more likely to use a computer to write an essay rather than make a podcast.
By limiting the ways in which learners use technology we restrict the things we teach them. By focusing upon a narrow range of uses of technology, we restrict the benefits of technology to only those learners whose style of learning best suits that narrow range. It is by widening our uses of technology that we allow the widest range of learners to experience the benefits of technology.
For a tool that is capable of displaying multimedia, multi-sensory and exciting resources, it is despairing to see a computer used in ways that are largely text based, unexciting and favour learners who learn best through reading and writing. When used in such narrow ways, learning technology can be said to be letting down the majority of learners.
Who, though, is to blame and what is the answer? By way of irony, let me give you a multiple choice question and ask you to select the correct answer!
Q) How are learners being let down?
a) Technology is letting down the learners
b) Teachers are letting down the learners
c) The way in which we use technology is letting down the learners
The answer is not a) – technology is not letting down anyone; it is a tool, a versatile tool which can be used in a myriad different ways and has appeal to many people of different backgrounds and personalities.
The answer is not b) – it is not the teachers who are letting learners down; teachers know about different ways of teaching, teachers are great at devising new and interesting approaches to engage their learners.
I believe the answer to be c) – it is by changing the ways in which we use technology that we can improve, expand and transform learning for the benefit of learners.
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Post Revisions:
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