What shapes teachers' uses of technology?

Photo by Steve Wheeler

The image on this page is a slide from the keynote presented by Graham Brown-Martin at Learning Live, a conference hosted recently in London by the Learning and Performance Institute (LPI). It derives from the work of Seymour Papert on Constructionism - the theory behind 'learning by making', Makerspaces, Fab Labs and Logo.

It summarises the difference between teachers' attitudes to technology depending on whether they subscribe to pedagogy that privileges the transmission of knowledge by experts to novices through instruction, against those who espouse knowledge as something that can be constructed by the learner through negotiation, practice, social interaction and reflection.

Granted, some might consider this to be an over-simplification of the two theories, but regardless of what camp you sit most comfortably within, it's interesting to note that the way technology can be deployed is influenced by teacher beliefs, and its success or failure can be influenced by the manner of its deployment. It's not just about teaching and learning. The successful integration of technology will depend on the critical balance of activities and engagement with knowledge, and will continue to be influenced by the role teachers believe technology can play in supporting learning. Your comments, as ever, are encouraged in the comments box below.


What shapes teachers' uses of technology? by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Posted by Steve Wheeler from Learning with e's