What I have learnt about EdTech after many lesson observations

Yesterday I went to a restaurant for lunch and the order was done on a QR code. While using the app, I accidentally closed it once because the "back" button closed the page. After I reopened it, made my choice and added the items to cart, I was asked to key in my credit card details. Once that is done, I had to key in a one-time password (OTP), before the payment was completed.

In contrast, at another restaurant, I went to the counter to order my food and paid for it with NFC payment. All done at a fraction of the time.

As a user, two different methods (with different technologies) were used. Using the QR code was a hassle. Using the NFC payment made my life a lot better.

This example shows that we have to consider which tech is truly beneficial to the user. Even if it is useful, there are certainly trade-offs that come with it.

I had the privilege to observe many classes the past term. These classes range from no tech, to using tech in a normal day-to-day lesson, to using tech on special occasions.

I had learnt so much from my colleagues, and this post alone is not enough to cover everything. However, I would like to share some key principles that I have distilled.

(1) Proper lesson sequencing and strong pedagogy comes before incorporating EdTech

Tech can enhance pedagogy, but only if the teacher is clear about the "why" behind their chosen pedagogy. Since teachers are experts of pedagogy and understand why pedagogical decisions are made, the next step is to see how technology can enhance parts of their pedagogy. For instance, if I think that the most appropriate thing to do at this juncture of the lesson is a discussion task, I can choose tools that help me with that. Tech can augment the teaching processes to make it better.

(2) Teachers who use tech with strong pedagogical backing should share tips and tricks with others

I have observed teachers who are able to use certain EdTech tools very skilfully, and were able to explain the pedagogical considerations behind it. By understanding the "why", they can share tips and tricks with their colleagues. In one example, a teacher pushed different worksheets to students who were in the same group through the use of OneNote's Class Notebook, and gave the class a few minutes to solve their own question. By assigning different questions, the teacher was able to ensure that the students attempted their own question and not rely on the "brightest" student in the group with the answer.

(3) Start with problems that traditional teaching cannot address

There are limitations to what traditional teaching without technology can do. For those, finding appropriate technology solutions can help enable us to solve those problems.

In traditional teaching without technology, collecting assessment data for assessment for learning in class is challenging. It means marking all the students' work and manually keying in their marks after. To ensure that we can collect quiz responses quickly and analyse that data to inform our teaching, quiz platforms can be used to plug that gap.

Another example is the use of 3D animations and augmentated reality to show models of atoms and organic chemistry mechanisms, which traditional paper might not be able to show as clearly.

By asking "I wish I can..." and "what problems do I still have?" can help us to decide if tech can help us.

(4) Look at what tech can offer that traditional means cannot

In my first point, I mentioned that tech can augment the teaching process if we have clear lesson sequencing. Often, there are substitutes that do not require tech. This means that we have to see what new affordances the tech can provide.

For instance, group discussions in a class with mutiple groups can be done through the use of Miro, an online canvas that allows for collaboration. An alternative, non-tech solution is the use of flipcharts. However, with the huge canvas space that Miro provides, it allows the teacher to draw connections from the various answers from the different groups. In addition, in an annotation task, allowing students to annotate on duplicate copies of a document with a fixed colour palette allows us to have bird's eye view of the similarities and differences between group annotations.

(5) Playing the devil's advocate is important when deciding which tech tool to use

The use of tech in teaching and learning has to be intentional and effective. Often traditional, direct teaching can do the job. And when we choose to add technology in to enhance the lesson, its potential impact has to be worth the time and effort spent on it. The benefit of the tech has to be apparent. Therefore, being honest and asking these questions before jumping into the tool is important.

In conclusion, a teacher has to be strong in their pedagogy, so that they can see where tech can come in to augment their lesson. But using tech comes with trade-offs such as time and effort. As such, we have to ask ourselves whether the benefit is worth the cost. And often this means that tech either has to solve problems that traditional methods cannot, or it makes traditional methods more effective. Finally, social learning - learning from experts who have demonstrated why certain EdTech tools are useful in certain parts of their lesson, can share helpful tips to enhance our use of EdTech.

Just like using the QR code and NFC payment, clearly one was more useful, and the other was more of a hassle. An honest way to evaluate and decide when we should use our tools is important to the successful use of EdTech in the classroom.