I have followed the work of Ian Phillips for quite a while in particular his discussion of digital headaches. There are definitely a number of things in relation to the use of digital technologies in schools where these result in headaches however there are also non-digital headaches which the use of digital can help towards addressing, plus some other headaches which are much larger and more strategic that they impact on education in general. Here I would like to share a few thoughts on the later of these.
The ”do more” narrative
I have been working in schools for over 25years now, starting my teacher training all the way back in 1994. Over the period I have seen the role change significantly in terms of the things teachers are expected to do beyond their classroom teaching. The change has been gradual over time, so gradual that it is easy to have missed or to underestimate, however the change has been there and is significant in my opinion. Technology has helped in some ways through allowing easy sharing of information, collaboration and record keeping although this doesn’t take away from the fact that there are still the same numbers of hours in the day, but greater expectations on what “needs” to be done during this time. So, is the digital headache of too many systems, or less than ideal user interfaces really the problem, or is the problem that we need all of these systems and different interfaces for all of the different things we are expected to do and which are now considered important? Do we need to reset and try and work out what it is that really matters most in schools?
Measuring impact
During my time in education I have felt a definite increase on the focus on measuring impact. Now I will acknowledge the need for accountability and for measuring impact to maximise the quality of the educational experience, but I wonder if we may have gone to far. And where we go too far, I feel that sometimes fall into the trap of considering what we measure as being what matters rather than focussing on measuring what actually matters. As such we can suddenly get drawn into focussing on the things OFSETD or ISI focus on, on looking at league tables and standardised test results and similar and considering these above all other things. And technology with all its data and data analysis potential can help us here, but the issue of high stakes measurements remains. Is the digital headache effectively measuring and analysing all of our data, or is it simply that we have been drawn down the rabbit hole of frequently weighing a pig hoping it will fatten, while under increasing stress and pressure to ensure we can evidence a fatter pig? Do we therefore need to consider data and accountability but also the human and social aspects of education, and find a more appropriate balance?
Funding
Working in technology in schools, funding is an issue, but it is also an issue across many other areas including non-tech resources, salaries, buildings, etc. Now I want to be careful here as the argument for more funding can be a little reductive, suggesting with more funding all the issues could be solved. I don’t believe this is the case as schools would still need to decide what they use their funding on, how they manage the short term and the longer term, their vision and priorities, all of which would impact on their use of funding and the impact of said funding. From a digital point of view there is a direct link to funding in that good technology use in classrooms and the wider school relies on the basic infrastructure, device, software, support and training being in place and this requires investment, not just in the immediate term, but ongoing to upgrade, replace and maintain. Is funding however a digital headache? It is definitely a headache which impacts on the digital side of things in schools, however I feel it is a far broader problem so maybe not a digital headache after all.
The efficiency narrative
Linked to some of what I have written above is the efficiency narrative that we need to do things more efficiently. If more efficient we will be able to do more, or it will cost less to do as we will complete tasks quicker or more thoroughly. But is this what schools are really about, doing things quicker or doing more things? If we can get students to complete their A-Levels at the end of year 11 would this be an improvement, and if so at what cost? A lot of the narrative around AI solutions in schools has been around AI as a digital assistant to help teachers do more or do things quicker. From a digital headaches point of view it might be seen that technology introduces some inefficiencies, for example in individuals dealing with emails, or processing data, etc, but is the headache a digital one or just the use of digital solutions to try and solve a bigger problem? Do we really want efficient schools which churn out students as a product with ever increasing uniformity and speed, or do we want a messier education system which takes time to nurture individual students and allow them to flourish?
Conclusion
Technology is a tool which can, in some cases, magnify or reflect the issues of those using it. It may be that we then perceive digital headaches in technology however I wonder that some of the digital headaches may be representative of bigger societal or education sector challenges. Do we therefore need to get to the root of the problem, get past the technology layer, and look to the wider issue at hand?
Technology and Learning