help students self-regulate their education, Hinton says. It allows them to learn at their own pace, such as by rewatching a video or asking questions immediately, virtually, without interrupting other students. However, Hinton adds that it did raise challenges with personalised
in classrooms as they open back up. Baber says her staff are much more confident and will be braver with technology, while Hinton believes Parkdale will further its digital learning via online videos, especially in visual topics such as maths. “Educators and students around the world are now more skilled and experienced with technology than ever,” says Kahoot CEO Hanoa. “While many teachers and students celebrate getting back to the classroom, they are returning with the knowledge and digital tools to create dynamic, impactful experiences that make learning awesome for all.” But the last 18 months could have been more straightforward for teachers if platforms, apps and software were better designed, says Laurillard. She wants the industry to make it easier for teachers to learn how to use such tools, feed ideas back to developers and share content with others. “Teachers are left to their own devices too often. This is a huge global experiment for the teaching community,” she says. Before concluding: “Teachers have discovered that these ways of learning are very good – there’s all kinds of advantages and it can be quite interesting and fun – but it will take a lot of training and development.”
feedback – and ensuring students fully understood the tasks at hand. TEACHING THE TEACHERS One takeaway from this massive experiment is that teachers were struggling with technology pre-pandemic, but have been forced to either sink or swim.
TEACHERS ARE LEFT TO THEIR OWN DEVICES TOO OFTEN
“Staff have had very little support for professional development in… these new technologies,” says Laurillard. “It’s very hard to keep up – it’s a different way of teaching, whether you’re videoing lectures, or creating asynchronous exercises they can do on their own at home.” Now that teachers have adapted – the hard way – it’s likely that such tools will continue to be used
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