Technology in the Classroom

Abdul Cohen Seminar

Recently I went along to listen to Abdul Cohen who was a guest speaker from the United Kingdom. His seminar took place at Russley Primary School and it was based on the effective use of technology in the classroom and how it can improve achievement.

I will briefly outline his beliefs and key to his school successes.

Vision- All Will Succeed. Students are being prepared for jobs that don’t yet exist. They need to have CEO skills and not word processing skills. The belief that it will be better with technology needs to universal. Modern day technology has moved on and so has the learning environment.

Accessibility and Reliability – Modern day technology needs to be both accessible and reliable. If these two don’t run in unison, the benefits of incorporating technology into the classroom are severely impacted. Usernames and passwords were set up so the students could access the course content. High quality Internet was also installed to ensure the technology was reliable.

Building Community Engagement – Promoting community engagement was one of the keys to success. Having a community gala evening where families were invited along to listen to how technology would be integrated across curriculum areas. Parents really bought into the community wide involvement.

Equal Opportunities – The school believed that education was an investment and so was the technology. It was crucial for all the students to be using a quality device in order for attainment and achievement levels to improve. All students had access to the same technology.

Developing People – This is where teaching and learning was being developed at the same time. People became the resource experts and that knowledge was passed onto staff members as part of their professional development.

Personalisation – Lessons and learning experiences were tailored better to suit individual needs and better support learning. Students had access to the content and could complete the tasks at a pace that was suitable to them. The ecosystem from where the lessons were created played an important role in engaging the students with quality material i.e. iTunesU and apple televisions.

Financing the Technology – There were a range of payment options, which were discussed on an individual basis. The school was part of the financing process and used the money to support the technology through savings in other areas i.e. photocopy costs decreased markedly.

This seminar gave me further insight and understanding about the importance technology plays in 21^st century education. I gained many practical ideas about I how I could incorporate the use of technology into the school’s curriculum.