We might be forgiven for saying the same thing about pretty much any conversation to do with educational technology.
Setting the scene
Despite there being readily available technology for schools throughout my entire professional career, we have struggled to find meaningful and consistent evidence of its impact, until of course that fateful time in March 2020 when lockdowns started in schools around the world. Here, educators and schools were forced to use technology to ensure continuity of learning because they had no other choice.
It was a bumpy ride for many but, over time, schools have made huge strides in both learning how to use technology and understanding how it can be helpful and impactful. And alongside the meteoric rise in the level of confidence, competence and cognisance of what technology works in education, edtech companies have also risen to the challenge to provide features and functionality to best support learning.
Teachers’ new-found skills
During the last two years, we’ve seen teachers move significantly along Mandinach and Kline’s (1992) stages of learning with technology. Despite issues around equity of access and infrastructure, greater edtech use has raised their technological knowledge to the level of their pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK). Their resulting confidence has moved them beyond the stage of ‘mastery’ to ‘impact’ and ‘innovation’ – and they’re finally seeing the benefits of hybrid edtech use in action.
Why keep hybrid? Isn’t it easier to ‘go back’?
Technology allows us to do things that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. Not for the sake of gimmickry, but many of the activities that young people have undertaken during various lockdowns can have significant positive benefits, even if we just take digital notetaking as an example. From being able to create richer notes with collaboration, photographs, screenshots, weblinks and more, the ability to create and record more from learning interactions can only serve to better help learners document and revise their learning.
Another good example is the benefit edtech can bring around other informed approaches to classroom learning, such as retrieval practice. Whether you’re using Google or Microsoft Forms or other low stakes quizzing platforms, these tools not only help reduce your workload but make it easier to spot misconceptions and better support your learners.
Additionally, using in-house ecosystems such as Office 365 or Google Workspace for Education has meant that flexible approaches that had to be built into the curriculum brought benefits around technologies that support activities such as revision, spacing learning, feedback in assessment and more.
Technology has also reduced administration time and saved money by cutting stationery costs, e.g., distributing resources digitally via tools such as OneNote Class Notebook or Google Classroom. These tools have given teachers more time to do what they do best: support their pupils. They can also gain insights into learner engagement through tools such as Insights in Microsoft Teams which helps teachers know more about whether learners are putting in the required effort.
So, it’s clear that incorporating technology as part of a hybrid model can be transformative for schools, students and teachers.
Other proven benefits
As shared in many studies, “Parent engagement in the educational development of their children improves attainment”. Hybrid learning during the pandemic has arguably improved relationships between teachers, schools and the parents and carers of the learners.
A literature review also discovered that hybrid learning increased student engagement, achievement and an improved view of the learning process in K-12 students. This also links well to the findings shared about impactful approaches that can be used to support learning and teaching with technology shared by the Education Endowment Foundation (2019) in improving pupil practice, improving explanations and modelling and improving assessment and feedback.
Accessibility has also been improved because students have been able to use technologies such as Immersive Reader and other in-built accessibility options in the devices they use to support their day-to-day learning activities.
What’s next?
As the pandemic starts to become more endemic, there is a risk that we lose the huge strides that have been made by returning to what we did previously. One of the most dangerous phrases in education is, “We’ve always done it this way”, so reflecting upon the many positive benefits that technology has brought during these most difficult times is not just prudent but also pragmatic.
We’ve recognised that new can be good! One of the approaches that many schools, if not most, will continue to adopt beyond the pandemic is remote parent evenings. The benefits are clear: teachers can keep the meetings better to time, parents know exactly when to attend, it is a “greener” approach requiring no travel as parents connect through a system such as Microsoft Teams, there isn’t such a big strain on the site team to facilitate parking, it’s socially distanced, teachers can more easily have student data available to them, other parents can’t see sensitive personal data over their shoulders… and so on.
Let’s make this a mission…
This article has just scratched the surface of the context and opportunities that technology use over the last few years has brought. Couple this with conversations around the future of education, insights gained from organisations such as the OECD, World Economic Forum and others about future skills, now is the perfect time to consider building on the progress made with hybrid learning.
It gives teachers the insights, time and cost savings and efficiencies to support their work more than ever whilst providing learners with the opportunity to develop the skills they will need to effectively participate in business, industry and everyday life in the future.
So, as the pandemic begins to recede, rather than return to the position where technology use wasn’t prevalent, let’s recognise the journey we’ve all undertaken, the benefits it has delivered and start planning hybrid learning by design.