Why Technology Fails to Transform Pedagogy: Lessons for Professional Learning

This paper addresses the challenge of supporting and enabling professional learning transformations in the digital-era. Firstly, it reviews what is known in the literature about promoting deep, meaningful and impactful... [ view full abstract ]

This paper addresses the challenge of supporting and enabling professional learning transformations in the digital-era. Firstly, it reviews what is known in the literature about promoting deep, meaningful and impactful professional learning and identifies a number of core principles that should inform efforts to transform traditional pedagogical approaches through the infusion of new digital technologies. An indicative teaching enhancement framework is introduced that draws on these principles in an attempt to embed and integrate digital experiences in an impactful culture of critically reflective professional learning supporting transformative outcomes. The basic premise is that we need to go beyond ‘bolted on' approaches to helping teachers harness the affordances of technology in the classroom.

Secondly, the paper briefly reports on the recent DCU-Fuse experience at Dublin City University (DCU) to illustrate the value of infusing digital technologies in more authentic and meaningful forms of professional learning, which encourage critical reflection, deeper engagement and individual and collective agency in rethinking traditional pedagogical approaches.

Finally, the paper considers the thorny issue of impact and return on investment (ROI) in the context of professional learning. It outlines an Impact Evaluation Framework adapted from the literature (Coolbear, & Hinton, 2013; Jones, et, al., 2016), which attempts to identify both direct and indirect benefits of specific efforts and initiatives to develop sustainable change and a transformative professional learning culture. An important principle of the Framework is that impact needs to be deliberately planned for before specific projects and professional learning innovations get underway, monitored at key milestones during the lifecycle of the initiative, and then continually assessed over time.

In conclusion, the paper returns to the question of why technology fails to transform pedagogy, and makes the case for a deeper, far more programmatic, and contextually rich and embedded approach to this challenge.

References

Jones, A., Lygo-Baker, S., Markless, S., Rienties, B., & Di Napoli, R. (2016): Conceptualizing impact in academic development: finding a way through. Higher Education Research & Development, DOI: 10.1080/07294360.2016.1176997

Coolbear, P., & Hinton, T. (2013). Evaluating the impact of research projects in tertiary learning and teaching: Exploring the geography of change. Plenary address HERDSA Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, 2^nd July.