Technology Supported Learning and Teaching: A Perspective

Citation

Mason, D. (2007), "Technology Supported Learning and Teaching: A Perspective", The Electronic Library, Vol. 25 No. 6, pp. 795-796. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470710837254

There are many books on how technology could change education; this book is different in that it presents case studies of how education technology is actually being applied in colleges and universities, and reports the success and failures of those efforts. Education technology has been available for many years but has singularly failed to make any significant change in how education is delivered, absorbed or assessed. Most university education is still being taught in acoustic lecture theatres centred on enabling note taking and examined by regurgitating memorised facts: all largely unchanged since the nineteenth century.

The basic thesis of the book is that technology is being piloted by a small number of enthusiasts sailing across an ocean of indifference. It is not that faculty are anti‐technology – staff have enthusiastically embraced the PC and the internet for personal productivity. It is more a case that staff expectations are too low. Too many teachers think that putting PowerPoint slides online and accepting essays by e‐mail is the cutting edge of technology. This book regards that sort of response as a “regression from engagement”; a perversion of what technology can and should be used for.

The theme of the book is that the barriers to implementation of educational technology are not technical, they are culture and institutional. As well as changing staff expectations, the book advocates the need to change the procedures underlying education. As long as administrators insist on rigid term start and end dates, equal course point values, standardised course assessment methods, written examinations, etc., the new technologies will never get the chance to influence how students learn or how tutors teach. Similarly, institutions themselves are prevented from embracing radical change because they are subject to traditional funding regimes and external party expectations and governance.

The book is well written and the ideas and issues are clearly presented. The book is aimed at those working in education who already have an interest in the application of technology to teaching and learning. It is intended to let academics know what is going on elsewhere, and to highlight what works and what doesn't. The structure of the book reflects this philosophy. Section one contains five case studies under the heading of Infrastructural and Cultural Issues. Section two contains eight case studies under the heading Pedagogical issues and section three contains five cases focussed on Technical Issues.

Like all books on technology its subject matter is changing as it is being written and the technology is becoming more and less available. There is more available for the enthusiast to experiment with, but on the other hand the commercial teaching support packages are rapidly converging into one‐size‐fits‐all commodity software. The cases can also be criticised on the basis of the sample. All but one of the examples are from the United Kingdom or Australia. There is no example of the cutting‐edge work being done in the USA and other countries.

The main strength of the book is its focus on what is actually happening right now, and its emphasis on empirical evidence and the avoidance of prescriptive theories of IT implementation. It is also notable in that it takes the attitudes and perspectives of teaching staff as its focal point, rather than that of technology providers or policy makers. It is good to be able to share the insights of the academics as the technology is being applied in real world situations and to learn of the effects of different approaches on student's perceptions and preferences. Overall, this is an excellent overview of the latest in learning technology in the classroom.