(2019). What’s next for Ed-Tech? Critical hopes and concerns for the 2020s. Learning, Media and Technology. Ahead of Print.

The development of Information and Communication Technology has created waves of excitement about its power to fix educational problems and improve learning results, prompting a succession of policy efforts to integrate digital technology into education. Educators, schools and corporations are increasingly driving these initiatives. This article makes the argument that a narrow vision of digital technology, which both ignores the complexity of education and wastes valuable public resources, is becoming an obstacle to significant improvement and transformation in education. Utilising our research and experience in the field of educational technology, this paper problematises the common elision of ‘technology’ and ‘digital technology’. From this basis, we then critically reflect on various common approaches to introducing digital technology in education under the guise of promoting equality and digital inclusion. These include national government-led programmes, more recent trends for local school-led initiatives, and the role of non-formal education initiatives led by corporations/foundations. Amidst the varying surface-level ‘failure’ and/or ‘success’ of these approaches, we point to limited underpinning ‘information and knowledge society’ logics in framing the application of digital technology to education. As such we conclude by considering the educational challenges for future Ed-Tech initiatives.

The use of digital technology is constantly permeating and transforming all social systems, and education is not an exception. In the last decade, the development of Artificial Intelligence has given a new push to the hope of providing educational systems with ‘effective’ and more personalized solutions for teaching and learning. Educators, educational researchers, and policymakers, in general, lack the knowledge and expertise to understand the underlying logic of these new systems, and there is insufficient research based evidence to fully understand the consequences for learners’ development of both the extensive use of screens and the increasing reliance on algorithms in educational settings. This article, geared towards educators, academics in the field of Education, and policymakers, first introduces the concepts of ‘Big Data’, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning algorithms and how they are presented and deployed as ‘black boxes’, and the possible impact on education these new software solutions can have. Then, it focuses on the underlying educational discourses that historically have seen information and communication technologies as a panacea for solving educational problems, pointing out the need to analyse not only their advantages, but also their possible negative effects. It finishes with a short exploration of possible future scenarios and conclusions.

Transforming the teaching and learning culture in higher education from a DIY perspective

This paper builds on two research projects on initial and in-service education of teachers, their professional experience, and the pathways they travelled to become teachers. The policy documents analysed and the teachers’ professional histories, the micro-ethnographies and the discussion groups developed, allowed us to draw a broad picture of the development of the initial teacher education in Spain. Three fundamental stages were identified: (a) developmentalism and the last stage of Franco’s dictatorship; (b) constructing democracy and (c) the implementation of the European Higher Education Area. Our research shows that the reform implemented in each period represented a clear intention to professionalise teachers’ work and to move beyond the view of initial education as vocational training by transferring it to the university. Meant a move towards improving the relationship between theory, educational research and practice; and left a set of unfulfilled challenges.

In recent years, a large number of educational systems, following the recommendations of international organisations, have introduced a competence-based emphasis into their traditionally subject-based curriculum. This move, beyond what any document can deal with, does not seem to find its way into everyday school practice easily or with instant results. This paper explores encounters and clashes between policy and practice regarding a competence-based curriculum framework. We refer firstly to the notions about information processing and digital competence held by international organisations and the Spanish and Catalan Ministry of Education, and the implications of said notions for teaching. Then, from evidence collected through class observations, interviews with students and teachers, and documents analysis in a case study, we draw on four teaching and learning scenarios where ICT is regularly used. Promoting students’ digital competence is one of the key competences prescribed in the curriculum; however, our study showed that the backgrounds and educational views of teachers, as well as the teaching culture and organisation of schools, should be deeply challenged to foster this competence.