How can technology change the way we learn and learn stoa, 6 may 2015

Editor's Notes

• #7: An increasingly digitalised environment in education Computer and digital resources are increasingly present in schools The quality of these resources is an important input for teaching and learning processes On average across OECD countries, about three quarters of students attend schools with adequate Internet connectivity and computer equipment to support student learning, according to school principals’ reports. At the school level, in 32 countries and economies, principals’ perceptions about the adequacy of the educational resources in their school are positively related to the school’s average performance (Table IV.3.16, which is discussed in Chapter 3). However, schools with more adequate educational resources are also those that have other characteristics closely related to higher performance. But, even after accounting for the socio-economic status and demographic profile of students and schools and various other school characteristics, in Qatar, Romania and Costa Rica schools with more adequate resources tend to perform better. This suggests that much of the impact of socio-economic status on performance is mediated by the resources invested in schools.
• #8: Index includes 6 components of school resources: computers, connectivity, educational software, instructional materials (e.g. textbooks) , science lab equipment, library materials. In 29 of the 38 countries and economies with comparable data, there is an increase in the index of quality of schools’ educational resources. The overall trend among OECD countries, that a lack of educational resources hinders the school’s capacity to provide instruction to a lower extent in 2012 than in 2003, was observed across all school types (advantaged and disadvantaged students, advantaged and disadvantaged schools, private and public schools, lower and upper secondary programmes, and urban and rural schools). Largest improvements observed in Turkey, Poland, Uruguay and the Russian Federation. In Turkey, for example, students are more than 40 percentage points less likely to attend schools whose principal reported that a lack of instructional materials (e.g. textbooks) or computer software for instruction hinders the school’s capacity to provide instruction.
• #10: Across the EU, around 75% of students at all grades are taught by experienced teachers with more than four years of using ICT at school. The most frequent ICT-based activities at EU level are related to the preparation of teaching activities: around 30-45% (depending the specific activity concerned) of students are taught by teachers declaring they do this every or almost every day, or at least once a week.   Creating digital resources and using the school website or virtual learning environment also happens every or almost every day, or at least once a week, for teachers of respectively around 30% and 20% of students.   The low use of digital resources and tools is a concern. Digital textbooks and multimedia tools are the resources most frequently used. However, only 30% of students use them once a week or almost every day, but more than 50% of students at all grades never or almost never use such resources.  
• #17: Teachers as designers is one vision articulated in the statements - acting as ‘curators’ ‘picking up on new trends, research, pedagogies, technology, content and seeing how they can be put to use in a new context.’ Cooperation, collaboration and the creation of communities of practice is essential. Drawing on evidence from international research is also widely seen as a necessary means to inform change. In their different systems, teachers are engaged in learning experiences that are co-created, connected, personalised, and integrated, while representing large scale professional learning, intervention and diffusion. Technology is identified as an integral means for such collaboration and professional learning to work.
• #18: Figure 4.14